Details
MELBA, Dame Nellie (1861-1931). A collection of 22 autograph letters signed (two incomplete, last bifolia only) to her sister 'Tib' (Mrs T.A. Patterson), Tring, Knole, Wemyss Castle, Hinchingbroke, Belfast, London, Long Island, Boston, Paris, Monte Carlo, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest and n.p., 1 August 1895 - [January 1902], many n.d., with an autograph letter signed to her mother, Cannes, 18 February 1923, and an autograph letter signed to 'Mr Williamson', Baron's Court, Ireland, n.d., together approximately 125 pages, 8vo and 4to, envelopes; with single letters to Tib from her mother and sister Clara, and a letter to Melba from 'Santos', referring to an airship.
[with] Four portrait photographs signed and inscribed by Nellie Melba, comprising: two full length portraits in costume as Manon Lescaut, inscribed 'Souvenir de Manon, Nellie Melba, 1896', and 'To dearest Tib from Nellie, 1896, Manon', by Falk, New York, 296 x 177mm (foxed, wear to mounts); half length portrait, in profile, inscribed 'To dear Tib from Nellie 1902', by Talma & Co, Melbourne, 189 x 130mm (some discolouration, wear to mount); full length portrait, seated by a table, inscribed 'To Annie from Nellie, 1903', by Reutlinger, Paris, 146 x 101mm (slight spotting); with 3 other portrait photographs and two postcards of Melba; [and] a silk evening bag, embroidered with floral patterns and with the name 'Nellie' picked out in spangles, approximately 320 x 235mm (worn) and two commemorative programmes, printed on cloth (one split at fold).
Nellie Melba in the middle of her career, recounting a dazzling, but also exhausting, life in constant motion between great capitals and great houses. A highlight is her first performance in Vienna: on the day of the concert she writes 'My voice is perfectly beautiful, I wish you could hear it'; she writes a few days later to describe her triumph, which ended with her being 'called out perhaps 40 times', and in the mêlée which followed the concert 'all the flowers on my dress were torn off it was really wonderful'. The correspondence gives some indication of the strain of Melba's career, with complaints of ill-health and her family's neglect, and repeated plans for visits to Australia; on the other hand the letters from the great houses of Britain reveal a frank enjoyment of her delight at the elevated company to which her talent had given her an entrée - particularly evident in a letter from Tring recounting in awed tones the luxuries of life as a guest of Alfred de Rothschild. (56)
[with] Four portrait photographs signed and inscribed by Nellie Melba, comprising: two full length portraits in costume as Manon Lescaut, inscribed 'Souvenir de Manon, Nellie Melba, 1896', and 'To dearest Tib from Nellie, 1896, Manon', by Falk, New York, 296 x 177mm (foxed, wear to mounts); half length portrait, in profile, inscribed 'To dear Tib from Nellie 1902', by Talma & Co, Melbourne, 189 x 130mm (some discolouration, wear to mount); full length portrait, seated by a table, inscribed 'To Annie from Nellie, 1903', by Reutlinger, Paris, 146 x 101mm (slight spotting); with 3 other portrait photographs and two postcards of Melba; [and] a silk evening bag, embroidered with floral patterns and with the name 'Nellie' picked out in spangles, approximately 320 x 235mm (worn) and two commemorative programmes, printed on cloth (one split at fold).
Nellie Melba in the middle of her career, recounting a dazzling, but also exhausting, life in constant motion between great capitals and great houses. A highlight is her first performance in Vienna: on the day of the concert she writes 'My voice is perfectly beautiful, I wish you could hear it'; she writes a few days later to describe her triumph, which ended with her being 'called out perhaps 40 times', and in the mêlée which followed the concert 'all the flowers on my dress were torn off it was really wonderful'. The correspondence gives some indication of the strain of Melba's career, with complaints of ill-health and her family's neglect, and repeated plans for visits to Australia; on the other hand the letters from the great houses of Britain reveal a frank enjoyment of her delight at the elevated company to which her talent had given her an entrée - particularly evident in a letter from Tring recounting in awed tones the luxuries of life as a guest of Alfred de Rothschild. (56)
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