LOT RR Auction  /  RR Auction Quality Autograph Auction 369  / 

365

Notables

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:5,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
Notables

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Auction Date:2011 Apr 13 @ 19:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Leatherbound hardcover edition of Kate Greenaway’s Birthday Book for Children, 3.5 x 3.75, signed inside by 173 notables, authors, royalty and other people of distinction, with a small handful signing on clipped slips affixed to pages, while most are directly signed on the page of their respective birthdate, some multi signed pages, and some pages back to back. The opening detached presentation page, bears a gift presentation in Greenaway’s hand to “[Presented to]Lady Dorothy Nevill by Kate Greenaway, 10. Feb. 1886.”

Beside Greenaway herself, the remarkable assemblage of signers include: Oscar Wilde, Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Charles Dickens, George V, Queen Victoria, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Sullivan, Algernon Swinburne, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Emile Zola, Arthur James Balfour, Beatrice, Sarah Bernhardt, James G. Blaine, Louis Botha, Paul Bourget, John Bright, Robert Browning, Randolph S. Churchill, Samuel Clemens (signing as Mark Twain), Edward VII (signing as Albert Edward), Francis, Duke of Teck, Alexander Dumas (fils), William Gillette, William Gladstone, H. Rider Haggard, Bret Harte, John Hay, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Edward Cardinal Howard, Victor Hugo, Henry Irving, James Russell Lowell, Guglielmo Marconi, Mary of Teck, Justin McCarthy, John Everett Millais, Helena Modjeska, John H. Cardinal Newman, Queen Alexandra, Queen Maud, John Ruskin, Ellen Terry, Herbert Cardinal Vaughan, and Otto von Bismark. A few opening pages detached (including Greenaway’s presentation page), some light toning and wrinkling from adhesive, brushing to a few signatures, and light wear to covers, otherwise fine condition.

A famous illustrator and watercolorist, it is not surprising that Greenaway would be in presence of the many luminaries found in this album. It would also be no surprise that she would collect and present such a fine collection to Lady Dorothy Fanny Nevill. Lady Nevill (1826–1913) was a well-known English writer, hostess, collector and patron of Greenaway, who counted James McNeill Whistler and Charles Darwin among her friends. So many of the signatures on the actual pages of the book strongly implies that these were not the result of quick and random meetings, and it seems very likely that Greenaway carried this book with her for some time, spending great care in assembling the collection of signatures for Lady Nevill. This is a true gem…a truly one-of-a-kind collection!
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