Mar 01, 2012 - Sale 2271

Sale 2271 - Lot 465

Unsold
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
FAVORITES OF MARK TWAIN (MUSIC--MINSTRELSY.) Birch, Wambold, Bernard & Backus San Francisco Minstrels. Long letterpress playbill, 23-3/4 x 9 inches. An exceptional example, with a fine engraved vignette of a smiling black surrounded by banjos, fiddles, etc. New York, 1866
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

a rare playbill. The San Francisco Minstrels were among the best of their day. Mark Twain was a frequent attendee: "Our old San Francisco Minstrels have made their mark here (New York), most unquestionably. . . . Every night of their lives they play to packed houses-every single seat full and dozens of people standing up. I have good reason to know, because I have been there pretty often, have always paid my way but once, and I had to buy a box the last time I went. -Mark Twain, New York City, 17 May 1867." Sharon D. McCoy, "The Trouble Begins at Eight": Mark Twain, the San Francisco Minstrels, and the Unsettling Legacy of Blackface Minstrelsy [American Literary Realism - Volume 41, Number 3, Spring 2009, pp. 232-248].