149. Assorted
Minstrel Memorabilia in Shoe Shine Box

^This is the first of several lots of historically significant minstrel-oriented materials collected by a family in Madison, Ohio. The items are assembled inside an authentic shoe shine kit box - the inside cover of which shows a drawing of an African-American bootblack polishing an over-sized riding boot. A white child steadies the other enormous boot as two dogs run along the sidewalk and a horse and carriage pass behind them. The lot includes two piano rolls (c. 1920) featuring the songs "Back to Mammyland" and "Old Black Joe." Additionally, a slightly used 3.5 oz. tube of Stein's Black Face for Minstrel Make-Up manufactured by the M. Stein Cosmetic Co. New York U.S.A. The "soft paint" was made in twenty-three shades for theatre and seven shades for cinema. The company states that the purity of its cosmetics has been "unquestioned for half-a-century." The pink tube comes in the original box with instructions for application.^ Two tins of Stein's Burnt Cork removable by soap and water (not cream.) One tin comes in the original packaging and cost $.50.^ A used one ounce tin of Zauder's Superior Nose Putty manufactured by Zaudora's Preparations, Inc. New York, USA. The illustration on the tin shows theatre curtains, the masks of Tragedy and Comedy, and two cherubs.^ Also a small 1 1/2" diameter tin of Zauder's Tooth Wax for blackening the teeth. ^ Additionally, the lot includes eight "Black Face" sketches and plays published by the Eldridge Entertainment House in Franklin, Ohio and Denver, Colorado. These are: "Adam's Love Apple" by Whit Norton (1927); "Mose Johnson's New Job" by Mont Hurst (1927); "Eliza Rosewater's Divorce Case: A Negro Mock Trial" by Walter Richardson (1927); "Napoleon's Day On: A Juvenile Sketch or Playlet in Two Scenes" by R.F. Burnham (1927); "Cinderella from Hong Kong: A Stunt for Men or Boys" by Bess Sherman Cowden (1927); "A Peppy Program for Men" by Mignon Quaw (1922); "Vinegar's Vaudeville Agency" by Seymour S. Tibbals (1919); "Stand or Stumble or Hector, the Hired Man (With Apologies to Horatio Alger) by Eunice Thomson (1926). Plus two postcards featuring rural African-American children from the 1930s from the Curteich-Chicago, Co. "C.T. Art-Colortone" postcard series.

150/300     SOLD: $195.50

Condition: Very Good