Sep 26, 2019 - Sale 2517

Sale 2517 - Lot 245

Price Realized: $ 188
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 250 - $ 350
(WEST VIRGINIA.) Blennerhassett, Harman. Blennerhasset's March and Quickstep. Lithographed title page. [3] pages, 13 1/4 x 10 inches, on 2 detached sheets; minor foxing and wear. Cincinnati, OH: W.C. Peters, 1847

Additional Details

Harman Blennerhassett (1765-1831) was raised in Ireland, where he ran into some trouble by plotting rebellion and marrying his niece, so he came to America in 1796. On an island in the Ohio River, now near Parkersburg, West Virginia, he built a huge mansion. Aaron Burr was a frequent guest in 1806 and 1807, where they plotted a military expedition to either free Texas from Spain, or liberate the western American states from Thomas Jefferson's despotic rule--depending on who you ask. The mansion was wrecked by the Virginia militia and then succumbed to fire. This music was supposedly composed by Blennerhassett, and issued long after his death: "The melody of the two following pieces is copied from the recollection of an Old Pioneer of the West, who was intimate with the family of Mr. Blennerhassett." It is illustrated with what is believed to be the first published view of the Blennerhassett Mansion, which has since been reconstructed as a centerpiece of a West Virginia state park. None in OCLC or at auction; the only other traced is the copyright deposit copy at the Library of Congress.