Der Liebe Warnun / Les “Girondins” “Mourir pour la Patrie.”

New York: Atwill, 201 Broadway, 1848. Folio. Complete at 9 pages. Two songs, with lithographic portrait of Lola Montez by Sarony & Major. Soft rag paper. Light foxing, else very good.. A likely very early American printing of two pieces tied directly to the upheavals of 1848, issued just as news and personalities of the European revolutions were electrifying American audiences. The first, “Der Lieben Warnun” (Love’s Warning), is attributed to Ludwig I, King of Bavaria, whose abdication in March 1848 followed the political scandal surrounding his relationship with Lola Montez. The second, “Les Girondins: Mourir pour la Patrie,” with text by Alexandre Dumas and music by Alphonse Varney, is one of the most popular revolutionary hymns of the period, here presented in English and French. At center is the finely printed lithographic portrait of Lola Montez (born Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, 1821–1861), identified as “Countess of Landsfeld.” Produced by Sarony & Major, the image reflects her brief but consequential position in Bavaria, where Ludwig elevated her to the nobility and granted her influence at court. Her presence became politically explosive; student unrest and ministerial crisis forced both her exile and the King’s abdication, making her a widely discussed celebrity at the time.

Montez arrived in the United States in late 1848, quickly converting this notoriety into a touring career. She performed her “Spanish dances,” including the sensational “Spider Dance,” on stages from New York to New Orleans, and later turned to lecturing, advertising appearances on “Heroines of History,” beauty, and personal independence. During the early 1850s she followed the western circuit, appearing in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, where she commanded high fees and played to packed houses of miners and merchants. She toured through Australia in 1855–56 before returning to the United States, where she settled in New York and shifted increasingly toward writing and reform-minded lectures before her death in 1861, possibly of syphilis. The piece was published by Joseph Atwill at his 201 Broadway location, which he would abandon soon after to board the steamer Crescent City to Chagres, eventually making his way to San Francisco and opening Atwill’s Music Store on Washington St., possibly San Francisco’s first music store, before heading off to the mines and then returning to San Francisco a year later to open another music store. OCLC #904564957, locating a single copy at Goucher College.