HULLAH

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE (letter): 1p., 12mo. In a neat and elegant hand, it reads: 'Tuesday Night | Dear Laura | I send the tickets; as Goldsmith sent the portion of Lord Clare's haunch of venison to Sir Joshua - | "To paint it or eat it, whichever he pleased" | I am glad you like the Philharmonia | Your affecte. Friend | John Hullah'. TWO (cutting of sheet music): Written in pencil on one side of a 6.5 x 15 cm piece of paper, docketted 'Written by John Hullah 1861 | for

'. With a few words in Hullah's hand at head.

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. 12 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He would 'much like' to show him a song he has written for 'Exeter Hall', and proposes dinner the following day. In a postscript asks if he has 'learnt anything about R. J. S. Stevens'.

12mo, 1 p. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. He is sending 'a few lines to Mr. Otto Goldschmidt, about the Bach Choir'.

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. 17 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Begins 'I cannot help thinking your request a very unreasonable one. You have, in the first instance, monopolized, for the best part of the season, my Room, on the night when it is most in request; & now that every body has fully laid out his plans for this side off the autumn you call upon me to release you from an engagement [...]'. He will not force the recipient to occupy the room 'longer than the six nights', but will not keep 'the engagement' open for him at Christmas.

12mo, 2 pp. 15 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Having failed to 'catch' lister after 'our practice', Hullah asks if he would be willing to 'take part in a private performance here of Haydn's Stabat Mater'. Gives details of dates of proposed performance, and rehearsal.

12mo, 1 p. 10 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The recipient 'had better be in Town for the Choral Meeting on the 4th. June'. Gives details of when the recipient will 'generally find' Hullah there.

Oval sepia photograph of the head and shoulders of Hullah, looking to his right in double-breasted jacket. Faded and on aged card, with traces of mount adhering to reverse. The sitter - who by comparison with other photographs is definitely Hullah - is named as 'JOHN HULLAH' in a contemporary hand on the card beneath the laid-down photograph, and as 'Mr Hullah' in pencil on the reverse. Not present in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, which only holds three images of the composer.

Cut from a letter. On small rectangle of light-grey paper, roughly 2 x 4 cm. Fair, on aged paper with thin light strip of glue staining along top edge. Neat firm signature, underlined and overlined, reading 'John Hullah'.

On a piece of paper roughly 3.5 x 9 cm, with embossed details of stationers. Good, with tiny crease to one corner. A clear signature, in pencil.

One page, 12mo. On creased, brittle, aged paper. Repaired with archival tape on reverse, which carries traces of previous mounting. He is sending some lines of introduction 'to my cameo friend who lives in Grafton St Bond St. - No. [i.e. number] unknown, but it is the second or third house on the right going from Bond St.' Hullah's 'Music Hall' - St Martin's Hall in Long Acre - opened in 1850. It burnt to the ground ten years later.