Black & white, 13.5 x 5.25,” trimmed in gold, mounted in a white ceramic frame, 16.25” x 18.5”, along w/studio print of Booth in hat and frock coat, 7” 4.5”, trimmed in gold with the entire ensemble matted in black ribbed cloth, w/card backing and hang-wire. Playbill exhibits folk-marks. Outer frame trim slightly tarnished. Else VG plus.

The playbill prominently features…”The Young American Tragedian/ MR. JOHN WILKES BOOTH/ He Will Appear as Claude Melnott in Bulwer’s Celebrated Play / THE LADY OF LYONS…”

It then lists the cast of this play “By Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer,” a famed and popular English novelist/ playwright. Below the cast listing the playbill bill announces—“On Friday, Benefit and Last Night of Mr. J. Wilkes Booth, on which occasion he will appear, by desire, in his great impersonation of RICHARD THIRD.” Followed by an announcement that “Saturday Afternoon” will be the “Benefit and Last Night of Mr. J. Wilkes Booth’s Last Appearance—THE LADY OF LYONS.”

In May 1862 J. Wilkes Booth, younger brother of famed tragedian Edwin Booth, was moving toward the zenith of his national fame as an actor, appearing in classic plays such Shakespeare’s RICHARD THE THIRD. Playwright/ novelist Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton was also at the height of his transatlantic literary career, rating in popularity only a notch or two below Charles Dickens.

An utterly superb collectible--John Wilkes Booth playing the Boston Museum in May 1862 in Bulwer Lytton’s THE LADY OF LYONS. J. Wilkes Booth Collectors may never pass this way again.  [JP] [ph:L]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS,

CLICK ON ‘CONTACT US’ AT THE TOP OF ANY PAGE ON THE SITE,

THEN ON ‘LAYAWAY POLICY’.