MUSICAL

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with strip of tape from mount adhering to the blank second leaf. Folded for postage. Undated, but docketted ?18 April / 1857 / About ?Cologne Singers.?? Reads: ?Dear William. - All the songs are clear, and if you send they will be given to the musicians. If it is not convenient to send, drop me a line, and I will send to you. / Very tly yrs / J. Oxenford?. Oxenford provided a number of translations of German works for musical accompaniment.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient (?Broadley Pasha?) was a renowned autograph collector and shady social figure, as well as the de facto editor of Edmund Yates?s ?World?. 3pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight sunning to first page, and traces of mount on blank final page. Folded once. Signed ?Genevi?ve Ward? (note the accent). The letter relates to the 1889 revival at the London Opera Comique of the role which made her famous, Stephanie, Marquise de Mohrivar, in Merivale and Grove?s 1879 play ?Forget Me Not?.

See her entries in Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On first leaf of bifolium. On patterned grey paper, with the first page with a thin white border. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor evidence of mount on blank reverse of second leaf. Folded for postage. Signed ?Adelina Patti Cederstr?m?.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, from which the scandalous recipient, a high-society fixer, is unaccountably absent. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Fifty-seven lines of text, sloping upwards. Addressed to ‘Mr Broadley’ and signed ‘Burdett Coutts’. The handwriting is difficult, and the following reading tentative.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, from which the scandalous recipient, a high-society fixer, is unaccountably absent. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Fifty-seven lines of text, sloping upwards. Addressed to ‘Mr Broadley’ and signed ‘Burdett Coutts’. The handwriting is difficult, and the following reading tentative.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. LETTER: 3pp, 12mo. Thirty-one lines. Bifolium. In fair condition, with slight staining at foot of first leaf, and traces of glue from mount on blank reverse of second leaf. In an elongated and somewhat opaque hand. Begins: ‘My dear Mrs. Hicks / I was exceedingly sorry to hear that Mr. Hicks had met with an accident on the day you left.’ What follows is hard to decipher, until she writes ‘I have much pleasure in forwarding to you the address of Jackson & Graham. It is No. 35-36 Oxford St.’ She praises ‘the selection he has of patterns’.

See her entry, and her husband’s, in the Oxford DNB. The recipient Philip Dosse was proprietor of Hansom Books, publisher of a stable of seven arts magazines including ‘Books and Bookmen’ and ‘Plays and Players’. Postcard of 14 x 9 cm, with letterhead and no illustration. Monogram signature ‘RK’. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight smudging to a couple of words in one corner. Addressed to ‘Mr Philip Dossé. [sic] / Hansom Books. / Artillery Mansions. / 75, Victoria Street. / LONDON.

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. The material is in good condition, lightly aged, except that the envelopes of the first two items are somewhat worn and grubby. ONE: TLS to Douglas C. Dorrington. 1p, 12mo. The address to ‘Dear Mr. Dorrington’ and signature ‘Peter Pears’ are in autograph; the rest is typed. Written while Britten is dying. Reads: ‘Benjamin Britten wishes me to thank you for your kind message.

See his entry, together with that of Benjamin Britten, in the Oxford DNB, the latter explaining the context of the last letter, which is an attack on Britten and Peter Pears for not returning from the United States to wartime England. From the Scott papers. Each letter 2pp, 12mo, on a single leaf (a total of 8pp, 12mo). In good condition, lightly aged. Each letter folded for postage. All four letters addressed to ‘Miss Scott’, and each signed ‘Gordon Jacob’. ONE (1 April 1929): He will be ‘most delighted’ to give her ‘any information you may require about my work’.

See her entry in Grove. The letter can be dated by the reference to Sir William Mitchell (see Oxford DNB) and the operetta 'The Rival Beauties', which he produced in London and then Plymouth. The letter is on one side of the paper, has been cut down to 11 x 9 cm, and laid down on a piece of card. Aged and worn, with slight loss at top right, affecting one word of text. Thirteen lines of close and neatly-written text, addressed to ‘Dearest Mrs. Sprague’ and signed ‘Yours affectionately, / Erminia Rudersdorff’, with a little of the flourish beneath the signature cut away.

See his entry, together with that of Benjamin Britten, in the Oxford DNB, the latter explaining the context of the last letter, which is an attack on Britten and Peter Pears for not returning from the United States to wartime England. From the Scott papers. Each letter 2pp, 12mo, on a single leaf (a total of 8pp, 12mo). In good condition, lightly aged. Each letter folded for postage. All four letters addressed to ‘Miss Scott’, and each signed ‘Gordon Jacob’. ONE (1 April 1929): He will be ‘most delighted’ to give her ‘any information you may require about my work’.

8 x 11 cm collotype print on 9 x 14 cm postcard, with caption (‘Richard Tauber / als Schubert / im “Dreimädlhaus”’) and publication details in blank space at foot. Tauber has signed emphatically, between two lines, at the foot of the card: ‘Richard Tauber / 1931 / London’. In good condition, lightly aged, but with dink to bottom-left corner, affecting neither image nor signature. Depicts Tauber, in the character of a bespectacled Franz Schubert, seated before a dark background. Scan on application.

Lauder was the highest-paid entertainer in the world in 1911, and the first British artist to sell a million records (by 1928 he had sold two million). See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 14 x 9 cm plain postcard, addressed (by the recipient) to ‘Norman Wetton / 7 Claremont Road / Forrest Gate.’ On the blank reverse Lauder has written: ‘ “D’you Know this ” / Yours very truly / Harry Lauder’. A little grubby and discoloured, but in fair condition. Scan on application.

Hale is best-remembered for singing ‘Spread a Little Happiness’ in the musical ‘Mr. Cinders’ (1929), and for strarring in ‘No, No, Nanette’ (1925). 9 x 13 cm postcard, printed in light-brownish grey. In good condition. Nice signature ‘Binnie Hale’ running diagonally across lower right-hand corner. She looks wistfully at the camera, with a Marcel wave and pursed made-up lips. Not among the 32 images of Hale list on the National Portrait Gallery website. Scan on application.

Johnson’s career began with a job singing on an NBC radio show. His 1940s Hollywood films included “Keep Your Powder Dry”. He later returned to Broadway, where in 1956 he received a Tony nomination for his performance as ‘Doc’ in Rodgers and Hammerstein's last musical ‘Pipe Dream’. He died of a heart attack in 1957. 10.5 x 10 cm black and white glossy photographic print on shiny art paper. In good condition. Stylish signature 'Bill Johnson' in white at bottom left.

8.5 x 14 cm glossy publicity photograph on post card. In good condition, lightly aged. Inscribed across the bottom of the image: ‘Souvenirs / Alice Delysia’. A soft-toned head and shoulders image in black and white, of a smiling Delysia, eyebrows plucked, lips made up, and short hair Marcell-waved. See Image.

See Terry’s entry in the Oxford DNB. At the time of writing Dr. W. J. Phillips was the organist at St Barnabas, Pimlico; he was unsuccessful in the present application, but was subsequently organist of the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court. See his entry in Humphreys and Evans, ‘Dictionary of Composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland’ (1997). These two items are uniform on a total of three leaves of light paper. Both discoloured and worn, and folded three times. ONE: ALS from Terry to Phillips. 1p, 4to. He is ‘most pleased to have opportunity of supporting’ Phillips’s application.

See her 18 October 2006 obituary in Variety, which states that 'Bigley had been playing Laurey in the London production of “Oklahoma!” when she was offered the role of Sarah Brown, the “mission doll” who entrances gambler Sky Masterson in the show based on Damon Runyon’s characters.' She won a Tony Award for her performance. A 10.5 x 13.5 black and white photographic image, printed on an 11.5 x 16.5 cm piece of matt card. In good condition, lightly aged. A head and torso shot of a seated Bigley dressed as Laurey, smailing over her left shoulder against a plain and shadowy background.

A brown-tinged print (not sepia), on 16 x 21 cm matt card, with 0.75 cm border. In fair condition, very lightly creased and worn. A full length shot of a smiling and clean-shaven Keel, in cowboy getup with ponyskin chaps and his cowboy hat in his left hand, opening what is clearly a stage-prop wicket gate, with backdrop of farm behind him. In Keel's autograph in light blue ink to the left of his torso: 'To Mary, / Best of Everything / Sincerely / Harold Keel'. See Image.

See his entry in Grove’s, and Percy A. Scholes’s obituary in the Musical Times, June 1941. 2pp, 12mo. Addressed to ‘Messrs. T. Seeley Clark & Co:’ and signed ‘Stewart Macpherson’. On bifolium of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. They have led him to understand that he would have a revised proof of his ‘biography for Modern Makers of Music’ in time for the publication of the work in the autumn would be published that autumn, and is writing to remind them that he has ‘not yet received the revise’.

In fair condition, lightly aged and creased, laid down on part of page from album. Folded for postage. Neatly written. Reads: ‘6 Oct 1867 / Mr Pauer begs to inform Mrs Paget that the Austrian Piano maker will attend to her Piano tomorrow or Wednesday / In haste.’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, landscape 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with four small gummed squared as mounts adhering to the four corners. Folded for postage. Large firm signature and handwriting. Reads: 'Dear Miss Thompson / The piece is not mine and I am sorry I cannot inform you to whom the acting rights, if any, belong. / Your sincerely / Geo R Sims'.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 9 x 6 cm calling card, with 'Mlle. Emma Albani' printed in copperplate in the centre. Above this, at the head of the card, she has written 'J. Bennett Esq.' And around the printed signature she has written the unsigned inscription: 'With [Mlle. Emma Albani]'s compliments & heartfelt thanks -'. Date by her at bottom left: '1876'. See IMage.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, landscape 12mo. On bifolium of grey paper. The letter is complete, on what appears to be the upper half of a 4to bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with stamp, postmark and remains of autograph address on reverse of second leaf, with traces of mount. Signed ‘J A Fuller Maitland’. Begins: ‘Dear Sir / Very many thanks for your book, the second copy of which has just come. I shall hope to be able to come & hear your lecture on a subject which is especially dear to me.

On a postcard with a bromide print of a modernist architectural image of a flight of outdoor steps and its stone surroundings. Creased and worn. Addressed to ‘M. Calvocoressi, Esq. / 5 Bramerton Str / London S. W. 3 / England / Europe’. Reads: ‘Dear Mr Calvocoressi, [19 words in Cyrillic script] Helas the score is lost. I am so sorry I could not send it to you. / [3 words in Cyrilic script]! / With kindest regards, / Yours sincerely / Nicolai Malko’

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of music bookseller Leonard Hyman. 1p, 12mo. On creased and discoloured paper. Folded for postage. Signed ‘Eric Blom’. He thanks Hyman for letting him know about ‘the Burney volumes’. He is ‘almost ashamed at having decided not to have them for the moment. They are really only “stock”, as far as I am concerned, and as I don’t particularly want to spend all that at moment, [sic] I think I will let them go.’ Changing the subject, he reports that he ‘got into touch with Miss Kingdon-Ward and found her a very interesting girl.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times for postage. The letter concerns the Hackney Choral Association. Begins: ‘My dear Sir, / I am much obliged by the kind note just received, though I am sorry we shall not have the pleasure of your company on Monday.

See the entries for Prout and Cummings in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. The second leaf of a bifolum, the first presumably carrying the commencement of the letter. The present fragment, in a good firm hand, reads: 'in the way he desires but if you can do so, you will not only be assisting a most deserving young man, but I shall regard it as a personal kindness. / I am, my dear Cummings, / Yours very cordially, / Ebenezer Prout. / Dr. W. H. Cummings.'

1p, 4to. On lightly aged and somewhat creased paper. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘Leonard Hyman, Esq.’ and signed ‘Clarence Raybould’. He has received his Catalogue No. 87 and is sorry to learn of his ‘impending retirement from your business’. ‘The world is always the poor when someone of your integrity decides he has had enough of the intrigues of present-day life!’ He wishes him ‘a happy period of quieter days’: ‘I myself cease to bulk of my work in June of this present year, when I terminate a long association with the Senior Orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 16mo. Addressed to ‘Carissimo Amico’ and signed ‘Alberto Randegger’.With fourteen lines of text, all in Italian. In fair condition, lightly aged and discoloured paper. Folded for postage.