acting

[Printed pamphlet by 'The Directors of the well known Strand Electric and Engineering Company Limited'] A Completely New Glossary of Technical Theatrical Terms [...] With an Appendix of the Colours used for Lighting the Plays [...]

Author: 
[Theatrical Terms]
A Completely New Glossary of Technical Theatrical Terms
Publication details: 
'Commencing Novr. 1st. 1947, and thereafter so long as supplies shall last!'] 'Smudgeham & Fowlem, Steam Printers, The Cut, Waterloo.' [i.e. The Strand Electric & Engineering Co., Ltd., 24 Floral St, Covent Garden, London.]
£80.00
A Completely New Glossary of Technical Theatrical Terms

Irregular (12 x 23.5 cm), 32 pp. In fair condition, aged and lightly worn. In original wraps, with cover design, in a variety of types and point sizes, imitating an early nineteenth-century handbill, stating that 'all Profits for the Benefit of the Deserving Actors' Orphanage. | Free list entirely suspended | Fees payable in advance are 2s. per copy'.

Photograph of Dame Peggy Ashcroft at her country home Vine Cottage, from the collection of Jill Balcon (taken by her?), with an inscription by Balcon.

Author: 
[Dame Peggy Ashcroft [Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft] (1907-1991); Jill Balcon [Jill Angela Henriette Balcon] (1925-2009), actress]
Dame Peggy Ashcroft
Publication details: 
Undated (1980s?).
£45.00
Dame Peggy Ashcroft

Colour photograph in grey card wallet frame. Dimensions of photograph 13 x 18 cm. Dimensions of frame 18 x 23 cm. In good condition. A head and shoulders shot of a smiling old Ashcroft in overcoat outdoors in the countryside. Captioned by Balcon on frame at foot of photograph 'Peggy Ashcroft at Vine Cottage (called by her "The Tiny Palace")'. Part of Balcon's own collection.

Signed bromide print of photograph by Mark Gerson of the actress Jill Balcon with bust of Cecil Day-Lewis.

Author: 
Mark Gerson (b.1921), photographer [Jill Balcon [Jill Angela Henriette Balcon] (1925-2009), actress]
Jill Balcon with bust of Cecil Day-Lewis
Publication details: 
'London. Mark Gerson. AIBP/ARPS'. Circa 1961.
£75.00
Jill Balcon with bust of Cecil Day-Lewis

Black and white matt bromide print photograph in card frame with covering flap. Dimensions of photograph 20 x 25 cm. Dimensions of frame 25.5 x 32 cm. A head and shoulders shot of Balcon, staring across the photograph from the right, left hand at right shoulder, with the bust of Day-Lewis facing her from the left. Inscription in pencil on frame beneath photograph: 'London. Mark Gerson. AIBP/ARPS'. Photograph and inscription in excellent condition; frame aged and worn.

Signed Autograph Inscription by the English cinema actor Peter Haddon.

Author: 
Peter Haddon (1898-1962), English actor, whose career began in 1924 and ended in 1952
Publication details: 
Dated by Haddon 1928.
£12.00

On leaf removed from autograph album, with one set of rounded corners. In good condition. Reads ' Good Morning - Bill! | With every good wish | Yours Sincerely | Peter Haddon | 1928 -'. Together with a loose newspaper cutting carrying a photographic portrait.

Autograph Letter Signed from the Shakespearian actor Balliol Holloway to the artist Jean Inglis.

Author: 
Balliol Holloway (1883-1967), English stage and screen actor, specialising in Shakespeare
Autograph Letter Signed from the Shakespearian actor Balliol Holloway
Publication details: 
24 June 1924; King's Theatre, Hammersmith.
£23.00
Autograph Letter Signed from the Shakespearian actor Balliol Holloway

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.

Two Typed Letters Signed ('Naomi Jacob.'), author and actress, to Eva Lawrence.

Author: 
Naomi Jacob [Naomi Eleanor Clare Jacob] (1884-1964), author, actress and broadcaster
Two Typed Letters Signed ('Naomi Jacob.')
Publication details: 
8 July 1949 and 2 January 1950; both from Casa Micki, Gardone Riviera, Lago di Garda, Italy.
£60.00
Two Typed Letters Signed ('Naomi Jacob.')

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'.

[Pamphlet reproducing reviews of Gatty's performances in 'Winchester College Theatricals' between 1867 and 1882.]

Author: 
[Sir Stephen Herbert Gatty (1849-1922), Chief Justice of Gibraltar, 1895 to 1905; Winchester College]
Gatty's performances in 'Winchester College Theatricals'
Publication details: 
Circa 1882.
£75.00
Gatty's performances in 'Winchester College Theatricals'

12mo, 7 pp. Text clear and complete. On aged discoloured paper, with rusting staple having been removed. The last page carries a 'List of Characters' played by Gatty, from the 'First Gravedigger' in 'Hamlet' in 1866 to 'Tony Lumpkin' in 'She Stoops to Conquer' in 1882. The reviews, in small type over the previous six pages, are highly favourable, from a range of papers from the Guardian to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph. The last set of reviews relates to the 'Harmonomaniac Concerts, Oxford'. From the residue of Sir Stephen H. Gatty's papers.

Autograph Letter Signed ('E. Ratmirova') to 'Mr. Bass' of Manchester, regarding the play 'The Fold'.

Author: 
Eugenia Ratmirova, actress [Queen's Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue]
Publication details: 
5 April 1920; on letterhead of the Queen's Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue.
£35.00

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).

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. H. Barnes'), to the leaseholder of the Prince of Wales Theatre, concerning his desire to become a tenant.

Author: 
J. H. Barnes [John H. Barnes] (1850-1925), English actor [The Prince of Wales Theatre, London]
Publication details: 
24 November 1899; on letterhead of 25 Finchley Road, London, N.W.
£56.00

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'.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Mrs Wallack, on the occasion of the Wallacks' Paris performances.

Author: 
John Y. Mason [John Young Mason] (1799-1859), U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to France, 1853-1859 [James William Wallack (1764-1864), Anglo-American actor]
Publication details: 
15 June 1855; 13 Rye Beaujon (on letterhead of the Paris Legation of the United States).
£85.00

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.

Four Typed Letters Signed (three 'Peggy Ramsay' and one 'Peggy R.') to Goodman, giving her characteristically forthright opinion of his plays.

Author: 
Peggy Ramsay [Margaret Ramsay] [Margaret Francesca Ramsay, née Venniker] (1908-1991), English theatrical agent [Jonathan Goodman (1931-2008)]
Publication details: 
29 May 1955, and 5 and 12 March and 19 April 1956. All on letterheads of Margaret Ramsay Ltd, Play Agent.
£120.00

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.

The theatre director's copy of a bound typescript of a provincial production of ' "DRACULA" Adapted from Bram Stoker's world famous novel by REED KENT'. With manuscript emendations and additions, including stage plan.

Author: 
Reed Kent (pseudonym?) [Bram Stoker; Dracula; Michael Macdona, theatre producer]
Publication details: 
Macdona Productions Ltd, 34 Danbury Street, London. [Performed (in the nineteen-seventies?) at Bognor and Clacton.]
£225.00

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').

Autograph Letter Signed ('Robt Buchanan') to Fenn.

Author: 
Robert Buchanan [Robert Williams Buchanan] (1841-1901), English playwright, poet and novelist [George Manville Fenn (1831-1909), English novelist; Harriett Jay (1863-1932), Scottish actress and write]
Publication details: 
18 December [no year]; 5 Larkhill Rise, Clapham.
£45.00

12mo, 1 p. Text clear and entire, on lightly creased blue paper, with a thin docketed strip neatly cut away at the foot of the letter. Traces of cream paper mount adhering to the blank reverse. Presumably refers to the play 'Alone in London', which debuted at the Olympic Theatre in 1885. Buchanan trusts that Fenn 'will be present in production of my new play & Miss Jay's debut on Wednesday next'. He asks whether to send the stalls, 'or do you get them from the Office? It will be indeed disappointing if you do not come, this time.'

Typed Letter Signed ('John van Druten'), giving advice to an actor named 'France'.

Author: 
John Van Druten [John William Van Druten] (1901-1957), Anglo-American dramatist
Publication details: 
6 December 1928; 5 Harewood Court, Hanover Square, London W1.
£80.00

4to, 1 p, 21 lines. On creased and lightly-foxed paper, with a couple of closed tears (not affecting text, which is clear and entire). May refer to the 1928 revival of van Druten's play 'Young Woodley' (previously banned by the censor), or (which is more likely) to his 'After All' (1929).

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. R. Planché') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
James Robinson Planché [J. R. Planché] (1796-1880), English playwright and herald
Publication details: 
Saturday [no date]; Michael's Grove Lodge [Brompton].
£40.00

12mo, 1 p, 11 lines. Very good. He begins by giving R. J. Smith's Brompton address. He was 'delighted to hear of Lord Powis' and hopes 'there is no mistake about it'. 'Remember in printing his Title he is a Knight of the Garter. - On the back of our 2nd. No. I see Lord Southampton printed as "the Earl of Southampton"!' Asks the recipient's view of the previous day's 'Times': 'And look at the Morning Post to day.'

Photographic portrait by Letzer of Vienna, with Autograph Signature ('Raoul M. Aslan:') and quotation.

Author: 
Raoul Aslan [Raoul Maria Aslan-Zumpart] (1886-1958), Austro-German actor of Turkish extraction
Raoul
Publication details: 
Wien, Oktober 1923. -' [Photograph stamped at foot: 'Letzer | WIEN | VII. HOFSTALLSTR. 5.']
£120.00
Raoul

The sepia photograph, 10 x 7 cm, is a head and shoulders shot of Aslan staring at the viewer in the character of Hamlet holding Yorick's skull. It is neatly mounted on a leaf of cream paper (24 x 20 cm) removed from an album. The whole attractive and in good condition. In a firm, bold hand Aslan has written, across the page beneath the photograph: '"Zu was für schnöden Bestimmungen | wir doch kommen, Horatio"! - | (Hamlet) | Ein Erinnerung | [signed] Raoul M. Aslan: | Wien, Oktober 1923. -'

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Maurice Chevalier (1888-1972), French actor and entertainer
Chevalier
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£35.00
Chevalier

On piece of pink paper roughly 8.5 x 11 cm. Laid down on slightly larger leaf from an autograph album. Good with a little paper and glue staining to the mount. Good bold signature, diagonally across the page.

Autograph Signature ('George Robey.').

Author: 
George Robey (George Edward Wade, 1869-1954), British music hall star
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£28.00

On a leaf of cream paper, 8.5 x 12 cm, part of a bifolium taken from an autograph album. Very good.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Noel Coward (Sir Noel Pierce Coward, 1899-1973), English actor, playwright and song writer
Coward
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£35.00
Coward

On leaf of light blue paper, 8.5 x 12 cm, removed from an autograph album. Very good.

Autograph Signatures ('Laurence Olivier' and 'Gladys Cooper').

Author: 
Laurence Olivier (1907-1989), English stage and film actor; Gladys Cooper (1888-1971), English actress
Olivier
Publication details: 
Dates and places not stated.
£48.00
Olivier

On piece of cream paper, roughly 8.5 x 12 cm, removed from an autograph album. Good, on paper with a few light marks. Bold, firm signatures in pencil, one on each side of the leaf. Two signatures,

The Actors' Remonstrance, or Complaint, For the silencing of their Profession, and Banishment from their severall Playhouses.

Author: 
[Francis Marshall; Edward Nickson; The British Stage]
Publication details: 
Reprinted by F[rancis]. Marshall, Kenton Street, Brunswick Sq. 1822.
£50.00

Seven pages, octavo. Disbound, and with the four leaves detached from one another and neatly laid down on a paper mount. Very good. From (according to the title-page) the edition in 'LONDON. Printed for EDW. NICKSON. Januar. 24. 1643.' Republished as a supplement to the 'British Stage'. Only two copies on COPAC, at Bristol and in the British Library.

Typed note signed to unnamed female correspondent,

Author: 
Gertrude Elliott
Publication details: 
4 March 1903, Lyric Theatre, London.
£15.00

American actress (1874-1950), sister of Maxine Elliott. One page, 12mo, mounted on a piece of card. "Dear Madam / Pray accept my hearty thanks for so kindly subscribing to the Actors Benevolent Fund."

one typed note signed to Mr [?] Lacy,

Author: 
Glenda Jackson
Publication details: 
June 1977, with letterhead "GLENDA JACKSON".
£20.00

Actress (1936-) and minor politico. One page, 4to. "Thank you very much for your letter. I'm so glad to know that you have enjoyed my work and have pleasure in enclosing a photograph [not present] for you to add to your collection." Not in the best of condition: heavily creased, slightly torn and slightly discoloured.

autograph note signed to [Tom] Bass of Manchester,

Author: 
Phyllis Neilson-Terry
Publication details: 
without date or place.
£12.00

English actress (1892-1977), daughter of actor Fred Terry (1864-1932) and his wife the actress Julia Emilie Neilson (1868-1957). One page, 4to, in a large hand. "Dear Mr. Bass. / Many thanks for yr. kind letter & the present. / It was nice of you. / Yours very truly / Phyllis Neilson-Terry". Paper somewhat discoloured.

Autograph letter signed to Madame [?] Sterling,

Author: 
Marie Effie Bancroft (née Wilton)
Publication details: 
9 February [no year], with embossment 18 Berkeley Square.
£15.00

Actress (1839-1921), wife of the actor-manager Squire Bancroft. 2 pp, 12mo. "Send me the lines & I will see what I can do. I am so sorry to give you all this trouble for I know how busy you are / yrs very sincerely / M. E. Bancroft".

Typed note signed to Tom Bass of Manchester,

Author: 
Phyllis Neilson-Terry
Publication details: 
17 May 1920, on letterhead in red and black advertising her 1920 spring tour.
£25.00

English actress (1892-1977), daughter of actor Fred Terry (1864-1932) and his wife the actress Julia Emilie Neilson (1868-1957). One page, 4to. "Thank you very much indeed for your charming letter of welcome. / I sincerely hope that you will enjoy "Trilby". I have had great success with it elsewhere, and I only hope that Manchester will love the old play also. / thankyou for your inquiries regarding my mother and Father, they are both well."

photograph signed to [?] Sarker,

Author: 
Violet Vanbrugh (stage name of Violet Augusta Mary Bourchier, née Barnes)
Publication details: 
circa 1905?
£25.00

English actress (1867-1942). A portrait photograph, 5¾ inches by 4 inches, from the studio of Ellis & Walery, 54a Baker Street. Inscribed "To Mr Sarker - / with every good wish / Violet Vanbrugh". She looks slightly to the left, apparently in costume, with short hair, earings, pearls, and an open necked shirt with lace sailor collar. The reverse of the mount carries the photographers' printed details with a reference number in pencil.

Autograph note signed to Mrs [?] Moscelles,

Author: 
Marie Effie Bancroft (née Wilton)
Publication details: 
"Monday" (no date or place).
£12.00

Actress (1839-1921), wife of the actor-manager Squire Bancroft. One page, 12mo. She declines an invitation. "Dear Mrs. Moscelles / I am going out of town tomorrow for some days or I shd. have been delighted / Yrs very sincerely / Marie Bancroft". Removal from a mount has resulted to loss at the top of the leaf, and there are traces of glue and paper on the reverse.

Autograph note signed to Mrs [?] Weldon,

Author: 
Marie Effie Bancroft (née Wilton)
Publication details: 
"Monday" (no date), with embossment 31 Cavendish Square.
£12.00

Actress (1839-1921), wife of the actor-manager Squire Bancroft. 2 pp, 12mo. "Will you lunch with me on Wednesday at 2 oclock / You will meet a few nice people / Yrs sincerely / Marie Bancroft".

autograph note signed to Mr [?] Shaw,

Author: 
Ellen Kean (nee Tree)
Publication details: 
6 July [no year], with letterhead 47 Queensborough Terrace, Kensington Gardens.
£20.00

English actress (1806-80), wife of Charles John Kean (1811-68). "Dear Mr. Shaw / I have not forgotten the little girl and I want more books / I hope you are well through this weather / yours very sincerely / Ellen Kean". Negligible evidence of previous mounting.

Syndicate content