759

Daniel Decatur Emmett Signature

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:500.00 - 700.00 USD
Daniel Decatur Emmett Signature

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2022 Apr 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Rare ink signature, "Daniel D. Emmett, author of Dixie's Land. (1859), 'Den I wish I was in Dixie!,'” on an off-white 6 x 7.5 sheet. Archivally double-matted and framed with an artist rendering of the Battle of Bull Run to an overall size of 27 x 17. In fine condition.

Emmett is traditionally credited with writing the song 'Dixie,' a tune that has since become one of the most distinctively Southern musical products of the 19th century. The story that Emmett related about its composition varied each time he told it, but the main points were that he composed the song in New York City while a member of Bryant's Minstrels. The song was first performed by Emmett and the Bryants at Mechanics' Hall in New York City on April 4, 1859. The song became a runaway hit, especially in the South, and the piece for which Emmett was most well known. Emmett himself reportedly told a fellow minstrel: 'If I had known to what use they [Southerners] were going to put my song, I will be damned if I'd have written it.' After the South began using his song as a rallying call, Emmett wrote the fife-and-drum manual for the Union Army. Emmett's song was a favorite of President Abraham Lincoln, who said after the war ended in 1865, 'I have always thought that 'Dixie' was one of the best tunes I ever heard…I insisted yesterday that we had fairly captured it.'