Authors "E" and "F" Selections from Stock

[EDINBURGH CIRCUS.] A front-page column notice concerning the sale of horses at the Edinburgh Circus, in a complete issue of the Edinburgh Evening Courant, 9 April, 1792. Large folio; central horizontal crease; contemporary holograph notations. $25
The advertisement gives particulars of the sale of circus horses and contains a notice at the foot concerning riding lessons given at the circus.

[EDWARDS, Francis.] PLAYBILLS. A Collection and Some Comments. London: Francis Edwards, 1893. Original wrappers, rather worn and soiled; engraved frontisportrait; a few marginal blind stamps; accession stamp to verso of title-page. $20
A 38-page pamphlet describing “a collection of playbills, with comments on the Tottenham Street House, Marylebone Theatre, Soho Theatre, Pavilion Theatre, Garrick Theatre, Effingham Theatre, and Covent Garden 1828-29 (Lowe).” The frontispiece is of Mr. Kemble.

[EGERTON, Sarah.] A juvenile drama portrait, “Mrs. Egerton as Henry the Vth.” [London: A. Park & J. Goudling, c. 1827.] Bottom margin trimmed, excising imprint; else very good. $70
The actress stands, in the costume of Shakespeare’s hero, a baton raised in her right hand. In the background are tents of an encampment, including the royal marquee. Not in the Harvard Catalogue.

[EFROS, Avram.] [KAMERNY TEATR I EGO KUDUDOSHNIKI XX.] 1914-1934. [Moscow: All Russian Theatrical Society], 1934. Tall 4to; original dark-red cloth (with the anniversary device of the theatre stamped on front cover); decorative color-printed half-title; frontispiece; 195 black-and-white and color plates (from photographs and works of art); half-page tissue guards lettered in red opposite plates; other illustrations to text; very good. $1000
A major survey of the work of Tairoff and his Kamerny Theatre (founded in 1914). A 47-page illustrated essay by Efros is followed by the nearly 200 plates of actors and costume and stage designs. The designs are by Exter, Vesnin, Kusnetsov, the Shtenberg brothers, Soudekine, Lentulov, Gonchorova, and others. As such the designs represent the major trends of contemporary Russian art: Symbolism, Expressionism, Neo-Primitivism, Cubo-Futurism, and Constructivism. The plates are divided out by production, each of which is introduced by a half-page tissue guard giving the title, author, artist, and date.

[EFROS, Nikolais E.] [TEATR LETUCHA MISCH. N. F. BALIEVA.] [Petrograd: Pechatanov. Solnse Rossi, 1918.] 4to; original decorative wrappers, with some fraying to fore-edges and light staining; album sheet pasted to rear cover; spine chipped and worn; numerous plates and illustrations, many tipped on; minor dampstaining to fore-edges of some leaves. $200
The sole edition of this illustrated survey of the first ten years (1908-1918) of the important cabaret theatre which flourished in Moscow before the Revolution. The Bat Theatre “was started by its genial director, the bulbous Baliev, in 1908, as an underground theatre-cabaret and lasted there for a few years after the Revolution (Dana).” He went on to reorganize the troupe under the name “La Chauve-Souris “(and perhaps even greater fame) in Paris. Photographs of the performances appear on nearly every page of this history providing an accurate record of several productions.

[ELÉONORE, (?).] A hand-colored lithograph portrait, "Mlle. Eléonore, Rôle de Floretta dans le Belveder." Paris: Noel et Cie, [c. 1825]. 10 1/2" x 15 1/2"; colored by hand; very light offsetting and spotting; else bright. $40
The Ambigu-Comique actress is shown full length, standing, in Greek costume and cap; with a mountain range in the background. Pixerecourt's melodrama was first performed in 1818. 

ELLET, [Elizabeth F.] THE CHARACTERS OF SCHILLER. New York: [and] Boston: John Allen [and] Otis Brothers, 1842. Original plain boards, worn and a bit stained; hinges worn; spine ends chipped; paper labels to backstrip; decorative, engraved library bookplate; insignificant library marks to front paste-down and contents leaf; minor foxing to a few leaves. $18
A prefatory essay on the “theory and genius of Schiller” and his early compositions is followed by 23 chapters each of which studies an individual character from the dramas.

[ELLIOT, Charlotte and Harriet.] A broadside playbill for “Three Charades” performed by Lady Charlotte and Lady Harriet Elliot at the Theatre Royal, Admiralty, 14 February, 1840. Three horizontal creases; a hint of dusting; else very good. $45
The pieces were Retribution, William and Susan, and The Wedding Night. The juvenile actresses took the lead roles in each of the plays. A contemporary holograph note to the verso states: “Set up and printed by T. Ashton Croker.”

[ELLISTON, Robert William.] A vignette, stipple-engraved portrait of Elliston. [London: c. 1806.] 3 3/4” x 3 3/4”; very good. $18
A bust portrait, facing and looking to the left.

[ELLISTON, Robert W.] An engraved head-and-shoulders portrait of Elliston. [London: Cunningham & Mortimer, 1843.] Trimmed to platemark; mounted to light card. $12
The portrait is from an original drawing by G. H. Harlowe in the possession of the Garrick Club. Mounted to the reverse is a clipped newspaper notice of Elliston on a Drury Lane bill, 1805.

[EMERY, John.] An engraved portrait of Emery as Dandie Dinmont in Terry's Guy Mannering. London: W. McDowall, 1827. 9 1/2" x 13 1/4", plus margins; light surface soiling. $40
Emery is shown full length in character. He stands, legs apart, a whip held to his side in his right hand and his left arm before him.

[EQUESTRIAN DRAMA.] A double-page Drury Lane playbill for the second night of Planche’s Chevy Chase, 5 March, 1836. Printed in red; three gentle horizontal creases; nearly fine. $60
The new equestrian spectacle featured Mathews, Poole, Forde, and “a retinue of armed knights, fully caparisoned, and mounted on a magnificent stud of horses.” The evening’s program opened with Balfe’s opera The Siege of Rochelle. The second page is taken up with bold descriptions of scenes in the “grand chivalric entertainment.” Unusually printed entirely in red.

[EQUESTRIANISM.] A catchpenny print, “Het paerden spel is fraei om zien.” [Turnhout: Glenisson & Van Genechten, c. 1850.] Oblong folio (15 1/2” x 13”); eleven woodcut vignettes arranged in three rows, each with caption; partly colored by hand in various shades of five colors; central vertical fold; minor creasing; merest hint of foxing; tipped at verso of upper margin to light-card backing board. $200
The woodcuts show three circus acts with horses, tournament knights, and dragoons on galloping mounts. Each vignette is accompanied by bilingual (Dutch and French) rhyming couplets. The rows of circus acts and dragoons are fully hand colored, but the middle row of knights is only partially colored. The print was produced by Glenisson and Van Genechten for their Amsterdam agents J. A. Aldag and is one of the first issued by the firm (partly copied from a Brepols sheet).

[EQUILIBRIST.] A playbill announcing "The Celebrated American Voltigeur" at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, 7 October, 1824. Mild dusting and offsetting; horizontal creases. $50
The bill boldly announces the unnamed American equilibrist "(from Vauxhall Gardens) will go through a variety of evolutions on the corde volante and make a wonderful ascension to the gallery, & back again, surrounded by fire-works."

[EXHIBITION.] A playbill for "der Französiche Hercules" Lebesnier at Stuttgart's Königlicher Redouten-Saal, 4 March, 1826. Minor creasing and dusting to left corners; a very few light spots; else very good. $250
This densely worded bill lists numerous feats performed by the French strongman Lebesnier during the exhibition. Amongst the sundry stunts of lifting and strength he conveyed heavy weights while walking parallel tightropes; waltzed while carrying, in his hands and teeth, tables laden with up to five people; presented himself in poses plastique (representing more than a dozen statues and tableaux); and, in "Die Standarte des grossens Friedrichs," holding himself out on the perpendicular from a taunt, vertical rope.

[EXHIBITION.] A Drury Lane playbill announcing the strongmen Manche and Daras as an interact exhibition, 20 April, 1829. 1” tear at head, affecting one letter of banner; two creases reinforced to verso; first leaf of double bill, with light offsetting. $50
The strongmen are heralded, “for the first time in this country, the extraordinary phenomena of Paris, Le Alcides, M.M. Manche et Daras... displaying their astonishing tours de force as exhibited... before the Court of France.” The bookend performances were Kemble’s Venice Preserved and the premier of Planché’s melodramatic fairy tale Thierna-Na-Oge “(founded on the most popular traditions of the south of Ireland).” The second page of the bill outlined the scenes of the melodrama.

F[AGAN DE LUGNY, Barthelemy] and [Charles-Simon] F[AVART]. LA SERVANTE JUSTIFIÉE, Opera Comique. Paris: Prault, 1744. Disbound; very scattered light foxing. $30
A one-act comic opera in prose, vaudevilles, and airs, with music by de Moulinghem. It was first published in 1743.

[FARQUHAR, George.] THE BEAUX STRATAGEM: A Comedy. London: for Henry Lintot, 1752. 12mo; disbound; publisher’s catalogue at the end (the final leaf of which is frayed at edges). $15
First performed at the Haymarket in 1707, “infinitely lively, bustling, and full of point and interest (Hazlitt).”

[FAURÉ, Jean Baptiste.] A lithographed portrait, “Faure, rôle de Justin dans le Chien du Jardinier.” Paris: Godard, [c. 1856]. 8” x 11 1/2”, including margins; colored by hand; bright. $30
The dramatic baritone is shown, full length, in costume. Grisar’s comic opera was first performed in 1855 at the Opéra Comique.

[FAURÉ, Jean-Baptiste.] A two-page autograph letter, signed. N. p.: [c. 1870 (?)]. 8vo leaf, folded; embossed monogram; original creases; minor abrading near foot of (blank) integral leaf; very minor staining at foot. $150
A very good letter, with much theatrical/operatic content, addressed to “cher Directeur.” Faure was regarded the greatest French baritone of the second half of the 19th century — particularly admired as Don Giovanni and Rossini’s WilliamTell. A rare signature.

[FAWCETT, John.] An illustrated songsheet, “Mr. Lobski; or, The River Sprat-Catcher.” [London: Laurie and Whittle, 1808.] 9” x 10 1/2”; engraved illustration 8 1/4” x 6 1/2”; margins trimmed; trimmed within platemark at head (excising imprint). $120
“Sung with unbounded Applause by Mr. Fawcett, at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket, in the... Opera, called ‘The Exile’....” The Cruikshank caricature at the head shows Fawcett as Servitz — a short fur-trimmed and frogged coat, with tight breeches and a small tricorne — posing mincingly before a backdrop portraying a river, bridge, and fortified Russian town. Reynolds’ opera premiered in November 1808, by the Covent Garden Company, at the King’s Theatre, after their theatre burned on 19 September. Thirty-three lines of the song printed at the foot. §Cohn 1768. BM 11209.

[FELIX, Rachel.] MARIE STUART. A Tragedy... by M. Pierre Lebrun. The Original French Copy with an English Translation. Prepared Expressly for M. Raphael Felix, Manager of Mlle. Rachel’s French Company in America. New York: Darcie & Corbyn, 1855. Large 8vo; disbound; glue-stain to gutter of title-page; light stain to lower fore-corner of title-page; text in double columns; minor foxing to a few leaves. $16
A souvenir of Rachel’s first American tour.

FIELDING, Henry. THE MISER. A Comedy. London: for the Booksellers, 1740. 12mo; disbound; engraved frontispiece; title in red and black. $25
Apparently extracted from a collection (pagination runs G5-P6) this printing falls between the first and second London editions. The most successful of Fielding’s regular comedies, adapted from Moliere, with an epilogue by Colley Cibber.

FIELDS, [Annie Adams]. ORPHEUS. A Masque. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1900. First Edition. Cloth-backed boards; white boards and spine a bit dustsoiled and spotted; lyre motif in gilt to front panel; extremities scuffed; frontispiece in halftone; contents fresh; t.e.g. $50
The second of two plays by the poet, philanthropist, social reformer, and woman of letters.

[FILIPOWICZ, Elisabeth.] A tall broadside bill for Drury Lane featuring the violinist Filipowicz, 17 June, 1834, 7 3/4” x 19”; moderate creasing; 1” torn from upper left corner (just touching one letter of text). $50
“Extraordinary novelty for this night only, for the benefit of Mr. Ransford and Mr. Bedford, on which occasion Madame Filipowicz, the celebrated female violinist, from Poland (pupil of Spohr)... and M. Bogaert from Belgium will appear.” The evening commenced with Speed the Plough (Farren, Dowton, Mathews, and Orger in the cast). Filipowicz played an air with variations by Meyseder and the flautist Bogaert played a fantasia with orchestral accompaniment.

[FISHER, Minnie.] A sepia cabinet photograph of Fisher in Esmeralda. Gloucester: Wm. Gillard, [1885]. Very good. $16
A full-length portrait of the actress in Gypsy costume, a tambourine held in her right hand.

[FITZBALL, Edward.] A two-page Covent Garden playbill for Fitzball's Quasimodo, 25 May, 1836. Pale blue stock; minimal fraying to left edge; very good. $25
The "overture and whole of the music (with the exception of the Bohemian Dance by Mercandante and a Dead March by Beethoven) composed by Carl Maria Von Weber. "

FITZBALL, Edward. THE BARBER; or, The Mill of Bagdad. A Burletta. London: for John Lowndes, n. d. [1822]. First Edition. Unbound; dusting to title-page and terminal leaf; short, closed tear (repaired) to gutter of one leaf. $30
A two-act comic opera first performed at the Surrey in October 1822.

FITZGERALD, Percy. SIR HENRY IRVING. A Record of Over Twenty Years at the Lyceum. A New Edition, Revised with An Additional Chapter. London: Chatto & Windus, 1895. Publisher’s cloth, a bit marked and dusty; author, title, and decoration to upper cover; corners bumped; leather label to spine; light foxing to frontisportrait and title-page. $30
A revised edition of this sympathetic biography detailing both Irving’s stage career and private life. §LAR 3088.

[FITZWILLIAM, Edward.] A stipple engraving, “Mr. Fitzwilliam, as Looney Mactwolter in The Review,” after F. Waldeck. [London]: H. Berthoud, 1822. 6” x 9 1/2”, plus margins; a hint of dusting and foxing, primarily to margins. $25
The actor is depicted standing, in costume, a pitchfork in one hand and a hat in the other.

[FLORENCE, William.] A sepia cabinet photograph of Irish-American actor Florence. New York: Mora, [c. 1875]. Near fine. $22
A head-and-shoulders portrait. Florence is best known as Bob Brierly in The Ticket-of-Leave Man and George D’Alroy in Caste.

[FOOTE, Maria.] A stipple-engraved portrait, “Miss Foote as Maria Darlington.” London: W. Cribb, 1822. 9 1/2” x 12 1/4”; trimmed to platemark; printed to tissue-thin stock; laid down to an early album leaf; minor wrinkling to edges where laid down; 1” closed tear and one 1” to upper edge; image very good. $40
A half-length portrait of the actress dancing in Morton’s A Roland for an Oliver, by C. Picart after the painting by G. Clint. She is shown full face, flowers in her hair.

[FOOTE, Maria.] A juvenile drama portrait of Foote as Mary Copp in Charles 2nd the Merry Monarch. London: O. Hodgson, 1831. Very minor toning; a very good, dark impression. $45
Foote stands, in a gown with lace apron and headdress, left arm raised and right arm extended.

FOOTE, Samuel. THE COMMISSARY. A Comedy.... London: for P. Vaillant, 1765. Modern wraps. $40
Based upon Moliere’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and, to a lesser extent, on Dancourt’s La Femme d’Intrique, this comedy took as its primary target the composer-poet, Dr. Arne.

FOOTE, Samuel. THE DRAMATIC WORKS... To Which is Prefixed A Life of the Author. London: for W. Lowndes and S. Bladon, n. d. [c. 1800]. 2 vols. Demy 8vo; 19th-century blue half morocco, rather rubbed at extremities; marbled boards, scuffed at center; engraved frontispieces; library labels to front pastedowns; small ink stamp to each title-page; engraved figure to one page; brief marginalia to a few leaves. $120
A constructed edition with separate title-pages (individually dated) for each play.

FOOTE, Samuel. THE MAYOR OF GARRETT, A Farce. Boston: Wells and Lilly [and] New York: A. T. Goodrich, 1822. 16mo; original printed orange wrappers; minor wear to edges of covers; light offsetting; uncut. $15
One of the series of Oxberry’s New English Dramas -- with prefatory remarks and in original wrappers.

FOOTE, [Samuel]. THE MINOR, A Comedy. London: J. Coote [and others], 1760. Disbound; engraved frontispiece; a hint of offsetting to title-page and frontispiece. $40
One of four editions printed the same year as the first performances of this, Foote’s most famous comedy. With an engraved frontispiece of a scene in the Haymarket production.

[FORBES-ROBERTSON, Johnston and Gertrude ELLIOT.] An albumen cabinet photograph of Elliot and Forbes-Robertson in Mice and Men. [London]: Windsor and Grove, [c. 1902]. Minor rubbing to corners of mount. $20

[FORREST, Edwin.] A double-page playbill announcing Forrest as King Lear at Drury Lane, 16 November, 1836. Pale blue stock; thin mounting strip to verso of center fold; very good. $80
Sharing the bill with Forrest was Pauline Duvernay as Zodahska in Planche’s The Siege of Corinth (based on Byron’s poem, music by Rossini). The cast of the tragedy also included Warde as Edmund, Cooper as Edgar, and Mathews as Gloster.

[FORREST, Edwin and Thomas A. COOPER.] A Boston Theatre playbill for Forrest and Cooper in Otway’s Venice Preserved, 25 March, 1828. Creased and folded; some toning and foxing; two short tears (repaired), one touching actors names in cast list. $95
An early Forrest bill, the 21-year-old actor had just completed his comet-like career-making first season at New York’s Bowery Theatre.

FOURNEL, V[ictor]. CURIOSITIES THÉATRALES. Anciens et Modernes. Français et Étrangères. Nouvel Edition. Revue, Corrigée et Très-Augmentée. Paris: Garnier, 1878. Original printed wraps; glassine; very good. $60
An assemblage of theatrical fact and lore, containing much on popular antecedents of the circus. The final, 44-page chapter is a good bio-bibliography of acteurs-auters. §Toole-Stott 13257. Ruegg, p. 44 (both 1859 edition).

[THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS, LONDON.] A prospectus for the Théâtre Français, St. James, 1842. Decorative wraps; loose leaves inserted. $25
The prospectus includes a ground plan of the theatre, a list of the performers engaged for the season of French plays (including Mademoiselles Forgeot and Plessy, and Pauline Déjazet in her first London appearances), the repertoires of the principal performers, and the terms.

[FRANCIS, Philip.] CONSTANTINE: A Tragedy. London: for A. Millar, 1754. Disbound; dampstaining to half-title and preliminary leaves; stab holes to gutters. $45
The Reverend Francis’s tragedy was crushed out because of the craze for pantomimes current in the 1753-4 Covent Garden season — a fact bemoaned by Francis in his dedication to Lord Chesterfield.

[FRANCIS, Philip.] EUGENIA: A Tragedy. London: for A. Millar, 1762. Disbound; mild dustsoiling to title-page and verso of terminal leaf; previous owner’s name (trimmed) to upper fore-corner of title-page; preliminary leaves misnumbered (no half-title present in three BL copies). $45
A tragedy based loosely on Madame de Grafigny’s Cénie (1750). The prologue is by Garrick and the epilogue by Cibber. §Knapp 308.

[FRANCONI’S CIRCUS.] A steel-engraved plate, “Franconi’s Olympic Circus, Champs Elysées, Paris.” London: [and] Paris: Fisher and H. Mandeville, [c. 1845]. 10 1/2” x 7 1/4”; trimmed to platemark; a few points of foxing, primarily to edge at foot, away from image. $50
An equestrian exhibition in the ring, watched by a crowded house in the rather opulent chandelier-lit Paris circus.

[FRANKLIN, Thomas.] THE EARL OF WARWICK, A Tragedy.... London: for T. Davies, R. Baldwin, and W. Griffin, 1769. Disbound; paper fault to (blank) fore-edge of one leaf. $25
An adaptation of LaHarpe’s Le Comte de Warwick. The prologue is by Colman and the epilogue by Garrick. First published and performed three years earlier.

FREEDLEY, George (Compiler). THEATRICAL DESIGNS From the Baroque through Neoclassicism. Unpublished Material from American Private Collections. New York: H. Bittner and Company, 1940. 3 vols. in one. Folio; three sets of 24 photogravure plates tipped to color card leaves; minor thumbing and creasing to edges of a few card mounts; preliminary catalogue of twelve pages; all leaves loose, as issued; in worn light card portfolio; printed label to front of portfolio. $450
One of 125 numbered sets, this one out of series. The 72 plates in these volumes reproduce the finest drawings of stage settings and costumes from the collection formed by the Austrian scene designed Michael Mayer (1796-1870), which in 1940 was largely in the hands of New York collector Janos Scholz. Volume One reproduces drawings by the Bibienas, Galliaris, and Piranesi; Volume Two, drawings by Sacchetti and Plantzer; Volume Three, drawings by DePian, Schinkel, and others.

[FREER, John Charles.] A hand-tinted and tinseled juvenile drama portrait, "Mr. Freer as Prince Rudolph." London: A. Park, [c. 1855]. Right two corners creased. $175
Freer stands, legs apart, holding a lance in his outstretched right hand, his left arm is held out from his side. A hand-colored portrait, highlighted with tinseling.

[FRENCH COMEDIANS.] A playbill announcing the French Company of Comedians at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, 22 November, 1828. $20
The pieces performed were Les Deux Edmon and Le Tableau Parlant.

[FRENCH DRAMA.] CHEFS-D'OEUVRE DRAMATIQUES, ou, Recueil des Meilleures Pieces de Theatre de Corneille, Racine, Crebillon, Voltaire, Moliere, Regnard, Destouches, Prion, Etc.... Propres a Exercer les Jeunes Personnes a la Déclamation. Londres: Law and Whittaker, Boosey, and A. B. Dulau, 1816. 2 vols. Full tree calf, worn; hinges weak; paper labels to front boards. $45
Fifteen plays altogether are included in this collection.

FUERST, Walter-René. DU DECOR. Paris: La Douce France, 1925. Original wraps; small illustration to front cover; slight wear to spine ends; plates; mild toning to text; partially unopened. $50
A collection of essays on the New Stagecraft, including “les scènes à architecture fixe,” “le décor spatial,” “le décor peint,” “les moyens d’expression” and individual pieces on Max Reinhardt and E. Gordon Craig. With 14 plates of the author’s own stage settings.