Rare Theater Books

Philadelphia, PA: Bioren & Madan, 1795. First Edition.. Leather Bound. Very Good/No Jacket (as issued). 16mo 5.75 - 6.75'' tall. Leather Bound. Condition: Very Good. Jacket Condition: No Jacket (as issued). Bioren & Madan, Philadelphia, PA 1795. Corrected From the Latest and Best London Editions, With Notes By Samuel Johnson, L.L.D. to Which Are Added, a Glossary and the Life of the Author. First American printing of the works of Shakespeare. Imbellished with a striking Likeness from the Collection of his Grace the Duke of Chandos. First Edition. 1st American Printing. Volumes 1,3,4,5,6,7 ONLY of 8 volume set. Full leather bound, boards undecorated, spine has deep-red title band and black edition band, with gold lettering, stars and bands. Plain endpapers and page edges. Volume One has frontispiece portrait of Shakespeare. All title pages state 'First American Edition', with a date of 1795 or 1796. Some spine ends have small leather loss, to level of top or bottom of text block. All hinges are… Read More

Probaly Venice, 1825. An exquisite suite of watercolours, including a beautiful series of scenes documenting a Venetian commedia dell'arte troupe, by the Italian artist Francesco Novelli. Francesco Novelli (1767-1836), one of the preeminent artists of his generation, lived in Venice where he was best known for his outstanding book illustration. He enjoyed a long and successful career that culminated in the landmark editions of Don Quixote (1819) and Gil Blas (1820). Novelli is also known for illustrating works such as the Fasti Veneziani (1794), hinting at his abiding interest in the theatre and the performing arts. In this unmatched collection of Novelli's watercolours, the greatest number are piquant images of a troupe of the commedia dell'arte, with especially fine depictions of Pierrot himself, as well as other key figures such as Columbine and Harlequin. There is a remarkable series of scenes from a play, as well as studies of individual performers, many so precisely rendered that it is almost… Read More

Works Projects Administration, 1939. Softcover. Good. The hard-to-find Volume 13, Minstrelsy, of the notable ca. 1939 WPA San Francisco Theater Research series. This volume presents an extensive history of regional San Francisco minstrelsy from its earliest days. Illustrated with 19 historical photos of performers, some in blackface. Contents include discussions of blackface. Numerous appendices. Scarce. 301 pp. 10 3/4" x 8 3/8". Tight, unmarked copy with light shelf wear and minor loss to bottom right corner of front panel. Light staining along margins of front panel spine and bottom. Photographs of or additional information about this item are available on request. All inquiries answered promptly.

Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade. By Patrick Dennis. Vanguard Press 1959 First Edition, Stated Third Printing Thus. "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!" Used. VG/VG Unclipped $3.50 ORIGINAL DJ is now protected in a mylar wrap. One of the funniest books ever written, this story was also a made into a play, a film, and a musical with the incomparable Rosalind Russell and Lucille Ball. Rare/quite scarce in a nice dj. Please see our photos. A great find.

Hellman, Lillian: The Searching Wind. PLAY The Viking Press, 1st Ed., First printing Thus, June, 1944. DRAMA. Used. Good/Good unclipped DJ $2.00 price. Protected in a mylar wrap.

MAUDE HUMPHREY: Treasury of Stories, Jingles, and Rhymes. Frederick A. Stokes, undated. Circa 1894. FIRST EDITION. ILLUSTRATED BY MAUDE HUMPHREY. Written by Mary Rice Miller and Elisabeth S. Tucker. SHORT STORY ANTHOLOGY. 242 pages. Maroon boards with gold titling and ornamentation. Good condition front paper paste-down label of a little girl wearing a red feather in her blue hat. Please see our photos. Used. Good/ No DJ. A solid copy with intact gutters. "Humphrey was one of the first great American women illustrators paving the way for Jessie Willcox Smith, Grace Drayton and the many other women illustrators of the early 20th century. Humphrey is also known for being film star HUMPHREY BOGART'S mother (and in fact she used her son as a model for many of her pictures)." QUITE RARE. A NICE FIND.

Rare complete set of 70 hand-coloured lithographic portraits of French actors and actresses on the Paris stage, circa 1825. Also known as Collection de portraits des artistes des theatres de Paris.Fine hand-coloured portraits of actors, opera singers and ballet dancers in costume of their famous roles by Alexandre-Marie Colin and Louis Marin-Lavigne, lithographed by F. Noel.Artistes include actors Jean-Baptiste Firmin, Joseph-Isidore Samson, Jenny Vertpre and Mlle. Pauline, opera singers Louis Fereol, Louise Therese Lemonnier, Felicite Pradher, Adolphe Nourrit, Caroline Branchu and Mlle. Grassari, ballet dancers Marie Cheza, Louise Pierson and Zelie Molard, mime artist Charles-Francois Mazurier.Condition: Original marble boards rebound into a portfolio with buckram spine, all 70 plates loose inside. Plates fine and vibrant with excellent handcolouring, a few with repairs. Alexandre-Marie Colin (1798-1875) was a French painter of historical and genre subjects. Louis Stanislas Marin-Lavigne (1797-1860)… Read More

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS The Rose Tattoo. !950, New Directions, NY. STATED FIRST PRINTING. Used. Very Good/ Good- Condition Original Lustig pink rose dust jacket. Front flap Price $3.00. Nice. Summary: A drama with comedic elements. Set in the 20th Century American South. About an Italian family. 144 pages. 5 1/2 X 8 3/8

London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green , 1827. Two volumes in contemporary calf, professionally rebacked in matching calf with red and green morocco labels lettered in gilt and with gilt floral decorations, edges marbled, plain white later end papers. Very Good, the boards lightly rubbed at edges.Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) was an Irish playwright, poet and satirist and long-time owner of the London Theatre Royal. . Fifth Edition. Full Calf. Very Good/No Jacket, As Issued. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Rare set of 20 parts from the first four series of Leon Sault's fancy-dress or cos-play magazine. Each part (or livraison) with 3 hand-coloured lithographs and 3 lithographs on a particular theme for a total of 118 plates, 58 hand-coloured (missing two plates, Jeune Homme 1:5 and Polonaise 2:5).The designs can be split into allegorical and traditional costumes. Allegorical includes games, the four seasons, the elements (fire, air, snow), winged creatures, fruits and flowers, etc. Traditional includes national costumes of China, Japan, England, Scotland, Scandinavia, Alsace and Brittany as well as French historical costumes from the reign of Henri III, Henri IV, Louis XVI, the French Revolution, Napoleonic, etc.With the popularity of masquerade balls at the court of Empress Eugenie in the Second Empire, demand for unique fancy dress costumes increased. Sault published his fancy dress designs in the magazine L'Art du Travestissements from the 1880s and began selling his unique stage costumes to the… Read More

Ten Little Indians Dodd, Mead Greenway Edition, Copyright 1967 by Agatha Christie Mallowan. States: First published in the Greenway Edition in the United States 1978. Number line starts with 2. Used. VERY GOOD/ VG Unclipped original bright orange fish motif dust jacket. ffp $8.95 A nice, crisp copy in a mylar wrap. DJ spine states 24. Our DJ spine is slightly sunned. "Ten Little Indians, aka And Then There Were None and (offensive language alert) Ten Little N*ggers, is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November, 1939 as Ten Little N-ggers, after the children's counting and minstrel song, which serves as a major plot element."

London: Constable, 1930. Hardback. Very Good. Uniform English Edition". 8vo, pp. [vi], [390], [2]. Fawn cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Extremities bumped, bands of sunning to top and bottom edges. Bookseller's ticket to front pastedown, review clipping laid in. Else, clean and tight. In the original muted brown paper dust jacket: price-clipped, spine gently sunned and creased, head of spine frayed, wear to extremities. Still, a pleasing copy. Very good/ very good. Unusual in the trade. Originally published in 1916 by John Lane in New York and London, Constable's new edition featured an additional four plays, 'Phantasmagoria,' 'The Court of Progress,' 'The Dream' and 'The Hand of the Potter'. The laid in review draws attention to the cinematic facets of the playwright's work: "Mr. Theodore Dreiser's collection of plays is a reminder of the films' continuous and increasing influence upon the theatre. This influence is neither wholly good nor wholly bad; its effect depends upon the innate quality of… Read More

(cm 33x27,5). An elaborate - very rare - children's movable and pop-up book by the Munich lawyer and author of humourous verse, Franz Bonn (cfr. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Bonn). This complete with four splendid perspective scenes, each with five different levels. The scenes are "The Menagerie", "The Circus", "The Puppet Theater" (with a rotating disc), and "Summer in the Park". With verses by Mrs. Bonn. Klotz I, 592, 4. We could trace just one other copy (Munich, IJB).

1844 EXQUISITE Friedrich Schiller Historical Tragedy Play German Theater BINDING

"The voice of the majority is no proof of justice."
– Schiller, Maria Stuart
Friedrich Schiller was a prominent 18th-century German poet and playwright known for his philosophical dramas. He was greatly influenced by friend and fellow poet Johann von Goethe, but was well respected for his historical tragic plays such as 'Don Carlo', 'Mary Stuart', and 'William Tell'. This 1844 German printing of his works is bound in stunning, ornate leather binding beautifully decorated with gold-embossed décor on the spine.
Item number: #19235
Price: $750
SCHILLER, Friedrich von
Schillers sämmtliche Werke
Stuttgart & Tübingen : Cotta, 1844.

Details:

· Collation: Complete with all pages; 10 volumes in 5 tomes
o
Tome I
Vol. 1 – XVI, 423, [1]
Vol. 2 – [6], 411, [1]
o
Tome II
Vol. 3 – [6], 422
Vol. 4 – [6], 441, [1]
o
Tome III
Vol. 5 – [6], 372
Vol. 6 – [6], 520
o
Tome IV
Vol. 7 – [6],… Read More

Jiangxi Art Publishing Company, 1993. Hardcover First Edition. 170pp, large quarto in case. Compiled by the Music-drama Institute of the Chinese Academy of Arts. Near Fine book in Good slipcase. Gray boards show minor shelf and handling wear; there is a crease on the page before the Contents. Else clean and bright. This is, overall, a stunning volume, colorful and clean, gray boards and colorful pastedown are clean, tight binding. Slipcase shows significant shelf and handling wear with scuffing, fading, three tears in the binding at the spine of the slipcase, and edge and corner wear. It has done its job protecting the volume inside. [Seattle, WA, U.S.A.] Photos are of the copy here at Barbed Wire Books.