BIDDEFORD — One of two copies of the oldest known recording of a black vocal group in the U.S. is up for auction.
The recording of the Unique Quartet from 1893 is so old that it pre-dates vinyl recordings. The song, “Mama’s Black Baby Boy,” was recorded on a wax-covered cylinder using technology invented by Thomas Edison. It can be played only on a cylinder player that was a predecessor to phonographs, which played flat, vinyl discs.
Troy Thibodeau from Saco Bay Auction Co. in Maine says it’s the oldest recorded African-American music in the U.S. The cylinder came from the collection of a Portland man. The only other copy resides in the Library of Congress.
Thibodeau says there are so few of these rare cylinders that it’s difficult to place a value on them. Also up for auction on Saturday is an 1896 recording of the Unique Quartet.
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- A tube containing a wax-covered cylinder etched with an 1893 recording of the song, “Momma’s Baby Black Boy,” by the Unique Quartet, which is up for auction in Biddeford. It is one of two copies of the oldest known recording by a black vocal group in the United States.
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