Charles Kean, Irish-born actor and theatre manager: autograph note, signed, to theatre designer Thomas Grieve. (Plus a clipped signature of his wife, actress Ellen Tree)

A$100 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Signed

[London? no date simply Thursday night but probably circa 1850]. Manuscript in ink, 1 page, written on the first side of an octavo bifolium of expensive notepaper (190 x 150 mm); the note is addressed My dear Grieve (i.e. Thomas Grieve, theatre designer and scene painter), and is signed Yours sincerely C. Kean ; this was evidently a cover note that accompanied a partial draft of a new production by Kean, who writes: I send you the first act of the Easter piece. As soon as you can, let me have it back pray do, as I require it immediately. You shall have the second act as soon as I gets it . ; well preserved and tipped onto a nineteenth-century album page (verso blank); mounted below it is a fine clipped signature of English actress Ellen Tree (circa 1840), who married Charles Kean in 1842 and subsequently became known as Mrs Kean; the compiler of the album has annotated the page beside the signature Mrs Charles Kean . Provenance: Autograph album compiled by Jane Emma Murphy (Balcombe) (1854-1924), The Briars, Mornington, Victoria (Australia); à Beckett family, Melbourne (by descent).

• Binding: Hardcover

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