Silk Needlework Minstrel Picture,

Description:

Silk Needlework Minstrel Picture, J. Adams, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1836, depicting a minstrel couple in painted black face, the gentleman dressed in a military uniform holding a sword, the lady in period dress and bonnet holding a hankie, standing in a whimsical landscape of flowers, birds and butterflies above a romantic verse, he laments "Tomorrow I go in a far distant land, To fight a battle unknown; Another will come and you will bestow, A happier peace to his hand." She replies "Hush! thy suspicion fair Emma Jane cried, It's hard for to love and to leave, For I swear by the Virgin that none in thy stead, Shall a Husband of Emma Jane's be," the solidly stitched figures in silk threads of pinks, greens, pale blue, and brown on linen ground, signed lower right, (minor staining at the margins),16 1/4 x 19 3/4 in.

Provenance: From a private needlework collection.

N. B. This item is accompanied with information from a University Press of Mississippi publication, titled In Old New Orleans, edited by W. Kenneth Holditch, in which an article by Kaye De Metz discusses "Minstrel Dancing," with references to "Oh Hush!" and several other presentations performed by Big Daddy Rice on his visits to New Orleans in 1835 and 1836.
Estimate $10,000-15,000

Provenance: From a private needlework collection. N. B.: This item is accompanied with information from a University Press of Mississippi publication, titled, " In Old New Orleans", edited by W. Kenneth Holditch, in which an article by Kaye De Metz discusses "Minstrel Dancing", with references to " Oh Hush !" and several other presentations performed by Big Daddy Rice on his visits to New Orleans in 1835 and 1836.

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