Mar 21, 2013 - Sale 2308

Sale 2308 - Lot 479

Price Realized: $ 4,080
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(MUSIC.) MILLIE CHRISTINE. Carte-de-visite. card in excellent condition. signed on the reverse by the twins. Np, circa late 1860's early 1870's

Additional Details

Millie and Christine were born in slavery in 1851. In her biography of the twins, 'Fearfully and Wonderfully Made,' Joanne Martell cites and illustrates another similarly signed carte-de-visite taken at approximately the same time, at German's Studio in Philadelphia. While this card bears no photographer's stamp on the reverse, it was probably copied from the same session, or one about the same time. Millie and Christine were taken from their parents and sold three or four times, stolen and retrieved; and placed on display at fairs and 'freak-shows' from New Orleans to as far away as Canada. At one time, having been sold to J.P. Smith, they were kidnapped and taken to England. Smith retrieved them with the aid of their mother and they were brought back to North Carolina in 1857. Smith taught them to read and write, as well as sing and dance. The twins composed and performed their own music as ell as that of others. They passed away in 1912.