Photo folder signed

Lot 496
29.09.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 1 260
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1029147
Lot 496 | Photo folder signed
Estimate value
£ 1 500 – 2 500
HOLIDAY, Billie (1915-1959).

Souvenir photo folder cover for Club Ebony, New York, 1950s, signed in ballpoint pen by Billie Holiday. Billie’s association with Club Ebony began following her release from prison in 1948, when the club’s co-manager John Levy leveraged his influence and connections to allow her to perform there undisturbed, despite the revocation of her New York City Cabaret Card. According to biographer Meg Greene, Holiday ‘worked hard to overcome her bad reputation: she showed up on time and performed every night… Her success at the Ebony led to radio appearances and additional bookings at the Strand Theater, where she drew the largest crowds seen there in years’. Inevitably, she became romantically involved with Levy, continuing a pattern of abusive relationships that would contribute to her destruction. Greene, 93.

Printed in black on textured cream card stock, the signature somewhat faded, 221 x 276 mm. Provenance: Lelands, New Jersey, 4 December 2003, lot 176 – RR Auctions, Boston, 14 June 2017, lot 494.

[With:] an original table photograph of Billie Holiday in corresponding souvenir photo folder from the short-lived Bop City, New York, 1949. Vintage sepia-toned gelatin silver print, with date-stamp ‘AUG 24 1949’ verso, 254 x 206 mm. Provenance: The Collection of Norman R. Saks.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
20.09.2023 13:00 – 17:00
21.09.2023 09:00 – 17:00
22.09.2023 09:00 – 17:00
23.09.2023 12:00 – 17:00
24.09.2023 12:00 – 17:00
25.09.2023 09:00 – 17:00
26.09.2023 09:00 – 17:00
27.09.2023 09:00 – 17:00
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

More from Creator

Lady Sings the Blues
Lady Sings the Blues
£1 200
Three rare reel-to-reel master copy studio recordings of Billie Holiday from sessions produced by Norman Granz between April 1952 and August 1955
Three rare reel-to-reel master copy studio recordings of Billie Holiday from sessions produced by Norman Granz between April 1952 and August 1955
£2 000
Two photographs signed
Two photographs signed
£1 600
Reel-to-reel recordings
Reel-to-reel recordings
£100
Concert handbill
Concert handbill
£100
A collection of seventeen 78 rpm singles signed by the artists, 1924-1950, originally acquired by photographer and autograph collector Nat Singerman
A collection of seventeen 78 rpm singles signed by the artists, 1924-1950, originally acquired by photographer and autograph collector Nat Singerman
£6 000
Billie Holiday and Sidney Bechet
Billie Holiday and Sidney Bechet
£1 200
Document signed
Document signed
£100
?>