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Lot 25
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Edwin Booth & John Wilkes Booth Costume Swatches with Provenance!
Edwin Booth & John Wilkes Booth Costume Swatches with Provenance!
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Description:

Booth John




Edwin Booth & John Wilkes Booth Costume Swatches with Provenance!

 

Handsomely presented costume fabric cloth from Edwin booth, and most likely the other Booth brothers including John Wilkes, with superb provenance. The swatch of twelve pieces appears in a floating mount under a reproduction image of a performance of Julius Caesar in which all three Booth brothers performed. The twelve cloth samples remain attached to the original hand written note of provenance, "scraps of Edwin Booth's stage costumes made up in London. Born in Belair, Md. 1833. Died 1893. In the famous Players Club House which he founded in New York." The fabric ultimately became part of the collection of the Luray Museum of Luray, Virginia. Matted with the print to an overall size of 13" x 20.5."

 

Phenomenal set of costume cloth obtained from Edwin booth. The Booth family excelled at acting having been steered to this profession by their father, a brilliant but mentally unstable actor who’s best known roles were in Shakespearean tragedies. Although Edwin, became the most famous actor, John Wilkes Booth performed extensively on stage and at one point the three brothers even had one performance together for Julius Caesar. It was also known the upon the death of John Wilkes Booth, after his assassination of President Lincoln, that Edwin was given a trunk of John Wilkes clothing and costumes. As such it remains unclear as who actually wore these pieces of cloth, although they ultimately ended up in Edwin's possession.

 

In the 1850’s and 1860’s Edwin Booth and his younger brother John Wilkes Booth were considered to be two of the finest actors in America. The Civil War divided many families, including the Booths. Edwin Booth was for the Union and an Abraham Lincoln supporter, voting for him in 1864 in the only time in his life he voted for President of the United States. Edwin Booth once saved the life of Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth on the other hand, was a strong supporter of the Confederate cause, so strong that at the end of the war, he could not accept the reality of defeat and committed an act that secured his place as one of the more reviled figures in American history.

 

They grew up on the family farm in Maryland and also spent time in Baltimore, where the Booths maintained a second residence. Edwin was an introverted, quiet, and shy youth, while John Wilkes was friendly, good natured, outgoing and athletic. Although they had their differences over politics, Edwin and John did not appear to have a professional rivalry, at least not a bitter one. Both had established themselves as actors in their own right. Theater critics inevitably compared their performances and picked their favorites.

 

 On November 25, 1864, Edwin, John, and a third brother, Junius Jr. appeared together in a production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City. John played Mark Anthony, Edwin was Brutus, and Junius played Cassius. The packed house on hand and the critics loved the performances. It was the only time the three brothers appeared together on stage. In the time between John Wilkes two performances at Ford's theater, the last being on March 28, 1865, his hatred of Lincoln intensified, exploding in a promise of murder after he attended a speech Lincoln gave from the White House balcony on April 11, 1865. Disgusted by the president's call for limited African-American suffrage, Booth declared "That is the last speech he will ever make", and just days later he followed through on that threat.

Edwin Booth may have been the most "famous" of the Booth brothers for acting, but in the end it would be John Wilkes Booth whose fame would surpass that of his brother Edwin, when he transitioned from an actor to an assassin. The lives of all the Booth brothers would change forever on that fateful night, when on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the Presidential Box at Ford's theater and fired a single shot into the back of Lincoln’s head. The news of the assassination shocked and devastated the Booth family, changing it forever. Many received death threats. Family members and friends were questioned. Junius Booth Jr. was performing in a play in Cincinnati and was arrested. In Philadelphia, Asia Booth Clarke was questioned and placed under surveillance for a time. Asia’s husband John Clarke, who was himself an actor (and had gotten in arguments with John Wilkes over the war in the past), was arrested. In 1868, Asia and John Clarke moved to England; Asia never returned to the U.S. Edwin Booth, who was questioned by Federal authorities but not arrested, thought his career was over. He quit acting until friends convinced him to come back. On January 3, 1866, Edwin again took to the stage at the Winter Garden Theatre as Hamlet. It was a nervous time for the actor; police were on hand due to rumored death threats, and Booth had no idea how the public would react. But as he stepped onto the stage for the first time since the assassination, the crowd rose to its feet and gave him a tremendous ovation.

An extraordinary piece of history, handsomely presented.

The Luray Museum of Luray, Virginia was started by town resident Mary "Mollie" Zeiler Zerkle (1845-1933), who safeguarded artifacts of mostly local interest. According to family history, nineteen-year-old "Mollie" nursed Union soldiers after the 1864 Battle of New Market. She married Lemuel Zerkle, and the two lived in New Market, Virginia until 1890. That year, the family relocated to Luray, fourteen miles east across the Massanutten Mountain range, where Lemuel had secured a post as Superintendent of Luray Caverns. Local historian Daniel Vaughn reported that the museum operated between 1938-1960, after which point the collection was sold at auction.



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