Ephemera, Americana, & Historical Memorabilia

[BASEBALL]. [SHEET MUSIC]. KALBFLEISCH, J. H. The Live Oak Polka. Composed by J. H. Kalbfleisch and Respectfully Dedicated to the Live Oak B. B. C. Rochester, N. Y. New York: Endicott & Co. Lith for Jos. P. Shaw, [1860]. Full color lithographed front wrapper. 4to. [8 pp]. Self-wrappered. Complete. Approximately 10 x 13 ¼”. Some toning, occasional foxing, thumbsoiling. Bound into a nineteenth-century volume of collected sheet music (half red straight-grain morocco over brown watered silk boards, front board with gilt morocco lettering label, stamped “Emma E. Barber,” spine lettered and tooled in gilt in compartments, five raised bands; binding worn, soiled). Excellent. FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST KNOWN BASEBALL SHEET MUSIC, AND THE EARLIEST KNOWN BASEBALL LITHOGRAPH. INCREDIBLY RARE - ONLY A HANDFUL OF COPIES ARE KNOWN TO EXIST. This lithograph predates the “Sarony, Major & Knapp 'Union Prisoners at Salisbury, N. C.,' and the Currier & Ives Hoboken baseball print [1862]. It is the earliest known baseball lithograph.” (Peters, America on Stone, p. 365.) This lot represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. From the Mark Rucker Collection.