THEATRE

Twelve pages of illustrations, each on a separate leaf. Seven are portrait folio, four are portrait 8vo, and one is landscape 8vo. All clear and complete, on aged and creased paper. All coloured in watercolour. The seven folio portraits are: Napoleon as First Consul; Talma; Eugene; Moustache ('Mr. Lyn Harding [(1867-1952)]'); two 'Flunkies'; and Austrian Ambassador ('Mr Spencer Trevor [(1875-1945)]'). The four portrait 8vo illustrations consist of: two of Larose ('Lady Tree [Lady Helen Beerbohm Tree (1858-1937)]'); Louise ('Miss Lemand') and the overcoat of Talma ('Mr.

4to, 1 p. Fourteen lines, in pencil. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. In envelope addressed by Holloway to Inglis. He apologises for his 'rudeness' in not answering earlier: 'I plead rush of work'. He would be delighted to sit for her, but 'the trouble is that I may have to leave town on Monday to produce a play in the country and then on to S[tratford]-on-A[von] for the 7 weeks Festival'. Suggests a later meeting.

16pp., 8vo, blue printed wraps, some staining, cobver and contents slightly askew, mainly good condition. Someone has added "First" before the word "Judgment" on wraps as well as the title-page. The writer gives a history of Drury Lane to explain the fact that Daunay was a "new renter" (subscriber) asserting privileges, Chatterton being the Theatre Manager.

58pp., 12mo, beige printed wraps, spine nicked, small amount of staining and other wear and tear, mainly good condition. The suggestion by Chaterton to Kenney was "to publish a pamphlet containing an account of the pecuniary successs and losses which attended the different plays I have produced during my management of Drury Lane". COPAC records only one real copy (at BL) others being electronic resources.

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. Fair, on aged paper. He begins 'Print the farce', and gives two conditions, ending 'There that's definite'. He will have the farce published after it is performed in London, 'at a good theatre of course'. 'But get on with it and lets have the proofs.' He will 'most likely' play it himself 'at Manchester and somewhere else, when I will put all this stage business &c in'. Ends 'Toole wants to do it. | Yours Tooley - I mean Truly'. In one of two postscripts he hopes Lacy has 'a good supply of Billy Taylor. Hopewood & Crew publish it.'

4to, 1 p. On bifolium of wove paper, watermarked 'J LARKING | 1804'. Nicely printed. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The poem is thirty-four lines long, beginning 'Hold, hold! What's this? No prologue to our play? | Down with the curtain - let it down, I say; | Let me go forth - I must, I will have way!' It is preceded by title and 'Noise and disputing behind the Sccenes. - The Curtain begins to rise.

4to, 1 p. On laid paper. Forty-nine lines, in a variety of point sizes. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with remains of mount adhering to blank reverse. After printer's details: 'Vivat Rex et Regina!' At foot of play bill: 'Ladies and Gentlemen are respectfully requested to give peremptory orders to their Servants to set down with their Horses Heads towards Drury-Lane, and to take up with the Horses Heads towards Covent-Garden. - No Carriage can be permitted to stop the way after proper Notice given to the Company.' No copy of this playbill on COPAC.

4to, 1 p. 19 lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly creased paper, with strip of sunning to left-hand margin. Neat signature: 'Nicolas Bentley'. The film and television rights to the book were all 'bought some years ago by Herbert Wilcox, who, as I understand it, still owns them'. Bentley has reports the opinion of 'Messrs A. P. Watt, my late father's agent', on the question of the radio rights. 'I control the stage rights', Bentley states, giving the conditions on which he would agree to a stage adaptation.

Five of the items are 8vo, with the other on a 12mo slip. All texts clear and complete. Fair, on slightly-aged and worn paper. A total of five typed 8vo pages, and two autograph 8vo and two autograph 12mo pages. Four of the lettters have 'The Fol-de-Rols' printed on the letterhead. Dealing with practical everyday theatre matters, with Newman writing, for example, on 19 November 1955: 'I have bought a few costume from the Punch Revue which died an early death at the Duke of York's theatre last Saturday.

Both letters 8vo, 1 p; the first on pink paper. Both texts clear and complete. Both fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Letter One: She was surprised to learn that Lawrence had 'Miss Babbington with you because I did not even know that she was on the stage. I thought she was with a publishing house.' After the 'long and wonderful run' she is sorry that Lawrence's leading lady is leaving. 'Although I never intend to go back to the stage again, I shall always have the same keen interest in matters theatrical [...] the variety profession is my first love'.

Two pages, 12mo, to "Mrs Chapman". She explains that she has had to give up her role in "Dear Charles" because she us "over-tired". Sir Horace Evans has ordered "complete rest for a month, the two more months recuperation". She is "sad and upset about it". She hopes her correspondent willl still enjoy her work when it resumes.

4to, 1 p. Trimming at head has resulted in loss to the first line of Disher's address; otherwise text clear and complete. On lightly-aged and creased paper, with jagged trimming at head and in bottom right-hand corner, and three punch holes to margin. Bearing the stamp of the Secretary's Office, Clarendon Press, Oxford. He is returning the 'corrected typescript' and is setting out his qualfications. The bottom section to the letter contain eight lines of these. Disher describes himself as 'contributor to leading journals on the subject of public entertainments in general'.

12mo, 2 pp. Thirteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper, with small hole to one margin. The stub of the second leaf of the original bifolium attached to a leaf removed from an album, docketed in a contemporary hand 'Autograph of Lady Becher - formerly Miss O'Neill'. Suggesting that she direct her 'Concordance to Shakespeare' to 'Messrs. Dowbiggin & Co. Upholsterers, Mount St. Grosvenor Sqre., to be sent over with the Furniture for Sir Wm. Becher', in which case it will be examined 'in due time'.

4to, 1 p. Text clear and complete. On creased, aged paper. He will not be able to visit Margate that season, as he is 'entirely occupied with private business', and is 'as much "nail'd to the Counter" as if I had to act every Night at Cov[en]t. Garden'.

The original metal plates for 102 engravings by Thomas Downey, caricatures of leading English theatrical figures, including Mrs Patrick Campbell, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, George Robey, George Alexander and Marie Tempest, in performances on the London stage between 1913 and 1917.A friend of the artist Alfred Bryan (1852-1899), Downey was active from the late 1890s (when he contributed to J. K. Jerome's Idler magazine) to the 1930s.

Photocopy of word processor typed print-out. 8vo, [ii] + 53 pp. Good. In plastic binder. Title carries Dee's address. Second page lists the twelve sections of the play. Loosely inserted is a photocopy of a long review, with photograph, from the East Hampton Star, 26 March 1992, of 'a dramatic reading' of the play at Canio's Books, Sag Harbor. The play was not published, and there are no copies of this item on WorldCat or COPAC.

4to, 2 pp. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. The play 'is a great success in London and is likely to have a long run there, yet at the same time we are all looking forward to coming back to Manchester, where the play started and everybody was so kind to us'. She concludes with some graceful compliments to Bass, and encloses her portrait (not present).

4to, 2 pp. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-creased paper. 'The nature of my business is a desire to become a tenant of the Prince of Wales Theatre, for a long or short time, and entirely subject to existing arrangements in order to produce a play which good judges (as well as myself) regard as one (if not the) play of the present generation'. The name of the play is not given. Barnes states that 'if Mr Harvey is your permanent tenant it would quite suit me to do the play at any time <?> another provincial Town'. He offers 'a short or long lease [...] with unimpeachable security'.

4to, 1 p. Twenty lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-creased paper. Responding to 'the kind note of his esteemed Country woman Mrs. Wallack'. He is 'gratified to learn, that Mr. Wallack will present to the Parisian public representations in the English language, of the best of our Tragedies & Comedies'. He wishes the Wallacks 'the most complete success, and will with pleasure attend the performances, when his health will permit him & his family to do so'. Two of Mason's family will take up Wallack's offer of tickets for the opening.

12mo, 2 pp. On bifolium. 12 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Part of the leaf to which the item was attached in an autograph album adhering to blank part of reverse of second leaf. 'Miss Cross' has written to him again, 'desiring me to use my influence in obtaining an engagement for her. - She states she is "quite disengaged now" '. Sothern states that when she made a similar request on a previous occasion 'there was some little misunderstanding', so he considers it best to 'drop you a line'.

All four items good, on lightly aged paper. Two of the five leaves have small dog-ears to corners. Goodman has done his accounts on the blank reverse of one leaf. An important collection, in which the most important British post-war play agent reveals, in entertaining and increasingly-brusque terms, the criteria by which she judges scripts. Goodman was hailed by Jacques Barzun as 'the greatest living master of true-crime literature', but his first love was, as his obituary in the Daily Telegraph (16 January 2008) states, the theatre.

Dimensions 25 x 20 cm: [ii] + 87 pp, all on rectos. Bound in stained yellow wraps, with black tape spine. Well-thumbed, but in fair condition internally, tight, clear and complete. The names of the eight actors are added in pencil in the list of characters. In the first six cases only the christian names are given ('Dracula' is given as 'Alan'), but 'Professor Abraham van Helsing' is played by Andrew Turner, and 'Lucy Westenra' by Jannina Tredwell (who featured in a 1974 revival of the musical 'Hair').

On one side of a piece of laid paper, 25 x 17.5 cm. Text clear and complete. Aged, foxed and creased. Giving casts of the two plays (the first headed by 'Mr. Waddy' as 'Twineall'; and the second by 'Mr. Inchbald' as 'Don Antonio'. After the first cast list: 'End of the PLay, an Address in the Character of The Genius of Charity. To be spoken by Mrs. Sharpe.' At foot: 'Tickets too be had at W. Keymer's Printing-Office; and Places for the Boxes may be taken at the Theatre from Ten to Twelve o'Clock each Day.

Around 140 items, laid down on 53 pp of a contemporary 37 x 25 cm stapled scrapbook. In original red and orange wraps, with 'Edinburgh Festival 1958' in manuscript on front cover. The collection is in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with occasional items a little discoloured from mounting. The scrapbook itself is slightly grubby and ruckled. Collected by Victor Conn of Eltham, London, who was presumably responsible for the neat captions to some newspaper cuttings and other items.

On a piece of paper 6 x 14 cm. Laid down on part of leaf from autograph album. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Evidently in response to a request for an autograph. Good firm signature, with looped underlining. Reads: ' "We take the compositions as they are" | "Our Bazaar" | [signed] Albert Chevalier'. Chevalier's song 'Our Bazaar' was hugely popular. The published version (1894) gives the authors as Chevalier and Brian Daley, but the British Library ascribes it to John Charles Bond Andrews.

On fifty-seven pages, in a notebook of forty leaves (eighty pages). Dimensions: 20 x 16 cm. In red card covers with 'THEATRES' in manuscript on front. Pages aged and ruckled, with a little damp staining at rear (not affecting any of the ephemera) and a small amount of loss to a corner of the rear cover, but in fair condition overall. The first page, signed 'R. J. Olive', with title 'London Theatres'.

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. On grey paper. Text clear and complete. Good, with one minor stain not affecting text. Two punch holes at head through both leaves. He congratulates her 'on the success of yr. most clever little play!', and wishes she 'had been there to see it, we had to add a little here and there to fill it out for a big stage [...] it went wonderfully well and the notices are fine!' Proposes, with her permission, to do it again 'at a Lyceum matinee Joe Hurst'. Ends by informing her that 'Mr. Mellish was simply fine.'

Both items in fair condition, on lightly-aged and foxed paper. Letter One: 12mo (15 x 10 cm), 1 p. He thanks him 'for the Tickets': 'we are looking forward to seeing you act. I shall be very pleased to come to smoke a cigarette after the first act off the Duel.' ('The Duel' was produced at the Garrick Theatre, London, in 1907.) Letter Two: 12mo, 2 pp. He thanks him 'for the excellent evening you gave me at The Coronet the other night. | The Incubus is an admirable play, and admirably acted.' He hopes France 'had a good week of it': 'I told innumerable people not to miss it.'

Manuscript note by Harold Sidney Harmsworth (later Viscount Rothermere) at head of first page: 'When Em [pet name for Cecil Harmsworth] had a long talk with the Prince of Wales - I being detained in the H of Commons | [signed] H'. 8vo, 8 pp. Stapled pamphlet. Good, on lightly-aged paper with slight rust to staples. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. On pp. 4 and 5 brief details are given of the subjects of the eight films shown: 'Port Sunlight', 'Bournville', 'A Bit of Thameside', 'Letchworth', 'Hampstead Garden Suburb', 'Well Hall', 'Gretna' and 'War Seal Homes'.

Printed on one side of a piece of wove paper, 32.5 x 24 cm. Text clear and complete, on aged paper with chipping and closed tears to edges. The only copy of this title on COPAC is at the British Library (folio, 4 pp, published by Zenas T. Purday), where it is ascribed to Blewitt and tentatively dated to around 1850. Six eight-line stanzas with chorus 'Jump high, jump low, jumping we go.' Possibly written with satiric intent.