[Sheet Music – Lithography – Winslow Homer – Politics – Massachusetts] Homer, Winslow Homer (artist); J. H. Bufford & Co. (lithographer)

“The Wheelbarrow Polka.” [With An Early Winslow Homer Lithograph Depicting a Notorious 1856 Massachusetts Election Wager.]

Boston, Massachusetts: Oliver Ditson & Co., 1856. Lithographed sheet music title page after a photograph by Turner & Cutting. Folio. Some trimming and edge wear; image strong; good to very good. Item #Cat353

An early and scarce lithographic design by Winslow Homer, executed during his apprenticeship at J. H. Bufford & Co., and among a small group of sheet music illustrations from his formative period. The image commemorates the widely publicized wager made by journalist and political figure Benjamin Perley Poore during the heated 1856 Massachusetts elections, which were shaped by the collapse of the Whigs and the rise of the Republicans. Poore, backing one slate (generally identified with the Democratic or anti-Republican interest), agreed that if his side lost, he would wheel a barrel of apples from his home in West Newbury to Boston; upon defeat, he fulfilled the pledge, completing the roughly thirty-six-mile journey to considerable public attention. Homer’s composition, after a now-lost photograph by Turner & Cutting, shows Poore mid-route with the barrel mounted in a wheelbarrow, accompanied by amused onlookers and a roadside sign indicating Boston. OCLC 80062698, locating four copies.

Price: $800.00