Neal Auction 2012

208 1206. American School, early 20th c ., “McIntyre & Heath, Billy Cumsand’s Georgia Minstrels”, signed “Dryden” lower left, 68 in. x 37 1/4 in., framed. $1000/1500 Note: Recent scholarship on blackface minstrelsy by authors such as Mel Watkins and Robert Toll has shown that, although appropriately condemned for its racial stereotyping, minstrel shows nonetheless played an important role in the development of American comedic theatre. The existence of a joint seminar in American minstrelsy at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York and the book that accompanied it, Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy show that research in this subject is still developing. The editors of Inside the Minstrel Mask write, “Scholarship has been slow to examine minstrelsy because of its racist character. In the last twenty years, however, scholars have discovered that minstrelsy is a gigantic mirror, reflecting America’s struggle and policies on issues of race, class, and gender. By studying minstrelsy, we discover who we were and how we got to be who we are.” This painting of the well-known minstrel duo of James McIntyre (1857-1937) and Thomas Kurton Heath (1853-1938) is based on the 1916 photo by Apeda Studios (now in the New York World- Telegram and Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Library of Congress). The two Vaudeville performers joined forces in 1874 and soon became famous for their black-face characters of “Alexander Hambletonian” (played by McIntyre), a slow-witted stable boy, and “Henry Jones” (played by Heath), a clever entertainer who continually outwits his companion. The duo performed for more than fifty years and their most popular sketch, The Ham Tree , was used throughout their long career. Reference: Leonard, William Torbert. Masquerade in Black . Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1986. Bean et. al. Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth Century Blackface Minstrelsy . Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1996. 1207. American School, early 20th c ., “American Minstrel Performers: The Funny Old Gal”, oil on canvas, signed “Dryden” lower left, 68 in. x 37 1/4 in., framed. $1000/1500 Note: A popular slapstick routine was for a large man, dressed in outrageous drag, to be pursued by an ardent admirer. W 1208. English School, late 19th/ early 20th c ., “Red Bird” and “Blue Bird”, pair of oils on velvet, each unsigned, 35 1/4 in. x 13 in., antique carved giltwood frames. $800/1200 1206 1207