UKRAINE

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.

Landscape 8vo album, containing eighteen leaves in embossed light-green card, each carrying a 17.5 x 23.5 cm black and white photograph. In embossed brown waxed imitation-leather cloth. Lightly-aged but good. The first photograph is of Shuster, and this is followed by three photographs each carrying numerous portraits of tutors, the rest of the photographs each carrying a portraits of a number of students, superimposed over images of Kiev, and of the students on their courses. A few photographs carry texts in Russian by Russian leaders.

On rectangle removed from autograph album. In good condition. Reads 'Shura Cherkassky | 1929'.

Dimensions of photograph roughly nine inches by seven wide. Aged, lightly creased and a little scuffed. Slight loss to bottom right-hand corner of border, not affecting image. A bespectacled Malko in a double-breasted pinstripe jacket, in the act of conducting, baton aloft, and with violinist in the background. Malko has written his inscription over his torso, beginning 'Cnacudo', and giving the date 1949.