{"product_id":"antique-the-tenderfoot-framed-sheet-music-cover-witmark-c-1903-1904","title":"Antique The Tenderfoot Framed Sheet Music Cover, Witmark, c. 1903–1904","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA colour lithographed sheet music cover for The Tenderfoot, a musical play in three acts, lyrics by Richard Carle and music by H. L. Heartz, published in New York by M. Witmark and Sons. A turquoise prairie sky banked with white clouds runs behind a red proscenium cartouche, two stylised red trees standing to either side of a photographic portrait of Carle in character as the mild, bespectacled figure in clerical black who gave the show its title. The lettering is drawn rather than set, the capitals of the title interlocking in the loose Art Nouveau manner American music publishers favoured at the turn of the century, and the whole design is printed in three worked colours on a single sheet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlong the foot the publisher has printed the full list of numbers from the score with their retail prices, from The Tortured Thomas Cat and The Soldiery through My Alamo Love and Adios to the Chinese dance Hop Lee, the piano selection at two dollars net and the dance arrangements at sixty cents. The sheet is glazed in a wide gilt composition frame with a carved wave and scroll outer moulding and a beaded inner lip.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Tenderfoot opened at the Dearborn Theatre in Chicago on 12 April 1903 and reached Broadway at the New York Theatre on 22 February 1904, where it ran eighty one performances to the end of that April. Richard Carle wrote the book and the lyrics, directed the piece and played the lead; H. L. Heartz wrote the music; Fred Eustis conducted. The action moved between a ranch and an Indian camping ground, and the comedy turned on the figure Carle plays here, the eastern innocent set down in the west.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cover carries the credit As Produced By The Dearborn Theatre Management. That billing belonged to the show only while the Chicago management held it, from the spring of 1903 through the Broadway run that closed in April 1904, which sets both ends of the window without recourse to style. The printed song list is the second anchor. Witmark sold the individual numbers separately at sixty cents, and the list on this cover is the catalogue the house was working from during the run, set in type rather than stamped or amended later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the upper left, in pencil, a previous owner has written the name Earl Bierly with the number 130 beside it, the sort of shelf mark a working musician kept on the covers of a bound run of popular music. It is left as found.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1903–1904, fixed by the Dearborn Theatre Management production credit printed on the cover, which the show carried only from its Chicago opening in April 1903 to the close of the Broadway run in April 1904\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTitle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Tenderfoot, a musical play in three acts\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLyrics\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRichard Carle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMusic\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eH. L. Heartz\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eM. Witmark \u0026amp; Sons, New York\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMedium\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eColour lithograph on paper with halftone portrait\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFrame\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGilt composition moulding, carved wave and scroll outer with beaded inner lip, glazed; a later decorative frame, not original to the sheet\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 17.5 in. wide by 20.5 in. high by 1.5 in. deep, framed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGood for its age and handled. Overall warm toning to the paper. An aged tape repair across the top edge and a translucent tape strip laid across the song list, both old and both visible. A small paper loss at the word Fascinating in the song list. Light creasing and wear to the upper corners. The Witmark imprint along the very bottom edge is partly covered by the frame lip. Frame sound and clean.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eProvenance mark\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePencil inscription Earl Bierly with the number 130, upper left\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTurn of the century sheet music covers were commercial art made to be seen across a shop, and this one still works that way: a flat turquoise field, three colours, a red architectural frame holding a single figure. Hung alone it reads as graphic design a century before the term; hung in a run with other paper it anchors a wall of ephemera. The subject earns its place as well, a documented Broadway production with a fixed beginning and end rather than an anonymous parlour song, which gives the piece something to say when a guest asks.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50416061382761,"sku":"VE-1700","price":692.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/ve-1700-01_8037ca8a-5fe0-4880-9116-0e45e683d243.jpg?v=1790327042","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/antique-the-tenderfoot-framed-sheet-music-cover-witmark-c-1903-1904","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}