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Julius Caesar, the circa late 1880s stage play production (of William Shakespeare's play) starring Edwin Booth (in the title role as Julius Caeasr) and Lawrence Barrett (as Cassius). Edwin Booth unfortunately is most famous for being the brother of John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. But Edwin Booth was a very successful actor! He appeared in a version of Julius Caesar with his brother John Wilkes Booth and another brother in 1863. After Lincoln's assassination in 1865, Edwin Booth continued acting. In 1869, he began acting in play by William Shakespeare, using the actual Shakespeare dialogue. He continued performing in Shakespearean plays throughout the 1870s. In 1883, he had to close down his "Booth's Theatre", because of poor business management, but he was still considered America's leading Shakespearean actor. Another actor, Lawrence Barrett, who was five years younger than Booth, was considered to be second only to Booth in classical roles. In 1885, Booth approached Barrett about performing together for the rest of Booth's life. Barrett agreed, and together they appeared in a series of Shakespeare plays, as Julius Caesar and Cassius, as Hamlet and his father's ghost, as Othello and Iago (alternating roles in this play!), and more. These are legendary plays that were staged by the two men who were then considered America's two finest actors! If anyone knows more about this poster, please e-mail us and we will post it here.
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

If you know who did the art (if any), please let us know.

Important Added Info: Note that this poster is surely one of a series of posters created for this play, each showing a major character from the play (similar to today's "teaser" posters). This poster is of Lawrence Barrett, who played Cassius, the man who led the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar! Since Barrett and Edwin Booth did not start acting together until 1885, and since Booth passed away in 1891 (after an illness), it is a certainty that this poster dates from between 1885 and 1890, likely in the middle of that period. Note that this poster has been trimmed and it now measures 18 3/4" x 28" [48 x 71 cm]. Also note that this poster was folded at one time but has been laying flat for a long time and will be sent rolled in a tube.

Note that this is one of 78 very rare posters (including 53 WWI and WWII posters and 18 stage play posters) that mostly date from 1888 to 1945. These were originally acquired by an archive decades ago, and they have been in storage ever since, until they were recently consigned to us. Many of these are the sorts of posters that you can find reproductions of on the Internet, but finding guaranteed originals like these is incredibly difficult (years can go by before these are offered for sale or at auction). This is a very rare opportunity to purchase any of these 78 posters (which even includes a remarkable 1873 P.T. Barnum poster from his "Traveling World's Fair")! Note that in June of 2016, we auctioned around 100 posters that were from this same archive. The 78 posters we are currently auctioning represent most of the remaining posters from this remarkable find (we certainly wish there were lots more, but unfortunately there are not, so this is likely your last opportunity to acquire these great rarities!).

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