dramatic

Autograph Letter Signed from the Scottish poet Sir Theodore Martin to John T. Baron of Blackburn, agreeing to a request for his own and his wife's autograph, and explaining the circumstance of one of his Bon Gualtier Ballads.

Author: 
Sir Theodore Martin (1816-1909), Scottish poet, biographer and translator, author of the 'Bon Gualtier Ballads', husband of the actress Helena Faucit [John T. Baron of Blackburn, autograph hunter]
Publication details: 
31 Onslow Square [London], on his crested letterhead. 15 December 1882.
£65.00

2pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. In worn envelope, with stamp and postmark, addressed by Martin to 'John T. Baron Esq | 48 Griffin Street | Witton | Blackburn'. He begins by explaining that he has 'had every minute so fully occupied of late', that he has not been able to comply with Baron's request. 'Lady Martin has done what she is now most reluctant to do - written the name she once bore with a few lines from Cymbeline. I have copied the verse you wish from the little Bon Gaultier Poem'.

Printed colour halftone handbill advertisement for the Illustrated London News by publisher by Thomas Fox, Strand, London, within illustrated floral border by Sulman.

Author: 
[Thomas Fox, 198, Strand, London, publisher of the Illustrated London News; Leighton, Brothers, Printers.]
Publication details: 
Published by Thomas Fox, 198, Strand, W.C. Leighton, Brothers, Printers. [1870s.]
£65.00

On one side of a piece of 27 x 19.5 cm. paper. In fair condition, on aged paper with wear to margins. Printed in red, green, yellow, brown and black. The text is crisply printed in red and black, with an engraving of the London skyline around St Paul's beneath the magazine's title. The text begins: 'This journal contains engravings of all the leading events of public interest, from original sketches and photographs.' Subscription details are followed by a short section on 'The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News'.

Autograph Letter Signed from the actor-manager Wilson Barrett [William Henry Barrett] to Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine, regarding the dramatisation of his novel 'The Deemster' (renamed 'Ben-my-chree') for performance at the Princess's Theatre, London.

Author: 
Wilson Barrett [William Henry Barrett] (1846-1904), English actor and playwright, manager of the Princess's Theatre, London [Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine (1853-1931), novelist]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Hedingham, 21 Maresfield Gardens, South Hampstead, London. 28 April 1888.
£45.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Barrett writes: 'Dear Hall Caine/ | The scheme promises well. I have made an arrangement for eight weeks at the Princess's. I thought it better to fight for the play there. Will certainly have a fair chance, although there can be no <?>.' According to Barrett's entry in the Oxford DNB, he returned from the Globe Theatre 'to the Princess's, where he began work with Hall Caine on adapting The Deemster, renamed Ben-my-chree (17 May 1888).

Autograph Letter Signed ('Teddy Craig') from Edward Gordon Craig to Nannie Florence Dryhurst, anarchist, suffragette, giving details of his charges for designing and printing bookplates. With proof of Craig's bookplate for Dryhurst.

Publication details: 
Letter on letterhead of 17 Sunderland Terrace, London W2. Neither item dated.
£250.00

Letter: 1p., 12mo. On letterhead of 12 Sunderland Terrace, London, printed in orange with orange border. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He states that his daughter Nelly (1904-1975) has given him her bookplate block 'to get printed for you'. He quotes prices for 100 and 300 prints, 'only to old friends so please dont tell anyone else!! If you will just let me have a P.C I will get them done in two days.' Nelly has also told him that Mrs Dryhurst's husband Alfred Robert Dryhurst (1859-1949) 'wanted to know my price for a bookplate (but perhaps she got that wrong) anyhow I generally charge £10.

'Box Office Return' for a production of 'She Stoops to Conquer' at 'The Arts Theatre Club Festival of International Comedy and Drama', filled in by hand on printed form by Mary Pupley, Box Office Keeper.

Author: 
The Arts Theatre Club, London [Mary Pupley, Box Office Keeper]
Publication details: 
The Arts Theatre Club, London. 1 May 1949.
£65.00

1p., 4to. On aged and lightly-creased paper. Giving breakdowns for different seats in matinee and evening productions, as well as for programmes, with the number of complimentary tickets. The Arts Theatre Club was founded in 1927, 'in an attractive building in Great Newport-street shaped somewhat like the House of Commons' (Times, 9 May 1927). On its relaunch in 1933, its stated aim was 'to select plays of theatrical merit [...] with an entire disregard for their commercial possibilities' (Times, 18 December 1933).

Autograph Letter Signed ('Jn B Buckstone') from the actor John Baldwin Buckstone [to the playwright Thomas John Dibdin] regarding a meeting 'of all the dramatic authors' to make arrangements following 'the new act' [Bulwer Lytton's copyright reforms.

Author: 
John Baldwin Buckstone (1802-1879), actor, playwright, and manager of the Haymarket Theatre [Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841), playwright and actor]
Publication details: 
29 Walcot Place, Kennington; 14 June 1833.
£220.00

1p., 4to. 15 lines. On aged and worn paper. The letter reads 'Dear Sir/ | A general meeting of all the Dramatic Authors will take place at the Garricks head in Bow Street on Monday nexxt at One o'Clock.

Signed copies of two long Typed Letters from James Agate to Montague Shearman, regarding the 'Controversy' surrounding Noel Coward's 1931 play 'Cavalcade', forwarded with two covering notes by Agate's secretary Alan 'Jock' Dent to E. F. Gye.

Author: 
James Agate (1877-1947), critic [Alan Dent [Alan 'Jock' Dent; Jock Dent] (1905-1978), journalist; Montague Shearman (1886-1940), art collector; Ernest Frederick Gye (1879-1955), diplomat; Noel Coward]
Signed copies of two long Typed Letters from James Agate
Publication details: 
The copies of Agate's letters to Shearman, 5 and 6 November 1931; Dent's notes to Gye of the same dates; all four items on letterheads of 25 Palace Court, London, W2.
£145.00
Signed copies of two long Typed Letters from James Agate

A total of 8 pp, 4to, all on Palace Court letterheads. Dent's notes both signed 'Jock Dent.', and the copies both signed 'James Agate'. Two important, energetic and vivid letters by Agate, totalling 6 pp, 4to, defending Coward's play and his position on 'the intellectual and the popular', against the 'pseudo-intelligentsia' of the barristers Shearman and 'Jack' St John Hutchinson (1884-1942).

Pamphlet advertising ''Mr. Joseph Hatton's Dramatic Reading, founded upon his Great Society Novel of English Life and Manners, entitled "The Queen of Bohemia." '

Author: 
Joseph Hatton (1841-1907), English novelist and journalist [Victorian monologues; nineteenth-century dramatic readings; The Palace Hotel, Buxton]
Publication details: 
The Drawing-Room, Palace Hotel, Buxton. Thursday Evening, August 19th, 1880.'
£56.00

4to, 8 pp. Stitched pamphlet on grey paper. Text clear and complete. Good, though somewhat creased, and a little stained. In small type. Divided into two sections: 'Selections from the opinions of the London press' and 'Selections from the opinions of the provincial press'. In a long quotation on the front page: 'Charles Dickens made the practice famous, and Mr. Joseph Hatton has begun his platform career in the same modest, careful, and unpretentious way [...]'. (p.1, 'From General Press Notices').

Shakespearian and Dramatic Catalogue [including books from the libraries of Ellen Terry and Henry Arthur Jones]

Author: 
P. J. & A. E. Dobell, booksellers, 77 Charing Cross Road [Shakespeare; Ellen Terry; Henry Arthur Jones]
Publication details: 
1930. No. 362. Printed by Robt. Stockwell, Baden Place, Borough, London.
£100.00

8vo, 72 pp. Stapled and unbound. Complete. On aged paper. The outer leaves are worn and coming apart at the spine. Otherwise the item is sound and tight. 1976 items. Items 783 to 883 concern 'the Bacon-Shakespeare Controversy'. Items 888 to 893 are 'Books from the Library of the late Dame Ellen Terry.' ('Only a few Books from her Library were sold, and Association Books are very difficult to obtain.'). Items 894 to 982 are 'Books on the Drama and Shakespeare, from the library of Henry Arthur Jones'. Items 983 to 1976 are 'Books on the Drama'.

Autograph Card Signed from Sutro to Hicks.

Author: 
Alfred Sutro (1863-1933), British author and dramatist; Seymour Hicks (1871-1949)
Publication details: 
26 October [no year, but c.1910]; on letterhead 31 Chester Terrace, Regent's Park [London].
£35.00

One page, on piece of grey card roughly three and a half inches by four and a half wide. Very good. Twelve lines and one-line postscript in Sutro's tiny and difficult hand. Sends his 'sincerest congratulations on the best volume of memoirs I have read this many a day' (Hicks published his autobiography in 1910). 'There isn't a dull line in it from start to finish; I could dine out for a week on the stories'. Reference to Irving and other actors. Ends 'A damned good book, Seymour! Tous mes compliments!' Postscript reads 'This does NOT require an answer!'

Autograph Letter Signed to I[saac]. Wilkinson[, Manager and Secretary of the Brighton Aquarium].

Author: 
Dudley Smith (born c.1852), English and Foreign Musical and Dramatic Agent [The Brighton Aquarium; Victorian Circus]
Publication details: 
22 March 1883; on ornate letterhead in blue and gold carrying address at 449 Strand, London (as well as addresses in Paris and New York).
£56.00

One page, quarto. Very good, though slightly aged and creased, and with minor damp staining at foot, affecting bottom three lines including signature. Wilkinson has written to say that he 'has not the space' Smith has 'named'. '[Y]ou express an opinion that Circus business would pay, & I, from my personal knowledge of Brighton & experience therein, feel sure a really good Circus would prove an immense attraction & a paying one, & would stand some time by introducing fresh novelties'.

Typed notes signed (x 6) to Thomas Bass,

Author: 
C.B. Cochran
Publication details: 
between 1927 and 1937.
£100.00

English impressario (1872-1951), nicknamed "Cocky", closely associated with Noel Coward, knighted in 1948. All one page, five with the letterhead Charles B. Cochran, 49 Old Bond Street (three 8vo and two 4to), and one, 12mo, with the letterhead of the Midland Hotel, Manchester. One in stamped addressed envelope. All thanking Bass (of 22 Delta Street, Lightbourne, Moston, Manchester) for his letters praising the Manchester performances of Cochran's revue.

one autograph note signed to an unnamed correspondent,

Author: 
Ada Cavendish
Publication details: 
without date or place.
£20.00

English actress (1839-1895), for a time manageress of the Olympic Theatre. One page, 12mo. Written in a bold hand, clearly in reply to a request for an autograph. " "Tell me thy reason / Why thou wilt marry " / "All's well that ends well" / Ada Cavendish". In reasonable condition, despite a tear almost halfway down a crease running vertically down the centre of the paper, and traces of glue and paper from previous mounting on the reverse.

Autograph letter signed to Mrs [?] Davis,

Author: 
Julia Emilie Neilson
Publication details: 
"Thurs-day" [no date], with letterhead 1a Devonshire Street, Portland Place.
£15.00

English actress (1868-1957), the wife of Fred Terry (1864-1932). 4pp, on two identical 12mo cards, both with the letterhead. "My dear Mrs Davis / I am so grieved to hear about the poor . I hope & trust it is not very serious & that they will get well very quickly what an anxiety for you all I am quite well thank you but am awfully sorry I I shall not be able to help you on the 22nd as I am dining out. With best love to you all / Yours sincerely / Julia Neilson" Both cards bear traces of previous mounting.

Typed note,

Author: 
Marie Tempest (Dame Mary Susan Tempest)
Publication details: 
undated.
£20.00

English actress (1866-1942). One page, 8vo, with green border and letterhead 55 Avenue Road, Regent's Park. A formal letter written in the third person, presumably on the death of her husband W. Graham Browne (1870-1937). "Miss Marie Tempest is deeply moved by your expression of sympathy. The letters and telegrams she has received have helped her more than she is able to say. There have been so many that she is unable to reply to them personally, but she hopes that you will realise all that your sympathy has meant in her great sorrow."

Autograph card signed,

Author: 
Fay Compton
Publication details: 
no date, but circa 1920.
£20.00

Actress (1894-1978). Card, on one side of which is printed, "30 CONDUIT ST / BOND STREET / W / TELEPHONE / 1923 / MAYFAIR / INSTEAD thanks / .... / for .... letter, and order for Photographs which are being proceeded with. / .... 192 ...." Over this, lengthwise and upwards, is the signature "Fay Compton", and above it an attempt at forgery, with the "Compton" reasonably convincing, but with "Fey" for "Fay". On the blank reverse another signature by Compton. The actress would appear to have provided these examples of her signature for copying onto her publicity photographs.

autograph letter signed to Miss [?] Lewis,

Author: 
Ada Rehan, actress
Publication details: 
18 June 1890, on letterhead of the Hotel Métropole, London
£25.00

Irish-born American actress (1860-1916). 3 pp, 12mo. "I fear a matinée will prevent my coming on July 4th. Some benefit I have promised to play for - but if I come off early enough - & am not too tired I will certainly <?> in & see you / I hope that you and all your delightful family are well". Creased, but otherwise in reasonable condition.

Autograph letter signed to Mrs [?] Smith,

Author: 
Julia Emilie Neilson
Publication details: 
undated, 107 Bath Row.
£25.00

English actress (1868-1957), the wife of Fred Terry (1864-1932). 4 pp, 8vo. She thanks her for her kind invitation, which she cannot accept as they are going back to London on the Sunday. "We are only giving a matinee at Wolverhampton & have to return to Birmingham to play at night / It was very sweet of you to ask us." Minor traces of previous mounting.

autograph letter signed to Ella [Davis],

Author: 
Florence Terry
Publication details: 
23 August 1881, Theatre Royal, Oldham.
£20.00

English actress (1855-96), sister of Ellen Terry and member of celebrated theatrical dynasty. 2 pp, 12mo. "You really must think me a pig for not having written to you all this time - but now I send these few lines to thank you first for your good wishes and congratulations on my engagement to Mr Morris & for kind remembrance of my birthday - The card was a very pretty one - I hope to be home after the 4th of next month - so I shall hope to see you before long now: It must be delightful on the Thames: With love and thanks to you & Alice Lewis for all your good wishes".

autograph note signed to Miss [?] McCarthy,

Author: 
Ada Rehan, actress
Publication details: 
8 November 1891, on letterhead of the Gordon Hotels Ltd.
£20.00

Irish-born American actress (1860-1916). 2 pp, 8vo. "Can you and your dear Father come and have a little lunch with me on Wed: at 1 o.clock {- just really to say goodbye / drop me a line if you will - With love - but in haste / Ada Rehan". Traces of paper and glue from previous mounting on blank sides.

Autograph note signed to Mrs [?] Lewis,

Author: 
Julia Emilie Neilson
Publication details: 
1 July [no year], with letternhead 1a Devonshire Street, Portland Place.
£15.00

English actress (1868-1957), the wife of Fred Terry (1864-1932). 2 pp, 12mo. "Dear Mrs Lewis / My mother & I will be delighted to accept your kind invitation on Friday afternoon / With kind regards / very truly yours / Julia Neilson". With traces of paper and glue from previous mounting on blank recto of second leaf.

calling card signed,

Author: 
Ada Rehan, actress
Publication details: 
dated 1894.
£20.00

Irish-born American actress (1860-1916). Calling card 2½ by 3¼ inches, "Miss Rehan. / 164 West 93rd. Street.", with the name crossed out and signed on the reverse "Ada Rehan / 1894."

Autograph fragment signed,

Author: 
Kate Josephine Bateman [Mrs George Crowe]
Publication details: 
no date or place.
£10.00

American-born actress (1842-1917). End of letter on mourning paper, now 12mo, signed in her married name. "Very truly yrs / Kate Crowe".

calling card signed,

Author: 
Adelaide Helen Calvert, actress [née Biddles or Bedells]
Publication details: 
undated.
£15.00

English actress (1837-1921), wife of the actor-manager Charles Calvert (1828-1879) and mother of the actor Louis Calvert (1859-1923). Black-letter calling card, 3½ by 2¼ inches, of "Mrs. Charles Calvert. / 22, York Mansions, / Battersea Park. / S. W. 11." Signed between the signature and the address "Adelaide Helen Calvert".

Autograph letter signed to Miss M[ary]. H. Folkard,

Author: 
Kate Josephine Bateman [Mrs George Crowe]
Publication details: 
18 November [1897], with letterhead 48 Wetherby Mansions, Earl's Court Square.
£20.00

American-born actress (1842-1917). 2 pp, 12mo, on mourning paper, in matching stamped envelope addressed in autograph "Miss M. H. Folkard / Wigram Ward / Kings Coll. Hospital / Lincoln's Inn Fields". "I am more than grieved to hear of yr. illness. What a long, long weary time you have had! May I go to see you on Sunday? I wd. love to go before - but I am teaching all day [at the theatre school she had founded in 1892] - & acting at night - & have not a minute before Sunday. My love to you dear friend - & Miss Daley's - / Your always affte. / Kate Crowe".

autograph letters signed (x 2 ) to Miss [?] Cole,

Author: 
Kate Josephine Bateman [Mrs George Crowe]
Publication details: 
1898 and 1900.
£50.00

American-born actress (1842-1917). Both 2 pp, on 12mo mourning paper. The first, 19 January 1898, with the letterhead 48 Wetherby Mansions, Earl's Court Square. She apologises for not writing sooner. "I am rather frightened at yr. proposal - for I have never addressed a meeting in my life - & have shrunk from so responsible a position - & fear I shd. do the work very badly - tho' I feel with all my heart for your good cause. / I have neither the time, nor the ability to prepare a paper - & make them give. / May I go to you - to ask you just what wd. be expected of me?

Autograph note signed to an unnamed male correspondent,

Author: 
Kate Josephine Bateman [Mrs George Crowe]
Publication details: 
4 June 1872, 6 Kensington Gore.
£25.00

American-born actress (1842-1917). One page, 12mo. "In answer to yr. note I first appeared in Manchester in the year 1864 in the character of "Leah". / Yrs: respectfully / K. J. Bateman Crowe". With traces of glue and paper to reverse of blank second leaf.

autograph note signed to Mrs [?] Wood,

Author: 
May Agathe
Publication details: 
without date or place.
£35.00

One page, 12mo. She has just returned from the theatre at 11 o'clock and is "delighted to have been able to obtain a ticket". Signed "May". Stuck to the foot of the page is a newspaper cutting describing Sarah Bernhardt's performance in Emile Moreau's play on Queen Elizabeth. This ends, "A word is fairly due to the work of M. Lou Teilegen and Madame May Agathe, and to the excellence of the stage management." Creased and with traces of mount on reverse.

Autograph letter signed to unnamed female correspondent,

Author: 
Kate Rorke
Publication details: 
no date, with letterhead 64 St John's Wood Road.
£25.00

Actress and teacher of elocution (c.1866-1945). One page, 8vo. "I am so sorry that your letter came too late for me to send you any tickets for our concert. Perhaps you will help us another year? - Truly yours / Kate Rorke-Gardiner". [Her first husband was Edward Gardiner (died 1899). Loss to one corner, and traces of previous mounting on blank verso.

autograph letter signed to [Thomas] Bass,

Author: 
Georgina Milne
Publication details: 
9 January 1913, New Theatre, Manchester.
£12.00

Actress. 2 pp, 12mo. She thanks him for his letters and the handkerchiefs. "I am very glad you enjoyed "Kismet", it is indeed a fine play." She encloses a postcard [not present] and will let him have one of the photographs she is having taken.

Syndicate content