Wonderful and graphically striking hand-painted wooden marquee sign, "The Music Man" related to the 1957 musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson which in 1957 became a hit on Broadway, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and running for 1,375 performances. The cast album won the first Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and spent 245 weeks on the Billboard charts. The show's success led to revivals, including a long-running 2000 Broadway revival, a popular 1962 film adaptation and a 2003 television adaptation. The design of the present item is clearly based on the imagery of the original production poster (and subsequently published sheet music covers) by David Klein, illustrator of choice for many of Broadway’s best-known shows of the golden age of Broadway, whose other poster/window cards from this period include Death of a Salesman, Brigadoon, Most Happy Fella, The Music Man, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Several nail holes through the frame, else fine and with a wire hanger affixed to rear. 9 x 36 x 2.5 inches.
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An interesting small autograph album containing signatures from actors, dancers, musicians and other celebrities of the 1950's–1960's. Highlights include actor Roddy MacDowell; several signatures from the cast and crew of My Fair Lady, including composer Frederick Loewe, actor Robert Coote, lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, and actress Julie Andrews; jazz singer Sarah Vaughan; directors Arthur Penn and Otto Preminger; playwright Tad Mosel; choreographer and dancer Charles Weidman; journalist and film critic Louella Parsons; folk singer Richard Dyer-Bennet; cartoonist Al Capp; and actors Lenka Peterson, Victor Borge, Aline MacMahon, Myrna Loy, Bruce Yarnell, Arthur Hill, and Thomas Chalmers, among many others. 41 signatures in all, each signed on a separate page. Some light toning, but overall in very fine condition. 6 x 5 inches (15.2 x 12.7 cm.). Read More...
Rare and highly amusing 18th century copper engraving plate for an illustration depicting a monkey playing the organ strapped to the back of a fellow monkey on all fours shown blowing into a tube connected to the instrument, while a third monkey blows air up the walking monkey’s rear end with a bellows. Read More...
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[Pathé Records]. French "Disques Pathé" Advertising Clock
A novelty large "record" clock manufactured for advertising purposes by the French label Pathé, which reads (translated from the French): "Pathé Records on sale here." Measures 17.5 x 17.5 x 2 inches. With electrical cord present and in apparently fine condition but mechanism in need of repair to restore functionality. Read More...
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[Piano]. Antique Piano Shop Sign
Beautiful hand-painted wooden sign for a piano shop, a blue background behind the word "Pianos" in deep red lettering, written on staff paper with the "P" stylized to look like a treble clef. Metal brackets attached to verso. Some light chipping to wood and paint along edges and on back, but overall incredibly charming and in fine condition. 23 x 13.5 inches (58.4 x 34.3 cm.).
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[Piano] . The Digitorium - Finger-Strengthening Device for Pianists
A rare "Digitorium" apparatus manufactured by Metzler & Co. of London, ca. 1880, as a practice device for pianists to strengthen their fingers. With five spring-loaded keys and an adjustable wrist support, the tool was patented in 1866 by Myer Marks. In fine condition with expected wear, measuring 7.5 x 6.5 x 2.25 inches (19 x 16.5 x 5.7 centimeters). Read More...
Antique French Four of Diamonds playing card, humorously illustrated with two men snuffing tobacco while a pair of dogs cause trouble, from one of the sets of hand-colored and etched Cartes a Rire published Paris, France by Grandebes, ca.1819. Mounted to support with various notations, toning, else fine, 3.5 x 2 inches (9 x 6.2 cm.). Field 27: "The caricatures are of the highest artistic quality."
One of Cole Porter’s personally owned and worn waistcoats. Gray checked vest, made by Knize of New York, bears two rows of three buttons in the front and a label sewn into the waist, with Porter’s name typed onto it and dated May 18, 1954. In fine condition. At this time, Porter was in between two hit shows, Can-Can and Silk Stockings, which ran for a combined 1369 shows. Provenance: From the collection Madeleine P. Smith, secretary to Cole Porter.
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[Propaganda]. "Food Is a Weapon - Don't Waste It!" - World War II Poster
WWII propaganda poster from the United States depicting a picked-over dinner plate and water glass on a green background framed by the words "Food is a weapon" above and "Don't waste it! / Buy wisely - Cook carefully - Eat it all" below. Text at the lower edge of the image advises "Follow the national wartime nutrition program." Offset 1943; Printed by U.S. Government Printing Office. Folds, paper loss to margin in upper corners, surface paper loss in margins, else in fine condition. 16.125 x 22.75 inches (41 x 58 cm.).
Impressive Art Deco style trophy, silverplate over bronze by Christofle (stamped on the foot), with the impressed inscription translated from the French: "Hot Club de France/ 6th Amateurs Tournament/ Jo Bouillon Cup/ Awarded/ to the Best Soloist of the Tournament/ The Clarinettist/ Gérard Lévêque," 1943. Handling and light scratches, overall very fine, 15 h x 7.5 w inches (38 x 19 cm.). French clarinetist and arranger Gérard Lévêque is best known today as having been a member of Django Reinhardt's Quintette du Hot Club de France, where he was generally the musician to first notate Django's dictated musical compositions. Founded in 1934 by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli and active in one form or another until 1948 it was one of the earliest and most significant continental jazz groups in Europe, described by critic Thom Jurek as "one of the most original bands in the history of recorded jazz." Read More...
Graphically striking Weimar-era poster with illustration of a soot-covered man playing the saxophone, advertising a performance at the Central Theater in an unidentified city, possibly Munich, ca. 1920s. We have been unable to positively identify the artist who has signed "Osper." Slight edge tears, else in very fine condition. 23.6 x 35.4 inches (60 x 90 cm.).
Postcard and airmail envelope, typed and signed, from the important German conductor and advocate of contemporary music. Sent from Gravesano, Switzerland, to the composer and theorist George Perle in Bayside, Queens, New York City: 'With Best Holiday Wishes, H. Scherchen, December 26, 1964' ("Mit besten Festwuenschen | H SCHERCHEN | 26.XII.1964."). Color lithograph stationery from Scherchen's acoustic experimental studio in Gravesano, protected by the UNESCO International Music Council, with color emblem of the Gravesaner Blätter, a specialist journal dedicated to musical, electroacoustic, and acoustic matters, edited by Scherchen from 1955 to 1966. Postcard 4 1/8 × 5 7/8 inches (10.5 × 15 cm); envelope 4 1/2 × 6 3/8 inches (11.3 × 16.2 cm). Fine condition.
Cover for April 9, 1965 issue of Time Magazine featuring a full-color illustration of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, and Schroeder, titled "The World According to Peanuts" and signed in pen "Best wishes/ Charles M. Schulz." Wear along edges, marks to lower left from removal of mailing label, three horizontal creases from folding into quarters for mailing, loosely mounted to backing board, else in good condition. 8.5 x 11 inches (21.6 x 27.9 cm.). Read More...
Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. 1886. Hardcover 8vo. 406 pp. Inscribed on the blank verso of the front decorative flyleaf by the important Romantic pianist and composer: "Der lieben Freundin / Betti Oser / als Weihnachtsgruß / von / Clara Schumann. / Dec. 1886" ["To dear friend / Betti Oser / as a Christmas greeting / by / Clara Schumann. / Dec. 1886." Dark green original black and gilt stamped embossed green cloth boards, very lightly rubbed and otherwise fine; ffe lacking, else fine. An intriguing copy of this volume of 90 letters of Robert Schumann, inscribed by Clara to an important student and friend. Read More...
Original photograph of the composer, who has inscribed "To George Gaber/ my very best New Year's wishes/ sincerely/ I Stravinsky/ NY/ Dec. 29/56." Mounting remnants to verso, else in very fine condition. 3.75 x 6 inches (9.5 x 15.2 cm.). Read More...
Hilarious photograph of the iconic beauty posed in costume as a blunderbuss-toting Pilgrim with a turkey standing in the tree overhead. 8 x 10 inches, Culver Pictures stamps on verso, edges lighly nicked, overall fine.
New York: Pantheon Books. 1950. First. Oblong 8vo. 128 pp. Hardcover. Collection of Christmas songs from around the world decorated with woodcut-style illustrations. Signed by Franz Wasner, editor/arranger of this volume and music director for the Trapp Family Singers, Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp (Signed "Maria A. Trapp"), the inspiration for the character portrayed by Julia Andrews in The Sound of Music and author of the present volume's introduction, and Agathe von Trapp, eldest of the von Trapp children and illustrator of the present volume. In illustrated boards, in very fine condition, lacking fragile outer dust jacket which reproduced the same cover design. Read More...
Impressive large bust portrait of the great Italian Opera composer, ca. 1950, with incised inscription on the left side by the sculptor to the Italian operatic bass, often regarded as the greatest buffo artist of the 20th century: "A Salvatore Baccaloni / grande amico della commedia lirica / Enzo Serafini." Mounted to a marble base, in very fine condition. 22.75 inches (57.8 cm.). Read More...
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[Violin]. Instrument-Shaped Calendar and Thermometer
Charming 19th Century calendar and thermometer in the shape of a miniature violin on a hinged stand, in leather and brass and other materials, with temperature markings running up the neck while the day, date, and month - visible through windows in the body - are printed on rollers that are manually rotated using brass knobs that extend out through the sides of the violin. Provenance unknown, but assumed to be Continental. Cracks in leather, no thermometer present, else fine. Approx. 5w x 9h x 1d inches (12.7w x 22.9h x 2.5d cm.).
Souvenir 1911 postcard for the vaudeville musician amusingly known as the "The Violinist with a Soul", who popularized the song "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland". So associated was Berliner with her signature tune that the lyrics to the chorus are printed to verso, this example stamped in red "Majestic Theatre" and evidently distributed there for promotional purposes. Light wear to edges, crease to lower right corner, mild toning to front, else fine. 3.5 x 5.5 inches (8.8 x 13.5 cm).