Monday, September 17, 2012

Winter Garden Program

I love the cover of this 1914 program with a nymph-like lady dancing in a Grecian dress under a scroll bearing the words, "Winter Garden".  The Comedy and Tragedy masks are a clue that this is a playbill, possibly from the Winter Garden Theatre in New York.  On the back of the frame is a handwritten date of 1914.  The Winter Garden Theatre, opened it's doors in 1911 and was remodeled in 1922.  This would mean, the program dates back when the original theatre was still in existence.  I purchased this framed cover at an antique store located in Clovis, California.  I try to imagine who once held this program, probably in gloved hands resting on an silk embroidered dress .....  maybe a well-off farmer's wife from the central valley of California, out on the town in New York City, a trip she had dreamed of for many years as she helped tend the orchard with her husband.  She is seeing a play in a grand theatre for the first time.  The playbill will become a life long treasure, a fond memory enclosed in glass.  Precious enough to frame, with colors so vividly intoxicating, it has become a piece of art.  




For sale at Gilded Palm on Etsy - $22

Whose handwriting is this?















The photos above are my own with the exception of the GIF clip.  Please contact me for the original source.

No comments:

Post a Comment