[Charles Kean, actor.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Charles Kean') [to the actor Leigh Murray], regarding the securing of a Drury Lane theatre box from the doorkeeper 'Mr. Massingham'.With biographical item
1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, with traces of grey-paper mount on blank reverse, and minor discolouration at one edge from glue used. The actor Henry Leigh Murray (1820-1870) is identified in pencil as the recipient. The letter begins: 'My dear Sir, | You are quite welcome to a P[rivate]. Box if there is one to spare'. He asks him to 'call or send to Mr. Massingham at the Box Office at 1/2 past 4 o'clock who has received instructions to attend to your wishes, if all the Boxes are not let by that time'. Massingham was for upwards of forty years (from the 1790s to the 1830s) the door keeper at Drury Lane. The letter is accompanied by a cutting of a magazine article by Henry J. Byron, 'Charles Kean and the Utility Gentleman. A Reminiscence'.