[William Thomas Moncrieff, English playwright and theatre manager.] Autograph Letter Signed, inviting to the Irish singer and composer Tom Cooke to collaborate on a production at the Victoria Theatre.

See the two men?s entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Aged and a little worn, with short closed tear at head of the first leaf repaired with tape, and the second leaf having a discoloration at one edge from tape used in mount. Signed ?W. T. Moncrieff?. Casting interesting light on the production of melodramas in the ?Surrey-side? theatres. In an effort to induce him to collaborate with him on a production at the Victoria Theatre, he begins: ?My dear Cooke / Without wishing to interfere with any arrangement you may have made or may be contemplating to make - there can be no harm in my dropping a hint that the Proprietors here would be most happy to secure your Services at any time on your own terms - if at all within their means?. Such an arrangement would also please Moncrieff, ?as I have the idea of a Drama that I think very likely to prove quite as attractive as ever ?My Poll and my Partner Joe? may prove.? (That play, by J. T. Haines and with music by Jolly, was a great success at the Royal Surrey Theatre in the same year.) He ends by asking Cooke to ?turn this over in hyour mind at your leisure and favor me with a line on the subject?.