SOPRANO

The two signatures are on one side of a 14 x 18cm leaf of cream paper removed from an album. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with laid down. Good clear examples. Beecham's signature 'Thomas Beecham' is above that of 'Ethel Frank'. Probably given on Franks first visit to Britain in 1921. Small magazine cutting of photograph of three musicians laid down on reverse.

All four items in good condition, lightly aged and worn. All four in a bold, expansive hand. The two letters accompanied by their envelopes, addressed to Child in London. Letter One: Address: 'c/o Mr & Mrs G. W. Williams, | 615 East Genesee, | Saginaw | Michigan. U.S.A.' 4 July 1957. 4pp., 4to. She is 'on the first lap of my Vacation' and has asked 'Anne' to contact him. 'During the University year I am so frightfully taxed for time - my own correspondence and my personal affairs suffer in consequence and are perforce relegated to the background.

Letter and printed text both on a 12mo bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Letter: 2pp., 12mo. Docketed with stamp of the Brighton Aquarium. She writes that she is 'happy to accept an Engagement for a Saturday Concert at the Brighton Aquarium as Principal Soprano' and will do her best 'to meet your terms'. Printed text: 2pp., 12mo.

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'.

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.'

1p., 12mo. Fair, on aged paper, with short vertical closed tear at foot through the first name of Pyne's signature, unobtrusively repaired on reverse with archival tape. The letter reads: 'Dear Sir | I left a message for you this morning asking for a Box which I am very much surprised at not receiving | Will you kindly send me one by bearer | It is for my Father | In haste | Yours Obediently | [signed] Louisa Pyne'.

2pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with a couple of unobtrusive creases. 'We shall be very pleased to come to tea with you on Sunday - I hope you will not mind if we are a little late - I shall be so glad to see Mrs. Arkwright also. With kind regards and many thanks | Believe me | Yours very sincerely | [signed] Emma Albani Gye'.

1p., 4to. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with unobtrusive closed tears along crease lines. 'Mr. Ben Fack [Falk?], the photographer, will, I am sure, give you such a photograph of me as you may select from the assortment he has, if you inform him of your business.' She asks him to send her a sample, if 'the tumblers prove a success, as far as my likeness is concerned [...] If I like it I will possibly order a quantity.'

8pp., 12mo. On shiny art paper. On aged paper, with the two staples rusted. Sammons has signed over the cover portrait of him by 'Haile, Bognor', 'Sincerely Yrs | Albert Sammons'. Including texts by Mary E. Coleridge, Lord Lytton and Sir Rabindranath Tagore. Central opening carries an advertisement stating that 'ALBERT SAMMONS Records ONLY for COLUMBIA Records', with list of eight 'Recent ALBERT SAMMONS Records'.

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.

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'.

On neat rectangle of grey paper, roughly 14.5 x 5 cm, laid down on piece of pink paper removed from autograph album. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Firm, bold signature: 'Flora M. Woodman./'

12mo, 1 p. Six lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She will 'keep January free' for him, and they can 'arrange the details of programme later'. She agrees that 'a wholly-Brahms programme might be rather heavy'. See Florence's obituary, The Times, 7 November 1928.

Page detached from Album, slightly aged, mainlty good condition; Yours very Sincerely | Rosina Buckman || With the best of good wishes | Maurice d'Oisly || Léila Mégane | 1921 || Edmund Edwards |. Overleaf: 'There's joy in remembrance | with all good wishes, | Archibald G. Easley. | 5/2/21.

Page detached from album, some wear and tear but no losses, which contained numerous autographs provided at performances in Stoke mainly in the 1920s. One side of the leaf has the signatures of Agnes Nicholls Harty, Hamilton Harty, an illegible, and Frank Mullings, while overleaf are the signatures of John Booth, Margaret Balfour and Andrew Clayton.

Detached album leaf, c.17 x 14cm, good condition,

Page of album, 17 x 14, good condition, signed as follows: Souvenir from | Luisa Tetrazzini | Stoke on Trent 9th Dec. 1921 [underlined]. On the same page, the signature Ivor Newton [pianist] who accompanied her.

Deatached page from album, 17 x 14cm , good condition, yours sincerely | Florence Austral [underlined], with image of head and shoulders cut from magazine and laid down.

Detached album leaf, c.17 x 14cm, good condition, on one side signed Fritz Kreisler | 2/XI 1922, the other Nellie Melba | 1923. A small image of Kreisler, extracted from a magazine, is below the signature.

Three pages, 12mo, good condition. She expresses delight at receiving a bouquet from "Her Royal Highness" and wishes her thanks for the latter's "kindness and consideration for me" to be conveyed to the Queen, an her appreciation expressed.

On the recto of a piece of pink paper, roughly 17.5 x 23.5 cm, removed from an autograph album. Good, on lightly aged paper. Phillips's autograph is in the top left-hand corner, reading 'Montague F. Phillips | March 1927.' Above it are four bars of musical notation, marked 'allegro' and titled 'The Fishermen of England. The Rebel Maid" - both by Phillips).' Beneath this, and divided from it by a diagonal line, is Phillips's wife's autograph: 'Yours sincerely | Clara Butterworth'. The couple met while both students at the Royal Academy of Music.

On light-yellow page (roughly 11 x 14 cm) removed from autograph album. Four glue stains showing through from the reverse (not affecting the signatures), otherwise good. Reads 'Dora Stevens | Ethel Hobday | Marjorie Hayward | Cedric Sharpe'. Lightly docketed in pencil.

On a leaf (roughly 15.5 x 18 cm) removed from an autograph album. Aged and a little grubby. Both hands bolder than usual. Recto reads '"Courage Mounteth with occasion" - | Yours sincerely | [signed] Violet Vanbrugh'. Verso reads 'Yours sincerely | Dora Labebette.'

On a leaf of pink paper, roughly 13.5 x 11 cm, removed from an autograph album. Lightly creased and with a thin glue stain along inner margin (not affecting text). The inscription, in a top outer corner, reads 'Noël Eadie | 21. 1. 24'. It is somewhat smudged, either having bled or been badly blotted.

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.'

One page, octavo. Very good, on lightly aged paper, with embossed blue ink monogram at head. 'Dear Sir | My Sister Isabella, just arrived, tells me you desire my autograph, I have great pleasure in complying with your flattering request. [...]' The blank second leaf of the bifolium is carefully attached to a larger piece of neatly-docketed paper, and has the two newspaper cuttings partially laid down on it. The short Times obituary, dated 17 March 1908, states that 'She must surely have been the last person alive to whom Charles Lamb addressed a poem'.

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'.

Anglo-German soprano vocalist, mother of Richard Mansfield. 2 pages, 16mo. Grubby and creased, but in good condition overall. Written in purple ink in a small tight hand. She wonders whether the Maitlands have 'set me down by this time as the most illmannered and ungratefull of all beings', or if they know what she has been doing since they sent her 'the information about Liverpool'. After the evening they spent together she 'had the children home, your kind information came and I discussed the matter with Harry'.