Lot 371
Confederate Broadside: "Tableaux Vivants and Concert! For the Benefit of the Soldiers of Missouri". Broadside advertising a Christmas Eve concert in Phoenix Hall (no town), 1p, 12"x6¼", n.d. (believed to be 1861). Admission was 25 cents. "Tableaux vivants" were a form of visual performance wherein costumed actors played to a dramatic scene or vignette by posing silently without moving, always accompanied by music or narration. The "programme" selection combined popular with patriotic tunes, rather than sentimental and religious ones; the last piece was "Dixie's Land." The location of "Phoenix Hall" is unknown, probably not St. Louis, which was by then firmly under Federal control. There is no mention of a local "Ladies Aid Society" as organizers of the event, so it may well have been a commercial venture. Whatever the case, any Missouri Confederate document is extremely rare.
Southern-leaning Missouri was officially admitted to the Confederacy on November 28, 1861, but Missouri's conflict had really begun in the 1850s with "Bloody Kansas." Missouri was the only state north of the Mason-Dixon line where slavery was legal. Blood feuds and guerilla warfare made the war especially brutal. After Virginia and Tennessee, Missouri witnessed more battles and engagements than any other state--more than 1,000.
Estimated Value $1,800 - 2,200.
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| Realized $2,530 |
