OPERATIC

1p., 12mo. On aged and worn paper. Expansive signature. Reads: '"Where ever "Paul Jones" is - I shall be!" | Act III | Agnes Huntington | London | 1890.' Huntington was a great success in this 'trouser role'. In 1892 Huntington married Paul Drennan Cravath (1861-1940); they were divorced in 1926.

1p., 12mo. In very good condition, lightly-aged, with parts of red wax wafer at each corner. Reads 'En route | Royal Hotel Cardiff | Sir | Here is my autograph according to your wish. | Yours faithfully | J. Sims Reeves | April 21st. 1876.' Good, strong signature, with a final flourish continuing in a circle, and enclosign the whole of it.

1p., 16mo. In fair condition, creased and lightly-aged, and laid down on a leaf removed from an album. In a close tiny hand, the note reads: 'Dear Mr. Mellon | can you oblige me with a private box for Monday evening next? The largest you can afford. | You are a naughty man. | Your's most truly | Erminia Rudersdorff'.

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. He thanks him 'for the valuable additions to our theatrical wardrobe which you have been so kind as to send us this morning', adding that he can assure Guy 'that we shall make good use of them and will remember with gratitude the source from which they came, for Madame Albani was one of the best beloved friends of the College since its earliest days'.

2pp., 4to. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. He writes that he is sorry that he could not sing the song 'Nancy's Hair' at Preston. He had not brought it: '(I only got your letter on arrival at the concert hall.) Funnily enough I picked it up before leaving home to put in my case as a possible encore & then put it back.' He is 'delighted to know that your mother liked my singing of it, I most certainly enjoy singing it & I hope to be able to help it along'.

1p., 16mo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, and laid down on a leaf removed from an album. The note reads: 'Sir | can you offer me an engagement on either the 16th., 18th., 20th. or 24th. December, as I am engaged in your neighbourhood about those dates. | Requesting your immediate reply, | I remain, Sir, | yours truly | [signed] Erminia Rudersdorff | J. M. Wiske, Esq.'

The bookplate is 3.5 x 2.5 cm, and shows a troubadour with a lute, with the initials 'M S' at the foot. It is affixed to a piece of 14 x 9 cm card. Bookplate in good condition, on aged card with one creased corner. The card carries the message in pencil by Shaw: 'Mrs. & Mr. Dryhurst.

On one side of a 14 x 18 cm piece of pink paper removed from autograph album. Lightly-aged, and a little grubby on the reverse. To the left of Chaliapin's bold signature is an oval photographic portrait, with Rabinowitz's signature below.

Scored on two facing pages, on two 25 x 34 cm leaves of music paper attached to one another along one edge with a thin strip of glue. Good, on lightly-aged paper, in red card folder with white label. Scored for voice and piano, with the two verses of libretto by Tom Taylor. Signed at end 'Frederic Clay. / Tenor Ballad from "Court & Cottage".', with ownership inscription alongside: 'Henry Wodehouse / 24 Upp. Brook St.' (According to the Survey of London, Hon.

Totalling 5 pp, 4to. All texts clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He begins the first letter 'I am venturing to address you on the assumption that you are the son of the revered singer DAME EMMA ALBANI, and most sincerely trust that my letter may not come amiss.' Harvey is writing an article for Albani's centenary the following year 'for Sir Compton Mackenzie's magazine The Gramophone - for November, 1952' and is 'very anxious to obtain definite details of the two UNPUBLISHED Records which Madame ALBANI made for The Gramophone Company in 1904', of which he gives the details.

Galitzin's letter: 1 p, 4to. 13 lines. Text clear and complete. On lightly-aged paper with a few pinholes to one corner. Signed 'Georges Galitzin'. He writes regarding the course of action to be taken if, 'par un hasard qelconque ou par conviction M. Tey [i.e. Gye] se refusait a me ceder son theatre pour le concert que je veux donner au profit de la souscription Garibaldi'. The draft of Gye's reply is 1 p, 12mo, docketed on the reverse 'Monsieur le Prince Gaelzin [sic] | 52 Porchester Terrace Bayswater' | June 1 1860'. It is written in French in the third person. 11 lines.

1 p, 4to. 20 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and creased paper. In response to a letter from Gye states that he did not hear Albani sing 'until her last two Canadian tours when she was approaching 50', when he 'thought her best in her singing of Mozart, which revealed her rare vocal finesse'. Charlesworth was told by the 'late Edwin R. Parkhurst, a Toronto music critic, 30 years my senior who had heard her frequently in his younger days in London', that 'these appearances gave no adequate idea of how glorious her voice had been in the seventies'.

Both signatures on the same side of a light-green leaf removed from an autograph album, roughly 18 x 14 cm. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Bold, firm signatures, simply reading 'Beatrice Harrison | Parry Jones.'

The photograph, by 'V & Co.', is roughly 8.5 x 14 cm, printed in blue. Apparently cut from a magazine, it is laid down on a leaf of pink paper taken from an autograph album. It is captioned with d'Alvarez's name, and shows her left profile. Across the bottom, in a sprawling hand, she has written 'Sincerely | D'Alvarez | Oct 20th'. On the reverse of the leaf on which the photograph is laid down are three autographs: the first reads 'With all my good wishes | ', the second 'Adela Verne | Oct. 20th. 1921', and the third 'Milan Yovanovitch Bratza | 20/10/21 | Stoke-on-Trent'.

Two pages, 12mo, fold marks, slightly stained, clear and complete. I enclose Tel[egram] from my slippery friend [Mr G.W.?] Martin - I have had some difficulty in bringing him to his senses. I trouble you with this, as you are really the only member of the Musical Press that has taken real interest in the movement. With sincere regards ...PS You will be pleased to hear that I have been making success & plenty of money & make up my losses SR [Overleaf] Please return Telegram as it is the only hold I have upon G.W.

Both items in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Letter ('Tuesday Mo[rnin]g'): 12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium. Slight trace of previous mount on blank reverse of second leaf. She wanted to offer her 'a box for the Opera of "L'Elixir" this evening, but as we are not to give it I shall postpone sending to you 'till Thursday when we perform the "Trovatore" hoping you will do me the favour to come out and listen to my first attempt in that Opera'. Mentions 'His Excellency The Admiral' and the news of 'poor Mrs. Clay's child'.

12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Punch-hole in top left-hand corner. Replying to an autograph hunter, she states that she has 'signed the programme' and has 'much pleasure in returning it with every good wish'. Good, firm signature.

The collection as a whole is in good condition on aged paper. ITEM ONE: 90-page typescript headed 'II | ANTECEDENT', beginnning 'It has become a commonplace of musicology, at least in this country, that the first two decades of the Twentieth Century show an immense increase of creative activity in the composition of works of music by an astonishingly rich group of their [sic] young composers.

Printed on piece of thick paper 31.5 x 22.5 cm. Dimensions of image 24 x 18 cm. Removed from mount, and with glue adhering to reverse and in thin strip at head (not affecting image). Small closed tear in border at foot, just beneath Mascagni's dating of his note. Soft-focus black and white head and shoulders shot, showing a firm-jawed jowlly bow-tied Mascagni staring abstractedly to his right, with a medal in his buttonhole.

The sepia photograph, 11 x 4 cm, is a full-length shot of a radiant Jeritza, posing stylishly in Grecian décolleté dress and sandals. It is neatly mounted in the top left-hand corner of a leaf of cream paper (24 x 20 cm) removed from an album. The whole attractive and in good condition. In a large, bold hand Jeritza has written, diagonally across the paper and upwards towards the photograph, 'With best wishes | [signed] Maria Jeritza | 1923.'

Dimensions roughly 14 x 9 cm. Very good. The photograph, captioned 'Anneliese Rothenberger', is a head and shoulders shot of a smiling Rothenberger. The note on the reverse, in green ink, reads 'dir, liebe Liesel, alles ! | diese | [signed] Anneliese | 1956'.

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.

Three pages, 12mo. Good, on lightly aged and ruckled paper, with a little glue adhering to the reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium. She has received the two packets containing the small photographs. Apart from wanting the hair to appear lighter and clearer, she is satisfied with the large photograph, and would like several copies before her departure on 2 August. If this is not possible copies are to be sent to her at the theatre du Gymnase in Paris.

The Dictionary of National Biography states that T. J. Dibdin (1771-1841, closely associated with Sadler's Wells, Drury Lane and the Surrey Theatre) wrote 'nearly two thousand songs and about two hundred operas and plays'. This list, which covers the whole of his life from his earliest known work in 1789 to his death in 1841, is compiled with considerable care on the rectos and some of the versos of 79 bound and numbered leaves (most being the letterhead of the North-East Coast Exhibition, of which E. Rimbault Dibdin was the Director).