Lot 600
19th Century Theatre Broadsides (The Bowery). Lot of six broadsides from Bowery theaters, all archivally mounted on muslin. Sizes range from 5 x 15" to 10 x 28". The lot is made up of two Bowery Theatre shows, Mlle. Pougaud's from 1853 and 1856's Birth of Freedom; three New Bowery Theatre shows: Gitanilla (clipped from a newspaper) and The Duke's Signal from 1863 and 1864's Ismael Lyons or The Persecuted Jewess in a bill with Counterfeiter's Daughter (Mrs. W.G. Jones plays the title role in both works); The Bowery Garden Variety Theatre is represented by an 1878 sheet advertising the "Event of the Season", featuring a variety of famous performers at the "Coolest Place in the City". Foxing and surface soil throughout, scattered paper loss and tears repaired through application to muslin, trimmed margins. Good to very good condition.
From the early 1800s, the Bowery was one of New York's major theater districts and the opening of the Great Bowery Theater in 1826 (it was the largest theater on the North American continent) helped to cement that position for the next 100 years. Particularly popular with working-class crowds, the Bowery theaters presented an outstanding variety of entertainment from "French and Spanish Dancers… in a Grand Ballet Divertisment" to "Miss Clara Maxwell The…Serio Comic Vocalist".
Estimated Value $150 - 250.
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| Realized $113 |
