ELLINGTON, Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ (1899-1974).

Large publicity portrait of Duke Ellington and his famous Cotton Club Orchestra, signed and inscribed by Duke Ellington, 1931. Inscribed in black ink across the width ‘With kind regards and much success to Lud Palirr [sic] Studio. Duke Ellington, Oct 28/31.’ Ellington and his Orchestra appeared at the Stanley Theater in Jersey City on this date. Vintage gelatin silver print on card stock, 276 x 354 mm. Provenance: Ludwig “Lud” Palir (musician, 1895-1967; presentation inscription recto) – RR Auctions, Boston, 20 March 2014, lot 410.

[With:] another original black and white photograph of Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra, 1932, signed in black ink by Ellington and all eleven members of his orchestra as pictured. Gelatin silver print, with stamped credit of ‘The Gramophone Co. Ltd. Hayes, Middx’ verso, titled and dated in an unknown hand 7 January 1932, 126 x 245 mm, in window mount (405 x 507 mm).

[With:] another vintage publicity portrait of Ellington and his Orchestra, 1937, signed by eight members of the band, the signatures acquired by teenage jazz fan Bob Inman at the Saturday Night Swing broadcast, 13 March 1937, with Inman's typically exhaustive annotations verso. Gelatin silver print, 204 x 257 mm. Provenance: Bob Inman – RR Auctions, Boston, 20 March 2014, lot 411.

[With:] a publicity portrait of Ellington vocalist Ivie Anderson, signed ‘Best Wishes, Ivie Anderson’, the autograph acquired by Bob Inman on 13 March 1937, with his ink annotation verso ‘She is the nuts… She dances around when singing… She sang “Oh Babe! Maybe Someday” with the band.’ Gelatin silver print, 254 x 201 mm.

[With:] two Cotton Club programmes for the second and fourth Cotton Club Parade on Broadway, 1937 and 1938, the first signed and inscribed in black ink at his portrait ‘Best Wishes, Duke Ellington’, the second signed in pencil on the front cover by Ellington and Ethel Waters, each wire-stitched in the original illustrated wraps, approx. 303 x 209 mm.

[With:] a vintage informal stage photograph of the Ellington Orchestra appearing in Ottumwa, Iowa, c.1946, signed by orchestra saxophonist Johnny Hodges, together with a signed vintage publicity portrait of Hodges, c.1945. Gelatin silver prints, each approx. 209 x 254 mm.

[With:] a dance-card for the Cardinal Cotillion Club mid-summer dance in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, 17 August 1936, signed in pencil on the first page by Duke Ellington, 108 x 75 mm.

[And:] a horn case, labelled C. G. Conn Ltd., painted in white to the base ‘Duke Ellington’s Cotton Club Orchestra’, wood with imitation leather finish, 265 x 620 x 150 mm.