Johnny Morton’s Mastodon Minstrel song book, containing all the favourite songs, & which have made the “Mastodon Minstrels” famous on their tour of the Australian Colonies.

A$90 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Wellington : Printed at the New Zealand Times office, Lambton Quay, 1882. Duodecimo, original printed wrappers, lower wrapper with advertisement for the Company, pp 23, [1 contents]; very small hole with loss to lower wrapper, otherwise a very good copy. Bagnall, 3641. Formed in the United States by the entrepreneur J.H. Haverly (1837-1901), this legendary blackface minstrel troupe was known as the Mastodon company because of its unusually large size: it comprised 40 entertainers drawn from four of Haverly s other companies, and was renowned for the scale and lavishness of its productions, which incorporated both song and dance. In 1881-82 the Mastodon Minstrels toured Australia and New Zealand. This pamphlet, printed at the start of the company s New Zealand visit, contains the lyrics to 34 of the Minstrels songs. Unrecorded in North American libraries; we can locate only two copies of this pamphlet, both of them in New Zealand libraries (Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand; the Hocken Library, University of Otago).

• Binding: Hardcover

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