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Description
Gaby Deslys signed autograph album, Edinburgh 1916 to 1917, with Evie Greene and the Beecham Opera Company
An original autograph album of the First World War years, gathered largely in Edinburgh, opening with a full page inscription by Gaby Deslys and running on through the leading singers of the Beecham Opera Company, a star of the Edwardian musical stage, a variety entertainer and several pieces of soldiers\' artwork. Not a reproduction, not a facsimile, and not a modern compilation: this is the album as it was carried and filled at the time.
Gaby Deslys
The album opens with a full page inscription in French, \"Que Dieu vous protège\", may God protect you, signed Gaby Deslys in a large flowing hand across the leaf.
Gaby Deslys, 1881 to 1920, was one of the most famous women in Europe. A French singer, dancer and actress, she was notorious across the continent for her association with King Manuel II of Portugal, and by the middle of the war she was a star of London revue, partnered on stage by Harry Pilcer. She died in 1920 at the age of thirty eight, so her signing life was short and her autograph is scarce rather than merely old. A wartime inscription of this kind, written in full across a whole page rather than squeezed onto a card, is a better thing to own than a plain signature.
Evie Greene
Evie Greene, 1875 to 1917, created the part of Dolores in Florodora at the Lyric Theatre in 1899, one of the biggest musical successes of its day, and went on to lead Kitty Grey and A Country Girl. She was among the most photographed women on the English stage. She died on 11 September 1917, aged forty two, which means a signature given in 1916 or 1917 was written within roughly a year of her death.
The Beecham Opera Company at the King\'s Theatre, Edinburgh
The album carries a group of signatures from Thomas Beecham\'s opera company, gathered while it was playing the King\'s Theatre in Edinburgh. They include Maurice d\'Oisly, the tenor, Edith Clegg, Frank Kendall and Alfred Heather. Beecham\'s company was the leading force in English opera in these years, performing in English and touring the major provincial houses, and it dissolved in 1920, so signatures gathered from it in wartime belong to a company with a short life and a large reputation.
Nixon Grey and the soldiers\' artwork
Also present is the entertainer Nixon Grey, and several pages of artwork by soldiers, drawn straight into the album in the ordinary way of the period, when a book like this went round a mixed company of performers and servicemen. These pages are the part of the album that cannot be duplicated anywhere else.
Collation
Covers: original boards, front cover and rear cover.Pages: 120 pages in total.Pages carrying content: 34.Pages carrying illustrations or drawings: 6.Size: 150 x 115 mm, height before width.
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Condition
Good original condition for its age. Boards rubbed at the corners and along the spine ends, binding sound, leaves clean with light foxing and toning in places, no loss to any signed leaf. The Deslys inscription is clear and unfaded. Sold as found, as an original document of its date.
