DIBDEN, Charles

Bound Volume of Sheet Music with Eighteen Different Songs Signed by Charles Dibden

Folio. Quarter calf and marbled papercovered boards. Corners of the boards worn away, a sound, good copy, internally ranging from good plus to very good. Owner's name "Campies Bitties L'Tomes Music Book -- Roswell Cobb Co. Georgia" on the front free endpaper; the rear free endpaper seems to have been used as a legal document at the Office of Music Conveyance (possibly affirming American or individual state copyrights?) in South Carolina, signed by Daniel Smith in Charleston, and by Stephen Ravenel in Savannah, both in 1797, and further attested by Andrew M'Curdie, Alderman of Savannah in 1800. The book is bound up sheet music of English popular songs, many of them sea chanteys, the first twenty of the songs (from a total of about sixty-five in the volume), are written, composed, and published by Charles Dibden, and eighteen of them have been Signed or Initialied by Dibden at the bottom of the first page of music. Many of the songs are from Dibden's various musical entertainments including The Quizes, or a Trip to Elysium; Castles in the Air; The Wags; or The Oddities, the songs include: "Neighbor Sly," "Bill Bobstay," "The Lucky Escape," "Soldier Dick," "Little Ben," "Happy Jerry," "A Drop of the Creature," "The Tar for All Weathers," "Bachelor's Hall" and "Poor Tom, or the Sailor's Epitaph"; other songs not directly associated with specific shows include "The Contented Sailor," and "The Negroes Complaint" (about a captured slave). Dibden (1745-1814) was one of the most celebrated songwriters in England, and was particularly known, as one might guess from the title above, for his nautical songs. According to one source Dibden's patriotic nautical songs were said to be "worth ten thousand sailors to the cause of England," and manuscripts and signed copies of his sheet music are featured items of the collection of the Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. The songs in this book seem to date from around 1788 -- 1791, Dibden's most prolific period.

[BTC #85354]