Oliver Gallop
New York: Horace Waters; Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co., 1860. [Sheet Music] 6 total pages (illustrated front cover blank on back followed by 3 pages of music, numbered 2-4 and a blank final page). 34 cm. Disbound (removed from a bound volume with usual stitch marks, etc.). Front cover has some soiling and minor foxing. The blank verso of the cover has substantial offsetting from the facing page of music. Pages 3 & 4 of the music have substantial foxing. Offsetting on last blank page indicates that this Blind Tom piece had been bound in next to a piece whose title seems to have been "Great Western Quick Step." This arresting image of young Thomas Wiggins, then about ten was also used for his Virginia Polka and perhaps other "Blind Tom" compositions, as is indicated at the bottom of the front cover where "Oliver Gallop" and "Virginia Polka" are both listed with our title underlined in red. 3 1/2 is printed inside a printed six-pointed star at lower right beneath the cover image (significance, if any, unknown to us).. An uncommon piece of sheet music. Printed on the first page of printed music below title:"The following is from the Baltimore Sun of June 27th 'TOM' the MUSICAL WONDER.-- We enjoyed an opportunity last night to hear the performance of the blind negro boy 'TOM' at Carrol Hall, and though prepared for something uncommon, all expectation was surpassed by the reality. Nay more, all preconceived ideas of music as a science, an art or an acquisition, were thoroughly baffled, and a new question thrust upon us as to what music really is in the economy of nature. Accustomed to regard it as a gist [sic], improved and perfected by cultivation and practice, we here find it perfectly developed in a blind negro boy, and constituting a part of his nature, as much so as the color of his skin..." Very Good. Item #94662
Price: $1,500.00