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The Oxford [Music Hall] Programme

Decorative theater program for "The Oxford", this being the "Programme" for the week commencing Sept. 25th, 1893. The programme lists 22 different acts, which included comedians, singers, dancers, minstrel, and with a few performers described as "serio comic", we presume more serious displays of acting, which we would surmise might be recitations and/or enactment of scenes from Shakespeare and the like. A variety show, in other words, and probably the equivalent of Vaudeville as it was then thriving in America, without, at least on this program, the animal acts. (The programme makes no allusion to acrobats, but we would surmise "dancer" could include acrobat, plue one of the illustrations is of an acrobat.) Among the performers were Music Hall legend Marie Lloyd, Dan Leno, Tom Leamore, etc. etc. Printed on two sides. The side which includes the front and rear cover has chromo color illustrations on all three panels, and depicted are two pretty female performers, one dressed loosely speaking like Mefistopheles and playing a lute, the other, a dancer, in a then provocative dress such as might have been worn to perform the Can Can. On the front cover is an illustration of an acrobat, lying on his back, holding up a large ball, onto which is printed the word, "Programme", and balanced atop the ball is a formally attired black man, in black face, wielding a tambourine. On the rear cover there is also a small vignette of a clown, who is holding a long ribbon connected at the far end to the lute of devlishly garbed lady. On the other side of the program is the actual program who have already described in the center column, surrounded right and left by two columns of advertisements, and these are for many restaurants, hotels, and a variety of products. Measures 249 by 118 mm, when closed, opening, to three panels, and then 249 by 353 mm. Condition: Corners with miniscule surface loss. A closed tear about 8 cm long lower part of one fold.
  • $125
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History of the Building of the Great Bridge Enlarged and Revised

Farrington, E. F. [Edmond Frank Farrington] Binding with two Currier & Ives printed chromolithographic images of the Brooklyn Bridge, shortly after its completion in May 1883. It was then called merely the "Great East River Suspension Bridge". We believe that this binding is quite rare, possibly extremely so, and was only a part of the 1884 edition, which would appear to have been the third issue, following issues in 1881 and 1883. 4to. 22.5 by 14.5 cm. [7], 69, [25] pp. Numerous woodcut illustrations, including frontis portrait of Farrington, the author and "master of construction" for the bridge, and eight other full page illustrations, plus some smaller text illustrations. Most of the illustrations depict equipment, but there are two full page illustrations of bridges, one being the Covington and Cincinnati Bridge over the Ohio River, which was Roebling's first suspension bridge completed. Advertisements in front and back. In front, ad includes one for Roebling's Steel and Iron -- Roebling was the chief engineer of the project. There can be one to four different ads on these pages. In the back, the first three pages before getting to the ads provide a directory of companies who had a role in the building of the bridge. Note that the publisher's name, Mooney & Co., is absent on the title page, and looks as if someone erased it, although this was done inconspicuously. It is a mystery why anyone would do such a thing.
  • $1,250
  • $1,250
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[Commemorative Theatre Tchotchke] Pewter Glass for Bohemia, Empire Theatre. 50th Performance. Monday April 20th 1896

This commemorative pewter toasting cup was issued to celebrate the 50th performance of the play, "Bohemia", by Clyde Fitch, a play based on Henri Murger's classic novel which also served as the basis for the Puccini classic, "La Boheme", which premiered just a month before Fitch's play in Turin, and of course, the Puccini opera has overshadowed all other treatments of the material, including an operatic version by Leoncavallo, who was working on his version contemporaneously to when Puccini was composing his, and even the Murger novel, although the opera has spawned other successful adaptations such as the musical "Rent" in more recent times. We would note that the Puccini opera wasn't performed in New York until 1898, more than two years after the Fitch version opened. The original cast of Fitch's version included a number of famous actors, including ones well-known to this day, such as Elsie de Wolfe -- of course, better known as an interior decorator and socialite -- Viola Allen, May Robson -- now remembered for playing old women in 30s movies, but once a quintessential ingenue, Henry Miller (not the sex obsessed author, obviously, but an actor manager who had a theater named after him in New York, and William Faversham. 18 cm tall, the cup has feathery Renaissance-style decoration at its base, and around the base perimeter is the text we quoted in the title pressed into the metal, and possibly originally also contrasted with the metal with white paint. The cup rises in a horn or bugle shape. The upper rim has a beaded form of decoration. One side of this rim is dented slightly, so instead of rounding, it is more like a straight line, but we wouldn't consider this a serious defect, even if it were just a pewter cup without its theatrical commemorative element. Clyde Fitch, the playwright, was the most popular American dramatist of the day.
  • $400
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Burro” Miniatures

Charming souvenir highlighting lovable, hardworking, stoic, yet also amusing, burro animals who give rides to children and their families. N.d., n.p. But based on the style of photography, the Rococo decroative background, and the dress of the people photographed, we are confident that it is circa 1900, plus we have found copies of Tom Jones printed postcards from the first decade of the 20th century. Based on some of the buildings in the background, our first guess the location of the photo shoot was in the American West, but it could certainly be closer to Cincinnati, as there are hills and mountains in nearby Kentucky that might represent the backdrop. Surely, though, the location was as resort town. This is also scarce -- we could find no copies on OCLC or elsewhere. Closed, oblong, 8 by 10.5 cm. Open fully, 25 cm at tallest, 31.5 cm at widest. 24 panels in all, with each panel featuring a b/w photograph in an oblong oval cameo. Four of the photos are mounted onto the black card backing which forms the outer shell. All but two of the photo plates or panels form a concertina or leporello, except both end panels are mounted. Thus one can not stretch the concertina fully vertically, but rather, one has to flip the folded panels, these being on a thin card stock. Each of the photos has a short caption, sometimes but a single word. Condition: one short closed tear in one of the folds. Small corner abrasion of outer shell. Otherwise, clean, surely lightly used.
  • $375