1843 Very Early American Baseball/Cricket & Sports Sheet Music

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Posted By: jason

I have just listed this piece of early sheet music on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330242045300&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=014

Rare and very early, original, 1843 Illustrated American Sporting Sheet Music possibly depicting an early child’s Baseball Game titled "Gymnastic Galopade.”. This outstanding piece of mid 19th century sheet music measures approx. 10 1/2" x 14" and is illustrated with a fantastic Stone Lithograph containing 7 vignette sporting scenes.

These scenes depict boys and young men (or in the case of the Boxing Scene, Cupid figures) engaging in various outdoor sports including Ice Skating, Wrestling, Fencing, Boxing, High Jump and Leap Frog but of special interest is the central image showing what appears to be a group of figures engaging in an early incarnation of a stick and ball game resembling the Massachusetts Game of Baseball.

There is a pitcher, a catcher, a batter, an umpire, fielders and spectators. It looks somewhat like the early “Massachusetts Game” of Baseball or game an early form of cricket.

Some staining but not in bad shape for a paper product that is 165 years old. Printed in the USA By W H Oakes.