ID 1029116
Lot 465 | Photographs signed
Estimate value
£ 1 500 – 2 500
Collection of nine black and white publicity portraits, including six signed and inscribed to saxophonist, arranger, and bandleader Bob Sylvester, 1925-1940s.
The elusive Bob Sylvester was clearly an admired arranger and respected musician who has been somewhat neglected by jazz historians. The 1944 Billboard Music Year Book noted that he ‘organised his small unit soon after his medical discharge and since that time has been enjoying many successful dates throughout the country… his saxophone artistry and sweet style of music gained him national fame’. Records show that he arranged versions of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for both Duke Ellington and Count Basie: ‘Bob Sylvester, a regular orchestrator for the white New York bandleader Hal Hemo, prepared the olded Rhapsody arrangement in the Ellington archives… it likely originated in late 1925… Count Basie recalled a series of performances in a theatre on the north side of Chicago in early 1941 where his band performed a special arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue by Bob Sylvester’. Banagle, 189.
The photographs comprising:
i. Bennie Moten, Kansas City, c.1930, inscribed in blue ink ‘Compliments of Bennie Moten to his Friend Bob Sylvester’, sepia-toned gelatin silver print, 252 x 202 mm. Band leader Bennie Moten, along with Walter Page, has been described by Stanley Crouch as one of ‘the two godfathers of the Kansas City jazz scene’. Moten’s stellar career was cut short when he died during a tonsillectomy aged 39 in 1935. Crouch, 138.
ii. Louis Armstrong, New York, c.1930, inscribed in blue ink ‘To My Pal Bob Sylvester, the Arranging Fool, from Louis Armstrong’, sepia-toned gelatin silver print, 256 x 201 mm.
iii. Walter Barnes, Chicago, c.1928, inscribed in white ink by Barnes above and below his printed signature ‘To Bob From… [pre-printed signature] Arcadia Ballroom, Chgo. Ill.’, sepia-toned gelatin silver print, with embossed stamp of the Theatrical Studio, Chicago, lower right recto, 253 x 203 mm. Known as the “Midget Maestro”, Barnes led a band known as the Royal Creolians and wrote for the Black Press’ most important paper, the Chicago Defender. He died tragically at age 35 in the Rhythm Club fire in Natchez, Mississippi, on 23 April 1940, along with 9 members of his band.
iv. Art Hickman and his 10-piece band, Los Angeles, 1925, signed and inscribed in black ink ‘To ‘Bobbie’ My first saxophone Virtioso [sic], best of luck always and more power to your million dollar tone. Art Hickman, season 1925 Biltmore Hotel – Los Angeles’, gelatin silver print, stamped credit of ‘Jernigan Photo Service, Fort Worth, Texas’ verso, 143 x 254 mm. Hickman stands behind his drum kit, while Sylvester is third from right holding his soprano sax.
v. Vaudeville Entertainer Jackie Heller, Chicago, c.1935, signed and inscribed in blue ink ‘To Bob Sylvester, my pal and a marvellous arrainger [sic], Your Pal, Jackie Heller’, sepia-toned gelatin silver print by Maurice Seymour, Chicago, 253 x 202 mm.
vi. Saxophonist Billy Johnson, Kansas City, 1920s, signed and inscribed in blue ink ‘My Best to a Real Pal – “Bob”, From Billy Johnson’, sepia-toned gelatin silver print, 254 x 204 mm.
vii. Bob Sylvester, two studio publicity portraits, the first with saxophone tucked under his arm, 1920s, signed and inscribed in black ink ‘Sincerely your future Brother-in-Law Bob Sylvester’, the second with wife and vocalist Eloise, 1940s, gelatin silver prints, each approx. 252 x 204 mm, together with a publicity portrait of an unidentified female double act, 1940s.
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CHRISTIE'S 8 King Street, St. James's SW1Y 6QT London United Kingdom | ||||||||
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| Lot number | 465 |
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| Auction date | 29.09.2023 |
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| Lot number | 465 |
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| Auction house | CHRISTIE'S |
| Auction date | 29.09.2023 |
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| Auction house | CHRISTIE'S |
| Auction date | 29.09.2023 |
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| Lot number | 465 |
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| Auction date | 29.09.2023 |
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| Lot number | 465 |
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| Auction house | CHRISTIE'S |
| Auction date | 29.09.2023 |
