A folk song handwritten by Robert Burns more than 230 years ago has fetched over £16,000 at auction.
Burns sent the ballad “Geordie” to Edinburgh music collector James Johnson for inclusion in his 1792 volume the Scots Musical Museum.
The manuscript, written on a single page, passed down to Johnson’s daughter, who knew Burns when she was a child, and later to her son.
The rare document emerged for sale in Christie’s online auction of fine printed books and manuscripts in the US, where it fetched £16,200.
Heather Weintraub, Christies’ specialist, said: “Burns manuscripts of this caliber are rare at auction. Folk songs were so important to his poetic voice.”
Geordie is the story of the eponymous hero destined for execution in Edinburgh, whose lover pleads to the king for his life.
The story has both English and Scottish roots, with various outcomes. In Burns’ version, Geordie’s life is spared.
Burns had met Johnson, who was collecting songs for publication, while visiting Edinburgh in the late 1780s. Burns would send him over 150 original songs as well as traditional songs he collected and re-worked.
The “Geordie” manuscript was accompanied by a letter from Johnson’s daughter “C.L. McPherson” to her son William, explaining the song’s provenance, sent from Edinburgh on 11 March 1859.
About the manuscript, she wrote: “Sent by Robert Burns to my father, and first printed in the musical work edited by him and entitled Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum.”
