Autograph Book (Singers, Composers and Musicians)
Publisher:
Stock Code: 3619
Autograph Book : signatures of notable Singers, Composers and Musicians. Book Condition: Good. Red calf with heavy blindstamped decoration to boards. All edges gilt; primrose yellow endpapers. Plain pages with red-ruled margins by T Houlden of Edinburgh. Over 100 signatures of late nineteenth/early twentieth century figures from the musical world including violinists, pianists, opera singers, conductors, composers and a complete set of St George's Double Quartet of Edinburgh, together with their organist and conductor. Some of the signatures are written directly onto the page, grouped in categories such as "Tenors" and "Conductors & Composers", some pasted to pages and others are loosely inserted. Some of the insertions also include attached letters and notes, and several have been placed in labelled envelopes in a later hand. The boards are rubbed to edges and the spine is absent; endpapers are lightly soiled and some pages are wrinkled from the paste used to attach the signatures. The album belonged to Col. David Boyle Hope of Edinburgh and his signature is the first in the album, dated 1863; the latest are those of the Double Quartet dated 1918. Many entries are undated and some include a little musical notation; Polish violinist and composer Isidor Lotto, Irish composer and accompanist Sir Herbert Hamilton Harty and the British music critic John Alexander Fuller Maitland all appear twice. Other notable luminaries of the musical world include John Pyke Hullah, English composer and pioneer in the field of musical education, Alfred Mellon, conductor of the popular Promenade concerts and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Jenny Lind, the celebrated opera singer known as "the Swedish Nightingale", under her married name of Goldschmidt. Col Hope was Secretary of the Scottish Vocal Music Association and the collection reflects his lifelong interest in musical subjects. £400.00