Studio portrait of Ilka Pálmay, Hungarian opera singer and actress. Vienna, circa 1885.

A$100 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Albumen print photograph in cabinet card format, 162 x 108 mm (mount), identifying caption beneath image in pencil in a 19th-century hand Palmay ; recto and verso of the gilt-edged mount with imprint of the studio of Dr. Josef Székely, Vienna, and the wet stamp of the photography dealer S. Bloch, Vienna; print and mount are both in superb condition. A magnificent portrait of the beautiful operatic soprano Ilka Pálmay, in stage costume for her role as a cossack. A companion portrait, taken at the same sitting, is held in the Theater Museum, Vienna (inventory number FS_PK147502old). From Wikipedia: Ilka Pálmay (often erroneously written Ilka von Pálmay; 21 September 1859 – 17 February 1945), born Ilona Petráss, was a Hungarian-born singer and actress. Pálmay began her stage career in Hungary by 1880, and by the early 1890s, she was creating leading roles in opera and operetta at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. She was married to Austrian Count Eugen Kinsky in the early 1890s. In 1895, Pálmay began to perform in London, and in 1896 she created the leading role of Julia in Gilbert and Sullivan s The Grand Duke. In 1897, Palmay returned to Hungary and spent most of the rest of her long and successful career in Hungary and Austria. She continued to perform until 1928. Pálmay was born in Ungvar, in the Ung County of the Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Ukraine). She was married twice, first to actor-manager József Szigligeti (from 1877 to 1886), and then to Austrian Count Eugen Ki

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.