HERKOMER

[Sir Hubert von Herkomer, painter, film director and composer.] Autograph Note Signed (‘Hubert Herkomer’), asking for details of ‘your Ramblers’ before a visit from them.

Author: 
Sir Hubert von Herkomer [originally Hubert Herkomer] (1849-1914) German-born British painter, pioneering film director and composer
Publication details: 
28 February 1891; on letterhead of Dyreham, Bushy, Herts.
£45.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, but a little brittle and discoloured (unobtrusive repair to one corner with archival tape). The recipient is not named. Reads: ‘Dear Sirs / I shall be pleased to see your Ramblers June the 6th. Let me know details of them & numbers a week before. / Yours truly / Hubert Herkomer’.

[ Sir Hubert von Herkomer, painter, film director and composer. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Hubert Herkomer') to 'Lady Wynn', regarding a 'word portrait' of his 'splendid wife', who has just died.

Author: 
Sir Hubert von Herkomer [ originally Hubert Herkomer ] (1849-1914) German-born British painter, pioneering film director and composer
Publication details: 
New York. 23 December 1885.
£90.00

1p., 16mo. With mourning border. In good condition, lightly aged. Begins: 'Dear Lady Wynn | I thank you from the depths of my heart for your kind letter. I enclose you a word portrait of my splendid wife. More I dare not write or I shall not regain the strength I need to carry out her wishes in life.' As the Oxford DNB explains, after the death of his first wife in 1883 'Herkomer married, on 14 August 1884, a Welsh nurse, Lulu Griffiths (b. 1849), who had been a member of his household since 1874. He was devastated by her sudden death a year later.'

[Sir Hubert von Herkomer, painter.] Five illustrated items designed by him for his private Wagnerian theatre: invitation to 'The Sorceress'; prospectus, libretto and invitation card for his 'Pictorial-Music-Play' 'An Idyl'; and Christmas card.

Author: 
Sir Hubert von Herkomer (1849-1914), German-born British painter admired by Van Gogh [Joseph Bennett; Edward Dalziel (1817-1905), wood engraver; Dorothy Dene (1859-1899), actress; Lululaund, Bushey]
Publication details: 
The Herkomer Theatre [on the Lululaund Estate], Bushey, Hertfordshire. 1889 and 1890. [Items printed by Novello, Ewer, and Co. of London, and R. and R. Clark of Edinburgh.]
£1,150.00

In addition to his pioneering cinematographic work, Herkomer was a theatrical innovator. As Lynda Nead points out in her 'The Haunted Gallery' (Yale, 2007), it was shortly after the opening of his art school that 'he and his students created an auditorium, modelled on Wagner's Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, for public performances of plays, written, directed and, indeed, performed by Herkomer'. See also M. A. K. Taylor, 'The New Stagecraft' (1953); J. Stokes, 'Resistible Theatres' (1972); and L. M. Edwards, 'Herkomer: A Victorian Artist' (1999). These five items all relate to the project.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Dear Mr Taylor'.

Author: 
Barry Pain [Barry Eric Odell Pain] (1864-1928), English humorist and contributor to Punch magazine [Sir Hubert von Herkomer (1849-1914)]
Publication details: 
13 April 1905; on letterhead of Hogarth House, Bushey, Herts.
£38.00

12mo, 1 p. Thirteen lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and foxed paper with some fraying to edges (not affecting text). He would like to show Taylor 'something of interest with reference to Sir Herbert Taylor [sometime soldier and Private Secretary to teh KIng]' and suggests meeting that night. 'It seems rather late, but I shall be at von Herkomer's till then'.

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