Apr 07, 2022 - Sale 2600

Sale 2600 - Lot 261

Price Realized: $ 1,188
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(WEST--COLORADO.) Two pieces of illustrated sheet music exposing the darker side of the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. Two items, each with tinted lithographic covers, as described below. Cincinnati and St. Louis, 1859
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Additional Details

W.C. Peters, arranger. "Pike's Peak Gallop." 5 pages including tinted lithograph cover. 12 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches, disbound; cover cropped with partial loss of loss of imprint, minor wear and foxing. The cover shows a well-dressed prospective miner confronted with a dismal scene of suicides (one by hanging and two by jumping off the summit), brawling, drunkards, and hundreds of dejected miners marching down the mountain. The instrumental composition is accompanied by a short running narrative in which the failed protagonists trudge wearily back to Cincinnati. When asked by westward migrants about the mining country, they point to their wagon which reads "Fizzle--Ask No Questions." The wagon is also depicted on the cover. This piece is apparently distinct from the Louisville piece of the same name composed by Felix Roteri. 3 in OCLC, and none traced at auction. Cincinnati, OH: [W.C. Peters], 1859.

Pete Morris. "Pike's Peak Song, or All Is Not Gold, that Glitters!" 6 pages including tinted lithograph cover. 12 3/4 x 10 inches, disbound; moderate foxing and minor wear. The cover is a lifelike depiction of a ragged miner carrying an empty satchel away from the mountainside. The five verses of baleful lyrics conclude "If you go there, you will see / Why the Elephant, Yes, ser-ree! / Besides a few chunks of gold / Not bigger than a flea! / I've been to Pike's Peak / And if any here there be / That's got that yaller fever / Why! only looks at me / And I think old St. Louis / Will suit them to a T." One in OCLC (at Yale) and none traced at auction. St. Louis, MO: Jacob Endres, 1859.