CLASSICAL

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On strip of paper, roughly 10 x 3.5 cm, cut into an irregular rectangular shape. On one side is the valediction: ‘Yours very sincerely / Harry Plunket Greene’. On the other a fragment of three lines of the letter: ‘[...] I hope no [...] / started that things [...] / go on well. I am part[...]’. See image.

On 11 x 17.5 piece of shiny art paper, cut from a programme. The signature ?Paul Robeson? is written across Robeson?s front, beneath his smiling face in a black and white photograph. Beneath the photograph is the caption: ? ?A voice like his is worth waiting ten years to hear, and an art like his comes once in a generation.? / THE TORONTO EVENING TELEGRAM?. On the reverse are part of the lyrics from two songs, the second being ?Short?nin? bread?.

2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Folded once. The first page is scored through in ink, with pencil annotations at head. The final page, with Saléza’s signature, is unmarked. He asks him for as many seats as possible for that evening. He would like ‘une bonne loge, deux Stalls et plusieurs petites places’. He will pass by the office to collection, and asks for them to be left in his name.

1p, 12mo. On bifolium. In fair condition, with two pencil notes at head, one in orange. Folded twice. He hopes he is not abusing the kindness of 'Monsieur Menager' (i.e. the house manager) by asking for two seats, for his wife and her friend, as they would like to go to the opera that night. After terminating the letter in the customary Gallic fashion, he adds a postscript asking for the reply to be left with the porter.

Clearly given in response to an autograph collector, and written for display on front panel of envelope. Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.5 cm. In good condition, lightly aged. Horizontal crease along bottom not affecting signature, which reads ‘Emma Albani Gye | 1883.’ In 1883, after several years of enormous success in Europe, Albani returned to Canada to give a series of recitals. Thousands turned out to greet her arrival in Montreal.

At top right-hand corner of part of printed English libretto to Leoncavallo’s ‘Pagliacci’. Dimensions: 13.5 x 17.5 cm. Sloping upwards towards the corner, and underlined: ‘Luigi Montesanto | 1936’. On shiny art paper and in fair condition, lightly creased and a little dog-eared at the corner of the signature. The cutting is headed: ‘Prologue (Pagliacci) ... ... ... ... Leoncavallo | LUGI MONTESANTO | PROLOGUE’, with thirty-two lines of English translation.

Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Excessively scarce, with COPAC only listing one copy (at the British Library) of both items. ONE: 'An Irish Cradle Song. Words by W. B. Yeats. From Poems by W. B. Yeats, published by T. Fisher Unwin'. [1914.] 5 + [1]pp., folio. Title page carries the gaelic motto: Goth yani me von gilli beg, | N heur ve thu more a creena. TWO: 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree. Words by W. B. Yeats'. [1917.] 5 + [1]pp., folio. Illustration of tree on bank of lake on front cover.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. On aged paper, with punch hole through both leaves at head, small closed cut along bottom edge of first leaf, and with paper and part of another letter (from an album) glued onto the reverse of the second leaf. Folded once. The signature 'M. Massenet' is explained in Massenet's obituary in the Musical Times, 1 September 1912, which speaks of 'the composer's known antipathy to the name Jules […] He preferred to be called “M. Massenet” simply'. The recipient of this enthusiastic letter is not named.

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. ONE (13 January 1934): 1p., landscape 12mo. The 'proposed article sounds the sort of thing', but Strangeways cannot accept it until he sees it. TWO (3 February 1934): 2pp., landscape 12mo. He thanks him for sending the article, regarding which he writes: 'if the musicians mentioned in it had been more important or there had been more about them, it wd. have been worth printing; but as it is I am afraid it is not of sufficient interest.' The writer's reference to 'Ranzini' is, Strangeways points out, 'almost certainly' a mistake for 'V.

On reverse of 11.25 x 8.25 cm card carrying a black and white print of the autograph score of Coates's second 'phantasy', 'The Three Bears' (1926). In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: 'To May Hirst | with best wishes | from | Eric Coates | Photograph of | Original Full Score of | The Three Bears'.

2pp, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. The content is remarkably sprightly and the handwriting firm. The letter begins: 'My dear Russell, | Telephone: no good. So I guess that you are holiday-making. | Lord Drogheda is my close friend & collaborator. His wife Joan is a pianist[.] I have heard her only when she gave her services. But she appears to practice daily, like a professional trooper.' He has advised her to 'play chamber music.

2pp, 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. The content is remarkably sprightly and the handwriting firm. The letter begins: 'My dear Russell, | Telephone: no good. So I guess that you are holiday-making. | Lord Drogheda is my close friend & collaborator. His wife Joan is a pianist[.] I have heard her only when she gave her services. But she appears to practice daily, like a professional trooper.' He has advised her to 'play chamber music.

1p, 4to. Typescript with a couple of minor autograph corrections. Unpublished, but perhaps relating to her 1945 book 'Ariadne and the Bull'. At foot, in Farjeon's autograph: 'From E. F. | 20 Perrin's Walk | N.W.3.' In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with nicking and loss at edges. A chatty and entertaining retelling of the story. As an example of the tone, early on Farjeon writes: 'The Minotaur was a monster with the gigantic body of a man topped by a bull's head; his father was a bull and his mother was Pasiphae, Minos's Queen.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Only the salutation ('Dear Mrs. Russell,') and the valediction ('Yours very sincerely | Edward German :' are in German's hand; the rest is by a secretary. He writes that he would 'have liked to write you [sic] personally, but it is a little more than I can manage at present'. Nevertheless he assures her that he is 'most grateful' for her 'very kind message'.

Arthur Sidgwick's long entry in the Oxford DNB concludes with the following assessment: 'a university liberal of rare consistency and stamina: a progressive bridging Victorian and Edwardian generations, and pre-eminent among the male dons who made a place for women's higher education in Oxford'. At the time of the present letter he was nearing the end of a 'brilliant' undergraduate career at Cambridge, with the winning of many prizes: 'In 1863 he was second in the first class of the classical tripos and fourteenth senior optime in mathematics, and was also president of the union.

On 2 x 11 cm slip of paper cut from the end of a letter. In fair condition, lightly aged, with small tape stain from mount at the edge to the left of the signature. Reads: 'very truly yours | J. S. Mill'. On the reverse, in Mill's autograph, are the words: 'the Government for a pecuniary'. Mill is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of classical liberalism, and one of the leading English-speaking philosophers of the nineteenth century.

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. On aged paper, with punch hole through both leaves at head, small closed cut along bottom edge of first leaf, and with paper and part of another letter (from an album) glued onto the reverse of the second leaf. Folded once. The signature 'M. Massenet' is explained in Massenet's obituary in the Musical Times, 1 September 1912, which speaks of 'the composer's known antipathy to the name Jules […] He preferred to be called “M. Massenet” simply'. The recipient of this enthusiastic letter is not named.

See Donaldson's entry in the Oxford DNB, which states that he was 'greatly beloved by his friends, who included N. C. Thirlwall and W. H. Thompson. The diarist Henry Crabb Robinson spoke enthusiastically of the charm of his conversation.' 3pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. No salutation or valediction, and the recipient is not named, but the item derives from the papers of Sir Thomas Gery Cullum and his wife Lady Anne Cullum, of Hardwick House.

1p, 12mo. Leaf of lightly-browned and creased aged paper, with closed tears to one edge. The two men are clearly writing in response to requests for autographs. Marchetti has written out four bars – slightly affected at end by closed tear – from what he states is 'Ruy Blas Preludio'. Beneath this he signs, in a firm attractive hand, 'F Marchetti'. At the head he dates: 'Roma 14 9bre 92'.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. In envelope with penny red stamp and postmark, addressed to Steggatt at 53 Norwich Street, Cambridge. The letter reads: 'Dear Sir | I regret that I cannot give you an order. I have no doubt of the excellence of the cigars, but I never by any chance smoke a cigar. | Believe me | Yours truly | C S. Calverley'. A nice Cambridge association, given that Calverley's most famous poem is 'Ode to Tobacco', and that it features in Cambridge on a brass plaque on the wall of the former Bacon's tobacconists.

16pp, 8vo. Stapled pamphlet. In fair condition, lightly aged, covers dusty and spotted, staples slightly rusted. P.2 carries an announcement of the joint publication by 'Mr. Heinemann' and the Macmillan Company of New York 'of a new series of Greek and Latin texts with English translations on the opposite page and brief biographical prefaces. The series takes its name from Mr. James Loeb, originator of the idea, […]'. The page gives details of the plan, and p.15 carries a 'List of the First Twenty Volumes, 'Ready in September' and 'Ready in November'.

On 7 x 10.5 piece of orange paper, removed from an autograph album. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Expansive signature, with surname underlined and dots to i's like dashes. Reads: 'Good luck to you! | Benno Moiseiwitsch | Decr. 1946'. Autographs on reverse, dated to 21 July 1946, of composer 'Charles Hambourg' and pianist 'Irene Kohler' (1909-1996).

2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. She writes that she will be 'happy to sing the following songs on the 16th inst', and lists pieces by Meyerbeer, Linley and Mendelsohn, as well as 'Scotch song “Bonnie Dundee”'. In a postscript she writes: 'After tomorrow may I trouble you to address me at Dilstone [i.e. Dilston, Northumberland]'. Endorsed on second leaf: 'Sans date | Miss Charlotte H. Dolby | Will be happy to sing the within mentioned songs &c'.

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. He is 'very much obliged' to Frewen for the offer 'of duplicates to help in the restoration of destroyed libraries', and notes that 'it is impossible to forecast the needs that will exist at the end of the war'. In the meantime he has 'marked with the initials F. [L. S.?] a number of volumes in your list which I think are sure to be useful for our purpose.

1p, 4to. In good condition, with slight creasing to extremities, on a leaf of 'Onion Skin' paper. A sixteen line poem in three stanzas, beneath which is written, boldly and in pencil: 'W B. Stanford | Trinity College | Dublin'. The poem is one of Stanford's best and best-known, and features in Donagh MacDonagh's 'Poems from Ireland' (1944) and Brendan Kennelly's 'Penguin Book of Irish Verse' (1970). The present version exhibits no variations from the text printed by Kennelly.

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. In reply to a letter by Hodes he writes that he is 'happy to hear that Beethoven's Missa Solemnis has made such a deep impact on you which it should make on every listener'. He feels 'very much privileged indeed for having been granted the possibility to present this work for the first time in Israel', and hopes 'to have occasion to perform that great piece there again as well as others which will be important and good to hear'.

On 6 x 9.5 cm slip of paper, cut from the letter. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. On one side, with part of the franking postmark in red ink, Baring has addressed the letter in the customary fashion: 'Thetford December ten 1834 – | F. T. Maxon Esqr | 6 Little Friday St | Cheapside | London – | Frans Baring'. (The recipient is the solicitor Frederick Thomas Maxon.) The reverse of the slip carries part of the conclusion of the letter, with the top half of Barker's signature.

1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with the top part of the blank reverse pasted onto a slip of paper cut from an album. Adressed to 'Miss Constance M. Evans, | Raventhorpe, | Carmel Road N., | Darlington.' She begins by stating that Evans's letter has been forwarded to her by Julian Herbage.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Signed, over a red 'Postage Revenue' 2d stamp: 'Alfredo Compoli. | August 13th. 1947'. Above this the receip, in Compoli's autograph, reads: 'Received £500 (five hundred pounds) in full, (£200 deposit – and £250 in cash – also cheque value £50 (dated August 11th. 1947) for Sale of Music Library (Salon Orchestra, & Trio)'. Accompanying the document is an unsigned autograph receipt on a worn slip of white paper, reading: 'April 28th. 1947 | Received, from Jack Salisbury Esq.

He asks Streatfeild to advise him in a matter 'which speaks for itself'. He reports that 'poor Lady Elgar is greatly distressed – and not without reason – at the treatment of the two great oratorios'. Phillips does not 'quite see what is to be done in the way of protest', although he finds that the 'statement that they “fail with audiences &c” is certainly false in fact, [last three words underlined] and therefore almost libellous'. Phillips considers 'the rest […] a matter of opinion. Perhaps even more false and absurd is the statement, or opinion, that they appeal only to the intellect.