F I N E B O O K S & M A N U S C R I P T S
13. Hard Times For These Times DICKENS, Charles
Bradbury & Evans, 1854. First edition. Original olive green cloth. First issue with hor- izontally ribbed cloth with the price 5/- in gilt at the base of the spine. A fine copy, with a little fading to the spine and edges as usual, but a very bright and clean copy. Internally fresh with perfect hinges and a little foxing to the preliminary leaves. An exceptional copy. [41972] £3,500
A SIGNED RELIC OF DICKENS’S AMATEUR DRAMATICS
14. A Playbill And Signed Ticket For A “Strictly Pri- vate” Amateur Performance DICKENS, Charles Bradbury and Evans, September 20, 1845. The original playbill, and a ticket signed by Dickens, for the amateur performance of Ben Jonson’s Every Man In His Humour in which Dickens starred. The playbill (250 x 200mm) attractively printed in green, red and gold. The ticket (95 x 130mm), titled “Strictly Private” and inscribed in Dickens’s hand for “Miss M. Holskamp”, and offering her seat no. “40” in “Boxes. Second Cir- cle”. The ticket is also signed by Dickens to verso. In excellent condition, the playbill once lightly folded. Now both items mounted, framed and glazed, with a window mount to verso showing Dickens’s signature. [40892] £9,500 An excellent relic of a extravagant evening of amateur dramatics, both organised by and starring Charles Dickens. Dickens had warmed to the idea of himself as a performer after giving a small reading of The Chimes in 1844. By the following September he had organised and cast the evening’s entertain- ment remembered here, the highlight of which was Dickens’s own performance as Jonson’s Cap- tain Bobadil. Jonson’s play was both preceded and followed by the performance of Rossini over- tures, with the evening concluded by Catherine Gore’s one act farce A Good Night’s Rest . Attendance at the private performance at Miss Kelly’s Theatre was by invitation only, with both the playbill and ticket titled “strictly private”. The “Miss M. Holskamp” of Dickens’s inscription is Margaret Holskamp (1827-1908), a correspondent of Dickens’s favourite child Kate. PROVENANCE: Miss Margaret Holskamp, the “Miss M. Holskamp” of Dickens’s inscription. .
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