Richard Wagner - March 2015

Prices in this catalogue are net and do not include postage or insurance
which will be added to the invoice. VAT is included in the prices for prints
and autograph letters. Payment may be made by personal cheque drawn on
a UK bank, banker’s draft in sterling, international money order, or credit
card, noting full name of cardholder, card type and number, expiry date
and the security number on reverse (last three digits). Direct bank
transfers to
HSBC Private Bank (UK) Ltd., 78 St James’s St, London SW1A 1JB,
sort code 40 05 50, a/c no.91382578
All books are published in London unless otherwise stated.
OPENING TIMES
Monday — Friday: 9:30am – 6.00pm
Saturday: 10:00am – 4.00pm
HENRY SOTHERAN LIMITED
2 Sackville Street
Piccadilly
London
W1S 3DP
tel: 020 7439 6151
fax: 020 7434 2019
email: books@sotherans.co.uk
website: www.sotherans.co.uk
A quarter of a millennium in bookselling
Richard Wagner
HENRY SOTHERAN LIMITED
Fine and Rare Antiquarian Books and Prints
2 Sackville Street
Piccadilly, London W1S 3DP
Tel: 020 7439 6151
Fax: 020 7434 2019
Email: books@sotherans.co.uk
Libretti and Illustrated Editions
(Chronologically listed)
1
Other Accounts of Legends
18
Commemorabilia
23
Miscellanea
27
LIBRETTI
AND ILLUSTRATED
1. WAGNER, Richard Tannhauser and the Tournament of
Song on the Wartburg. Romantic Opera in Three Acts.
Translated by John P. Jackson. [No Publisher]. 1875. £1,250
8vo., original grey printed wrappers; pp. 6 + [2] +51.
Wrappers a little browned and spotted,with small chip off
the top front corner, with just a little internal spotting. A
very good copy, preserved in custom-made cloth case with
leather label.
First edition, very rare. John P Jackson’s translation of
Tannhauser provided the libretto used for the first production
of the opera in English at Her Majesty’s Theatre, February
14th 1882, by the Carl Rosa Company. The Carl Rosa
Company edition of the libretto appeared for the first time
in the same year. This earlier edition, printed at the
Chiswick Press, bears no publisher’s imprint, although
“London:” and “New York:” are printed on the title-page
with the date of 1875. It would appear therefore that this was
either an early proof copy, printed before Jackson had
secured a publisher, and perhaps as one of a few
promotional copies to show to prospective publishers or
opera producers, or one of a small number of copies printed
to secure copyright, as the statement “Copyright Secured” is
printed on the verso of the half-title. Jackson’s desire to
secure copyright for his translation may stem from the fact
that he was due to attend the Wagner festival to be held at
the Royal Albert Hall in May 1877, where some of his
translations were used. A selection of the texts used at the
Festival, including Jackson’s, was published by Hodge and
Essez in 1877.
EDITIONS
2. WAGNER, Richard Lohengrin. Romantic Opera.
Translated by John P. Jackson. [No Publisher]. 1876. £1,250
8vo., original grey printed wrappers; pp. vi + [2] +64.
Wrappers a little browned and spotted, with just a little
internal spotting. A very good copy, preserved in custommade cloth case with leather label.
First edition, very rare. John P Jackson’s translation of
Lohengrin provided the libretto used for the first production
of the opera in English at Her Majesty’s Theatre, February
7th 1880 by the Carl Rosa Company. The Carl Rosa
Company edition of the libretto appeared for the first time
in the same year. This earlier edition, printed at the
Chiswick Press, bears no publisher’s imprint, although
“London:” and “New York:” are printed on the title-page
with the date of 1876. It would appear therefore that this
was either an early proof copy, printed before Jackson had
secured a publisher, and perhaps as one of a few
promotional copies to show to prospective publishers or
opera producers, or one of a small number of copies printed
to secure copyright, as the statement “Copyright Secured” is
printed on the verso of the half-title. Jackson’s desire to
secure copyright for his translation may stem from the fact
that he was due to attend the Wagner festival to be held at
the Royal Albert Hall in May 1877, where some of his
translations were used. A selection of the texts used at the
Festival, including Jackson’s, was published by Hodge and
Essez in 1877.
This copy is inscribed on the front wrapper “With the
compliments of the Translator”.
This copy is inscribed on the front wrapper “With the
compliments of the Translator”.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
1
RICHARD WAGNER
3. WAGNER, Richard. The Nibelung’s Ring. A Festival
Play for Three Days and a Fore-Evening. English Words to
Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in the
Alliterative Verse of the Original by Alfred Forman.
London, Schott and Co., 1877.
£598
Small-8vo. Original dark brown cloth, spine lettered and
ruled in gilt, gilt lettering and Ring logo on front cover, both
covers ruled in blind and black; cloth a little marked in
places, apart from offsetting from the endpapers to initial
and final pages internally good.
First complete libretto of the Ring Cycle in English,
translated by one of the foremost English Wagnerians, who
previously had the single parts of the Ring privately printed
and presented to Wagner in Bayreuth and procured some
stage props from England for the festival. This edition is
rather rare as well, as the Stabreim and Wagner’s extremely
condensed and meaning-laden style of libretto writing is
almost impossible to translate and the English Wagnerians
understood - more or less - the German that was performed
in front of them anyway.
Provenance: This copy has the names of the singers of the
cast of the first complete staging of the Ring in Britain in
May 1882 supplied in pencil, which makes it likely that the
owner attended the event, which had been organised by the
impresario Angelo Neumann and which took place at Her
Majesty’s Theatre, Haymarket. One star in particular shining
in this performance was the Wagner soprano and
mezzosoprano Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann who died the
following summer in Italy, not quite 30 years old.
2
4. WAGNER, Richard. Tristan and Isolde Translated by
Frederick Jameson. Privately Printed. 1886.
£498
8vo, original green cloth, spine and upper board ruled and
lettered in gilt, lower board ruled in blind, red edges. A near
fine copy.
First edition of the first translation of Tristan and Isolde to be
printed in Britain, the second English translation. Privately
printed by Charles Dickens and Evans at the Crystal Palace
Press. Scarce: The translation was subsequently published
by Schott with an amended title Tristan and Isolde : lyric drama.
The first translation into English by Frederick Corder had
been printed by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1882 in Leipzig.
With the ink name of Olivia G Trotter (nee Wellesley) on
front free endpaper. Olivia Wellesley was born on Sept 29,
1857 and became the wife (1890) of Sir Henry Trotter (died
1919), the Consul-General in Romania (1894 – 1906). She was
the mother of Angela Trotter (1897 – 1981), Countess of
Limerick. Lady Trotter performed valuable work for the war
effort during WW I, organising hospital units and comforts
for the troops. She was created D.G.ST.J (Daughter of Grace
of St John of Jerusalem) in recognition of her work, and
received the Medaille de la Reine Elisabeth of Belgium.
6. [WAGNER, Richard] WADDELL, Rev. P. Hately. The
Parsifal Of Richard Wagner at Bayreuth, 1894. Edinburgh
and London. William Blackwood & Sons. 1894.
£98
5. [WAGNER, Richard.] LEEKE, Ferdinand (artist).
Richard Wagner-Werk. Ein Bildercyklus … Begleitender
Text von Franz Muncker [– Neue Folge]. Munich: Franz
Hanfstaengl, [1894–1895].
£550
8vo., original blue cloth lettered in gilt on spine and upper
board with gilt spear, goblet and musical quotation in gilt on
upper board, printed in red and black. With musical
quotations in the text. Browning to end papers as usual,
otherwise a very good copy.
First edition.
Folio (495 x 368 mm), 2 volumes, original cloth by Gustav
Fritzsche, Leipzig [I] and Leipziger BuchbindereiActiengesellschaft vormals Gustav Fritzsche, Leipzig [II],
upper boards decorated in gilt and colours and with mounted
illustrations, lower boards blocked in blind, all edges gilt; I:
pp. [4], 8; II: pp. [2], 3, [1]; 30 mounted engraved plates, titles
printed in red and black; some marking on vol. II binding,
otherwise a very good set; provenance: Walther Richard
Linnemann, music publisher at Kistner & Siegel, (booklabel).
First editions of each part. The artist Ferdinand Leeke (1859–
1925) specialized in scenes from Germany’s early history and
the Middle Ages, making him an obvious choice for
illustrating Wagner. Such was the success of Leeke’s work
that Wagner’s son, Siegfried, commissioned ten paintings to
commemorate his father and mother.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
3
RICHARD WAGNER
7. WAGNER, Richard. Parsifal in English Verse from the
German of Richard Wagner by Alfred Forman. Printed for
the Translator by Private Subscription and issued with the Consent
£750
of Messrs Schott & Co. 1899.
8vo., finely bound in full brown morocco boards with single
gilt line panel, the upper boards decorated with a gilt border
of dots, leaves, and tulip stems, spine lettered and panelled
in gilt with tulip stem centre tools, turn-ins with elaborate gilt
corners, top edge gilt. Spine slightly faded, upper joint very
lightly rubbed, one corner a little bumped, otherwise a very
good copy in an attractive, although unsigned, designer
binding.
First Forman translation.
“Forman heard one of Edward
Dannreuther’s Wagner concerts in 1873 and concluded that
there had ‘been given to the world something so new and so
great that it would be at my own spiritual risk if I deferred
for a moment longer the attempt to come to an
understanding with it’ (Forman, ‘Pioneer’, 463). He privately
printed his translation of Die Walküre in 1873 and sent a copy
to Wagner, who encouraged him. By 1876 all four parts of his
translation of The Ring had been printed and Forman went
to Bayreuth to present them to Wagner. This was during the
first complete performance, to which Forman contributed
the stage animals, ordered from Richard Keene of
Wandsworth, a well-known maker of pantomime props. In
1877 Wagner visited England and Forman was lent the
manuscript of Parsifal overnight (vide infra); just before this,
he was sent the libretto of a scene from Die Walküre which
was later acquired by his brother Henry (Harry) Buxton
Forman (1842–1917) (it was lot 890 in the first part of the sale
of his library). Alfred Forman’s other Wagner translations
appeared in 1891 (Tristan), 1899 (Parsifal), and posthumously
in 1928 (Tannhäuser). He was Wagner’s first translator, but
his style was very stilted, and he was superseded by H. and
F. Corder, Margaret Glyn, J. P. Jackson, Ernest Newman, and
others. In Parsifal, for instance, his knights urge Amfortas to
‘unmuffle the grail’.” (Oxford DNB)
In his introduction Forman states “In the case of Parsifal I
had the inestimable advantage in the spring of 1877, of
hearing it read by Wagner to a very small audience collected
at the house of my friend Mr Edward Dannreuther, in Orme
Square. There too, it had occured to Wagner that the
reading would be of greater interest to me if I were enabled
to make a previous acquaintance with the play; and it rests
among my most precious memories that the MS. was placed
in my possession for study before the reading took place.
The drama was published in December 1877; and my
translation was finished in July 1878. The reasons which have
kept it so long unprinted I need not here explain”.
4
8. [WAGNER, Richard.] LEEKE, Ferdinand (artist).
Richard Wagner’s Heldengestalten. 12 Kunstblätter nach
Originalen von F. Leeke. Mappe I [– II]. Leipzig: Kunstverlag
L. Pernitzsch (Th. Gruhl), [c.1900].
£550
Folio, 2 parts, original card portfolios, upper covers lettered
in white and with mounted portraits of Wagner after P.
Zechendorf; 12 loose plates (6 in each portfolio); a very good
set.
A series of plates depicting scenes from Rienzi, Der fliegende
Holländer, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Rheingold, Walküre (two
illustrations), Siegfried,
Götterdämmerung, and
Parsifal, by Ferdinand
Leeke, one of the
leading
Wagnerian
artists of the late
nineteenth century.
KVK locates one copy
only,
at
the
Staatsbibliothek Berlin;
not in OCLC.
9. [WAGNER, Richard.] FRITSCH, Victor, Ritter von.
Ein Königstraum. Textlicher und musikalischer Teil …
Bilder von Ferdinand Leeke. Munich: Franz Hanfstaengl,
1900.
£550
Large 4to (395 x 310 mm), original padded cloth, decorated
in gilt and with applied lettering, all edges gilt; pp. [54]; 13
photogravure plates retaining tissue guards, music and
illustrations in the text; a little bumped, hinges starting;
otherwise a very good copy; provenance: Walther Richard
Linnemann (booklabel).
First edition. The Viennese writer Victor von Fritsch here
presents an extraordinary synthesis of Wagner’s work, from
Rienzi to Parsifal, the effusive text richly illustrated by
Ferdinand Leeke, one of the leading Wagnerian artists of the
late nineteenth century. The king of the title is Ludwig II of
Bavaria, before whom various characters from the opera
appear. A contemporary critic wrote that ‘nothing can be
compared to it, either for the richness and poetic beauty of
the text or the brilliant variety of the artistic media
employed’.
OCLC locates 3 copies (Cornell, NYPL, Wells College).
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
5
RICHARD WAGNER
10. WAGNER, Richard. Operas. New York.
Crowell. 1903-1911.
Thomas Y
£2,500
8vo., 6 volumes, recently handsomely bound in harlequin
morocco backed cloth boards with gilt rule, lettered in gilt on
spine. Printed in red and black.
First editions with translations by the Wagner scholar Oliver
Huckel , elegantly printed on handmade paper by Daniel
Berkeley Updike at his Merrymount Press. Each volume
includes the full libretto together with a Foreword by Huckel.
The collection includes:
Parsifal. “retold in the spirit of the Bayreuth Interpretation”.
With 5 illustrations by Franz Stassen.
Tannhauser “freely translated in poetic narrative form”.
With 4 illustrations.
The Rhine-gold.”freely translated in poetic narrative form”.
With 2 illustrations.
The Valkyrie “freely translated in poetic narrative form”.
With 4 illustrations.
Siegfried “freely translated in poetic narrative form”. With
4 illustrations.
The Dusk of the Gods “freely translated in poetic narrative
form”. With 4 illustrations.
“Mr. Huckel has done his work well, indeed.”— Henry van
Dyke. “This new English text is more than a mere
translation, it is rather a poetic paraphrase told in spirited
blank verse.”
6
12. WAGNER, Richard Niurenbegskie mastera peniia.
Moscow, P. Iurgenson, 1909.
£98
8vo. Original publisher’s green printed wrappers, pp. [iv], 171;
wrappers a little frayed, internally very good and clean.
11. WAGNER, Richard. Parsifal. A Mystical Drama by
Richard Wgner Retold in the Spirit of the Bayreuth
Intrepretation by Oliver Huckel. New York. Thomas Y Crowell
& Co., 1903.
£78
Translated by Viktor Kolomiytsev, this Russian Meisersinger
libretto is one of a long list of Kolomiytsev’s operatic
translations. He is known to have written on Gustav Mahler
as well. - We were unable to establish whether this edition
was preceded by an earlier Russian one.
8vo., original red cloth decorated in blind, lettered in gilt on
spine and upper board. With 5 black and white illustrations
by Franz Stassen. Bookplate otherwise a very good copy.
First edition handsomely printed by D.B. Updike at the
Merrymount Press.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
7
RICHARD WAGNER
13. RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). Richard
WAGNER. The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie [together
with:] Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods. London,
William Heinemann. 1910 & 1911.
£1,450
4to. 2 volumes. Original brown buckram elaborately
decorated in gilt to upper covers, top edges brown,
pictorial
endpapers,
complete
with
pictorial
dustwrappers; pp. [ix] + 159; [ix] + 181; illustrated with a
total of 64 fine mounted coloured plates set on heavier
stock and guarded by captioned tissues, illustrated titlepages and vignettes in line; a lovely uniform set, internally
and externally in very nice clean condition with all the
plates and tissues in fine state; the scarce dustwrappers
(priced 15/- net to spines) are clean with moderate fraying
at heads of spines; scarce thus.
First editions illustrated by Rackham.
8
14. RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). Richard WAGNER
(author). The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie [sold together
with] Siegfried and The Twilight of the Gods. London,
William Heinemann. 1910 and 1911.
£850
4to. 2 vols. Original brown buckram pictorially gilt, pictorial
endpapers, top edges brown; pp. [xii], 3-159; [xii], 3-181;
illustrated with a total of 64 mounted coloured plates behind
captioned guards; exceptional, and uniform, copies of the
trade editions, both externally and internally fresh.
First editions illustrated by Rackham.
15. WAGNER, Richard. Zmierzch Bogów. Trzeci dzien z
trylogii “Piersscienn Nibelunga”. Cracow, [W. L. Anczyc and
Spolski] for the translator, 1910.
£148
8vo. Original printed wrappers; pp. 99; wrappers with faint
spots; otherwise clean, uncut, (one leaf carelessly opened,
resulting in marginal tear).
This is the very rare first Polish edition of Wagner’s
Götterdämmerung libretto, the final part of his magnum opus,
the Ring Cycle, translated by the Wagnerian and Wagner
tenor Aleksander Bandrowski (1860-1913). He was ‘one of the
finest operatic tenors of his day, and excelling in Wagner in
particular. This Polish-born singer was also a librettist and
translator. He is especially remembered for his work in
Manru [a Wagnerian opera by Paderewski]’ (Andrzei Piber in
Polish Music Journal vol. 4, No. 2, Winter 2001). - We were
only able to locate two other copies, in the Polish National
Library, and in Trento (Northern Italy).
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
9
RICHARD WAGNER
A SCARCE ‘PRESENTATION’ COPY
16. RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). Richard WAGNER.
The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie; Siegfried and the Twilight
of the Gods. London, William Heinemann. 1910 and 1911. £750
4to. 2 volumes. Original brown buckram elaborately
decorated in gilt to upper covers, top edges brown, pictorial
endpapers; pp. [ix] + 159; [ix] + 181; illustrated with 64 fine
mounted coloured plates set on heavier stock and guarded by
captioned tissues, illustrated titlepages and vignettes in line;
an unusually bright set with only two minor marks to boards
of volume one, one mount with a diagonal corner crease
which does not affect the plate and some browning to the
text leaves to the rear of volume 1.
First editions illustrated thus. An increasingly scarce set.
10
17. POGANY, Willy (illustrator). Richard WAGNER
(author). Tannhäuser. London; G.G. Harrap & Co. 1911. £798
4to. Original grey pictorial cloth elaborately blocked in blue,
taupe, black and gilt to upper cover, spine lavishly gilt, lower
board with a neat pictorial roundel printed in black, coloured
pictorial endpapers; pp. [222]; profusely illustrated and
decorated on every page, with text in printed calligraphy
throughout; illustrations printed in line and colours, with a
small mounted coloured vignette to prelims and 16 mounted
coloured plates; a fine copy in exceptional condition both
internally and externally.
First edition illustrated thus.
This copy importantly
inscribed and signed by the illustrator: “To Roger Ingpen
from his old friend Willy Pogany, 1911”. Roger Ingpen was an
author and biographer who edited the bicentennial edition of
Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson and Shelley’s Letters.
19. WAGNER, Richard. The Master-singers of Nuremberg.
A Dramatic Poem by Richard Wagner freely translated in
poetic narrative form by Oliver Huckel. New York. Thomas
Y Crowell Company. 1912.
£398
8vo., recently finely bound in half dark blue morocco,
lettered in gilt on spine. Frontispiece and 4 plates.
First edition of Huckel’s translation, with his Foreword. “As
far as we have been able to learn, there has been no
adequate translation of the Master-singers into English”.
Huckel also translated Parsifal, Lohengrin, Tannhauser and
the Ring Series.
18. WAGNER, Richard. Parsifal. Harrap. [1912]
£1,250
4to. Iin original full white vellum, with gilt lettering and
decoration. Top page edges gilt, the others are untrimmed
and the silk page marker is present. Each page is illustrated,
either in colour or with brown line drawings/ borders, there
are numerous full page illustrations and 16 mounted colour
plates. Vellum with a little inoffensive natural toning and a
little soiling, slightly sprung, a very good copy of a very
attractive edition.
Edition de luxe, limited edition of 525 numbered copies
signed by Pogany. This edition was issued with an extra
loose plate, but this as often happens, is not present with
this copy.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
11
RICHARD WAGNER
21. WAGNER, Richard. Eine Pilgerfahrt zu Beethoven.
Kurzschrift [titled thus on upper board]. [Leipzig:] Leipziger
Blindendruckerei, 1919.
£298
Small folio, original half cloth over patterned boards with
printed paper lettering-piece on upper panel by Hermann
Schötz, ‘Specialbuchbinderei für Blindenschriften, Leipzig’
with their ticket; pp. 31, [1 (blank)], Braille text impressed into
paper; a very good copy.
20. [WAGNER, Richard]. McSPADDEN, J. Walker. The
Stories of Wagner’s Operas. George G Harrap.. 1915.
£98
8vo., original publisher’s leather binding with portrait block
of Wagner on upper cover. With 16 colour illustrations by
Ferd, Lecke and Hermann Hendrich. A little spotting to
edges and foxing to prelims, bookplate, spine slightly sunned,
otherwise a very good copy.
Reprint.
12
Presumably the first edition in Braille of Wagner’s early
novella of 1840; undoubtedly of very great rarity in this
condition.
Not in OCLC or KVK.
22. [WAGNER, Richard.] STAEGER, Ferdinand (artist).
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg [titled thus on upper
cover]. [Munich: Othmar Kern], [1921].
£3,995
A series of 12 mounted etchings on japon (370 x 250 mm),
each numbered in pencil and signed by Staeger, with etched
remarques in the margins, captioned in pencil on the mounts
(660 x 510 mm), loose as issued in original cloth portfolio,
upper cover lettered in gilt; some mounts slightly chipped at
edges, some slight wear to extremities of portfolio,
nonetheless a very good set of this rare issue.
Copy number 1 in an edition of only 20 (‘Vorzugsausgabe’)
printed on japon. Ferdinand Staeger (1880-1976) was a
German painter and graphic artist, who studied at Brno, and
then at Prague, before moving to Munich. Staeger ranks
among the most important representatives of traditional
Munich painting, and he also held exhibitions in other
important cultural centres including Vienna, Paris, and Italy,
and his work is held in major museums around the world.
The total edition of this suite was 200 sets, although
Muschler states (apparently erroneously) that it was divided
between ‘25 Vorzugsexemplare auf Japon und 175 auf Bütten’.
R.H. Muschler, Ferdinand Staeger: eine Monographie (Leipzig: [c.
1925]), 152-163; not in OCLC or KVK.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
13
RICHARD WAGNER
23. WAGNER, Richard Der Ring Des Nibelungen. In
Bildern von Hermann Hendrich. Leipzig. Verlag Von J.J.
Weber. [1924]
£498
Folio, original cloth lettered in black on front board and with
a Hermann Hendrich design in black. With 14 colour plates
with tissue guards with printed musical quotations. A near
fine copy.
Second edition with a revised 2 page introduction by
Wolfgang Wolther. From the introduction to the first edition
that was also printed in English, “Hendrich is a painter: he
emphasises the heroic landscape, the colour effects of the
entire picture. Hendrich is the poet-painter of German folklore. He supplements and enriches the impressions that he
received from Wagner’s dramas, from this unquenchable
source of German mythology and lore, of legends of the old
gods and heroes.”
24. WAGNER, Richard. Ring of the Nieblung. Adapted by
Robert Lawrence and Illustrated by Alexandre
Serebriakoff. New York. Grosset and Dunlap and Silver Burdett
Company. 1938-1939.
£98
Small 4to., 4 volumes in harlequin cloth backed pictorial
paper covered boards. Illustrated with colour and black and
white illustrations by Alexandre Serebriakoff. A very good
set.
First editions of vols 2-4 “The Authorized School Edition of
the Metropolitan Opera Guild” reprint of vol. 1. “The
Authorized Edition of the Metropolitan Opera Guild” Each
volume with a list of recommended recordings. Vols. 2- 4
with “Special Study Helps” at the rear.
14
25. WAGNER, Richard. The Flying Dutchman Corvinus
Press. 1938.
£298
4to., original limp vellum, upper cover with single gilt line
panel, spine lettered in gilt, lower board panelled in gilt with
gilt centre tool. Printed in red and black. Boards slightly
springing otherwise a very good copy.
First edition of this translation, limited to 130 numbered
copies, this number 73 (although listed as 730 with the zero
crossed out). This translation is thought to be by Viscount
Carlow, the owner of the Covinus Press. The English text is
printed on the rectos with the German parallel on the versos.
“The Flying Dutchman was one of the flagships of the Press.
The print-run was fairly large, which, coupled with the larger
format and ambitious typography, places this book among
the half dozen items which Carlow intended for a wider
public, as well as for private circulation among his friends.
This is a particularly beautiful and well-produced book, and
the limp vellum binding is among the most successful of all
the bindings made for the oridinary copies of Carlow’s
books”.
26. RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). Richard WAGNER
(author) Margaret ARMOUR (translator). The Ring of
the Niblung. London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
£288
4to. Original mid blue cloth stamped in darker blue, pictorial
endpapers; pp. [viii], vii-viii + [ii] + 159 + [i] + [vi], vii-vii +
[ii], 3-181 + [i]; (two volumes bound as one); illustrated with
a total of 48 coloured plates by Rackham; an exceptionally
fresh copy, both externally and internally, with two neat gift
inscriptions to front endpapers.
First edition illustrated by Rackham, combining his two
previously published volumes The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie
and Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
15
RICHARD WAGNER
27. RACKHAM, Arthur (illustrator). Richard WAGNER.
The Ring of the Niblung. London: William Heinemann Ltd.
1939.
£198
4to. Original mid blue cloth stamped in darker blue, pictorial
endpapers; pp. [ii], 3-159; [x], 3-181 (two volumes bound as
one); illustrated with a total of 48 coloured plates by
Rackham; with slight darkening to spine cloth and one tiny
(3mm), and almost unnoticeable, closed nick to head,
otherwise clean and fresh, both internally and externally.
First edition thus, combining Wagner’s Rhinegold and the
Valkyrie and Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods in one volume,
with the plates bound in, as opposed to being mounted-atlarge.
16
28. WAGNER, Richard. The Ring. Translated by Andrew
Porter. Illustrated by Eric Fraser Dawson. 1976.
£298
8vo., original cloth lettered in red on spine with paper label
on upper board. Parallel German and English text. Illustrated
by Eric Fraser, A fine copy.
First edition, limited edition of 200 numbered copies
specially bound and with an accompanying separate suite of
the illustrations printed on T.H. Saunders mold-made paper
by Will Carter at the Rampant Lions Press. The extra suite
is signed by Eric Fraser. Both the book and extra suite of
plates are housed in the original cloth covered slipcase.
As well as the translation the book includes introductory
essays, Translating the Ring by Andrew Porter, The Ring: In
Musical Language by Jeremy Noble, and Wagner as a Poet by
Peter Branscombe.
29. BALDWIN, James. The Story of Siegfried. New York.
Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1931.
£248
8vo., original cloth with illustration of Siegfried by Peter
Hurd pasted onto upper board. Cover illustration, endpapers
and 7 full-page colour plates by Peter Hurd. An excellent
copy.
First edition with these illustrations. Peter Hurd dropped
out of West Point to study art, becoming the student of N.C.
Wyeth and eventually marrying Wyeth’s daughter. Although
Hurd painted the official portrait of Lyndon Johnson, he is
better known for his sophisticated use of colour in the egg
tempera paintings of his native Southwest, a skill shown in
his fine illustrations for “Siegfried”.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
17
RICHARD WAGNER
OTHER ACCOUNTS
OF
LEGENDS
31
30. [WAGNER, Richard]. BEDIER, Joseph. The Romance
of Tristram and Iseult. Translated from the French of
Joseph Bedier by Florence Simmonds. William Heinemann.
1910.
£998
8vo., finely bound for Bumpus in full red morocco, boards
with gilt and blind line panels enclosing a double gilt line
border with Celtic knot corner pieces, spine lettered and
panelled in gilt and blind, all edges gilt. With 20 mounted
colour plates by Maurice Lalau. A fine copy housed in
fleece-lined cloth case.
First edition thus.
18
31. BEDIER, Joseph. Le Roman de Tristan et Iseut.
Renouvele Par Joseph Bedier. Paris. L’Edition D’Art. [1914].
£1,750
8vo., choicely bound by Root in full red morocco, french
fillet border to boards, spine richly gilt, rich gilt turn-ins.
Illustrations by Robert Engels, text with decorative borders.
The slightest rubbing to joints, a lovely copy.
Limited edition of 525 copies. In 1900, the French scholar
Joseph Bedier recreated the early versions of the legend,
none of which are complete, in a modern retelling which
draws on both the Anglo-Norman poems by Beroul and
Thomas and those by the German writers Eilhart von Oberge
and Gottfried von Strassburg.
Robert Engels was born in Solingen in the Ruhr. He studied
in Düsseldorf and Vienna. Engels then settled in Munich,
where he was a professor at the School of Arts and Crafts.
Rober Engels was married to the watercolourist Gustava
Engels von Veit. Robert Engels was a contributor to
l’Estampe Moderns and also created advertising posters and
designs for the theatre.
32. LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB. BEDIER, Joseph. The
Romance of Tristan & Iseult as Retold by Joseph Bedier.
Translated from the French by Hilaire Belloc and Paul
Rosenfeld. With an Introduction by Padraic Colum and
Illustrations by Serge Ivanoff. Printed at the Thistle Press in
New York for the Limited Editions Club. 1960.
£98
4to., original red morocco backed patterned paper covered
boards with slightly chipped glassine wrapper and slipcase.
A near fine copy.
Limited edition of 1500 copies signed by the illustrator Serge
Ivanoff.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
19
RICHARD WAGNER
33. [VIENNA SECESSIONIST DESIGN]. CZESCHKA,
C.O. (illustrator). Franz KEIM (author). Die Nibelungen
dem Deutschen Volke Wiedererzählt. Wien Liepzig: Gerlach
u. Wiedling. [1909].
£1,250
12mo. (140 x 150mm). Original light grey cloth with a stylised
title fashioned in a neat black panel to upper board,
decorative blue-and-white endpapers; pp. [i], 2-67; elaborate
frontispiece, title-page, borders, vignettes and head- and tailpieces, together with 8 stunning double-page coloured plates
lithographed in black, red, blue and gilt; typography designed
by Czeschka; a wonderfully fine, fresh and clean copy with
only the faintest trace of rubbing to slim spine and one very
pale and minor mark to upper cover; internally crisp and
clean with neat and small inscription to front blank; scarce.
Carl Otto Czeschka, born in 1878 in Vienna, taught at the
Kunstgewerbeschule from 1902 to 1907, where Oskar
Kokoschka was among his pupils. He collaborated and
exhibited with Klimt and The Wiener Werkstatte in 1905 and
worked in other areas of the arts-and-crafts movement
including jewellery, stained-glass, silver design and painting.
“This children’s book from a popular series of thirty-four
volumes called Gerlach’s Jugendbucherie in uniform format,
each by different illustrators, and published between 1902
and 1920, is the most striking Jugendstil example of the set.
The mosaic-like flat patches of blue, black and gilt with
occasional red accents, much in the Secession formula, form
a strong rich background for a variety of Czeschka’s unusual
geometric patterns”. (The Turn of a Century no. 131). The Song
of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The
story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the
Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife
Kriemhild’s revenge.
20
`
35. [WAGNER, Richard.] LOOMIS, Roger Sherman The
Romance of Tristram and Ysolt by Thomas of Britain.
Translated from the Old French and Old Norse by Roger
Sherman Loomis. New York. E.P. Dutton. 1923.
£98
8vo., original cloth with dust wrapper. Illustrated with
reproductions of the floor tiles discovered at Chertsey Abbey
supposed to have been ordered by King Henry to
commemorate the Tristram story. Slight marking to cloth,
wrapper with a very small chip to head of spine otherwise a
very good copy.
First of this translation.
34. [NIEBLUNGENLIED]. LEGRAND, Edy (illustrator).
The Nieblungenlied. Translated from the German by
Margaret Armour with an Introduction by Franz
Schoenberner. Illustrated by Edy Legrand. Printed for the
Members of the Limited Editions Club by Joh. Enschede en Zonen.
1960.
£150
Folio original cloth lettered in gilt on spine. A fine copy with
glassine wrapper and slipcase.
Limited edition of 1500 numbered copies signed by Edy
Legrand.
36. RULAND, Wilhelm. Legends of the Rhine. With
illustrations from paintings by celebrated Artists. Cologne.
Hoursch & Bechstedt. [c.1910]
£148
8vo., original decorative cloth, all edges gilt.
With
illustrations from paintings by celebrated artists. Neat
inscription otherwise a fine copy.
New English edition.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
21
RICHARD WAGNER
‘A Valuable Work’ - Lowndes
37. WEBER, Henry William, JAMIESON, R, & SCOTT,
Sir Walter (contributor) Illustrations of Northern
Antiquities, from the Earlier Teutonic and Scandinavian
Romances; being an Abstract of the Book of Heroes, and
Nibelungen Lay; with Translations of Metrical Tales from
the Old German, Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic
Languages; with Notes and Dissertations. Edinburgh. Printed
by James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Ress, Orme and
Brown. 1814.
£398
4to., original vellum backed drab paper covered boards,
lettered in ink on spine. Binding a little soiled and rubbed,
a little occasional browning and spotting, paper repair to top
edge of p.388, otherwise a very good copy.
First edition, large paper copy(?). “Henry William Weber
(1783–1818), literary scholar and secretary, was born on 22
September 1783 at St Petersburg. From 1807 to 1814 he
worked as an amanuensis and secretary, primarily for Sir
Walter Scott, and it was during this period that Weber’s
literary and scholarly career flourished, with all his published
works dating from these years.
Scott described Weber as ‘a man of very superior
attainments, an excellent linguist and geographer, and a
remarkable antiquary’ (DNB). He was widely read in
medieval romance literature, both British and European, and
had personally studied more than three-quarters of the fiftysix Middle English romances known about 1800. In 1814, in
collaboration with Robert Jamieson, Weber produced
another significant work of scholarship in this Illustrations of
Northern Antiquities from the Earlier Teutonic and Scandinavian
22
Romances. At one time the two scholars had intended to
establish a new periodical devoted to ‘ancient Romance and
Antiquities in general’ (H. Weber to F. Douce, 31 Jan 1810),
but lack of support forced them to compromise on this onevolume collection of medieval European romances,
illuminated by interpretative essays. Scott contributed an
abstract of the Old Icelandic Eyrbyggja saga, taken from
Thorkelin’s Latin edition and translation of 1787. Weber’s
contribution to the volume included a historical sketch of
medieval Germanic poetry and romance and English
summary translations of Das Nibelungenlied and Das
Heldenbuch. His essay on medieval romance in Germany and
Scandinavia was one of the sources of Scott’s later ‘Essay on
romance’ (1824).” (ODNB)
Provenance: J. Price 1840 (ink name), Henry Samuel Howard
Guinness (bookplate) and Graham C Greene (bookplate).
COMMEMORABILIA
38. WAGNER, Richard. Death Mask
£4,995
A parcel-gilt bronze death mask of Richard
Wagner mounted on a stepped rectangular plaque,
432 x 342 mm.
Unattributed, c. 1910. A fine, striking image. The
original death mask resides in the Richard Wagner
Museum at his former home, Wahnfried, in Bayreuth.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015
23
RICHARD WAGNER
39. WAGNER, Richard Bronze Medal, undated by Ch
Weiner, 71mm.
£248
Obv: Bust of Richard Wagner (r.)
RICHARD WAGNER
Rev: Characters from several of Wagner’s Operas, several of
whom are sitting on a bridge inscribed: BAYRVTH The
characters are as follows, from left to right: Siegfried, Wotan,
Brunnhilde, Tannheuser, Parsifal, Lohengrin, and Hans
Sachs. Richard Wagner is at far right. Below are the swan
from Lohengrin and the three Rheinmaidens, with Valhalla in
the background.
Signed: CH:WIENER. VERLAG C.G. THIEME LEIPZIG.
(Commissioned by C.G. Thieme, coin dealer of Leipzig)
42. WAGNER, Richard Bronze Medal, by E Torff, rev
music score, 60mm (Ni 2247); figures from Wagner’s
operas gathered around a bridge marked BAYREUTH,
71mm (Ni 2259);
£298
Bronze Medal, by E Torff, rev music score, 60mm (Ni 2247);
Ref: Forrer VI, p. 482
40. WAGNER, Richard Bronze Medal by Lucien Bazor,
68mm, 1938
£298
43. WAGNER, Richard Bronze Medal, 50mm,
commemorating Wagner’s death, mounted in a bronze
wreath.
£148
Obv: Facing left Rev: Text.
Bronze Medal by Lucien Bazor, 68mm, 1938.
Obv: Bust of Richard Wagner. Rev: Apollo with a lyre.
44. WAGNER, Richard Bronze Medal,
commemorating the 1876 Bayreuth Festival.
41. WAGNER, Richard Bronze Medal by Rudolf Bosselt,
head left, rev Jakobs Kampf and the Angel, 65mm (Ni 2145)
£198
1913, by Rudolf Bosselt, head left, rev Jakobs Kampf and the
Angel, 65mm (Ni 2145).
Bosselt was a well known sculptor and medallist and a
member of the famous Darmstadt artist’s colony (1901-1914).
24
Obv: Facing right. Rev: Text.
53mm,
£148
was a seminal moment in the life of the composer and the
Bavarian people. He wrote to Wagner on the 12th of August,
‘It is impossible for me to describe the impressions with
which I came away from the festival at Bayreuth, which
afforded me immeasurable ecstasy, and from my happy
reunion with you, my friend, I came with great expectatins
and, high as they were, they were all far far surpassed. I was
so deeply moved that I may well have seemed tongue-tied to
you! Oh you understand so well how to shake one’s very
foundations, to melt with your conquering light the crust of
ice which so many sad experiences have caused to form
around heart and feeling.’ (Curt Von Westernhagen. Wagner.
A Biography Volume II. 1864-83. pp. 494-95).
45. [WAGNER, Richard.] Autograph letter to Richard
Wagner on behalf of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Eremitage
Palace . 8 August 1876.
£1,750
Single sheet (218 x 139 mm) letterheaded Adjutantur Seiner
Majestat des Königs von Baÿern and dated in ink Eremitage
8. August 1876. Mounted, framed and glazed.
Written on behalf of King Ludwig II of Bavaria congratulating
Wagner on the success of the dress rehearsal of the four
parts of Der Ring des Nibelungen held between the 6th and 9th
of August at Bayreuth, and at which the King was present
throughout. In order to avoid his well-known fear of meeting
the public Ludwig had chosen to arrive by train in the dead
of night, stopping in the middle of a field, where he was met
by Wagner. The two men had not seen one another for seven
years and had much to discuss. They repaired to the
Eremitage where they stayed talking until 3am. Cosima
Wagner records in her diary entry for the Saturday 5th of
August that ‘R. goes at midnight to meet the King, I
accompany him as far as the railroad station near the
Eremitage, then R. drives away with the King and returns
home late, but in raptures about his kindliness.’
46. [WAGNER, Richard.] N.Y. Figaro. Belletristische
Wochenschrift für Kunst, Literatur und Unterhaltung. New
York: The New York Figaro Publishing Company, 6 August 1882.
£28
Folio, original self-wrappers; pp. 12; illustrations in the text;
edges a little worn with a small marginal chip to one bottom
edge, a little browning, nonetheless generally in very good
condition.
This issue of the N.Y. Figaro — a New York-based, Germanlanguage weekly newspaper — includes an article on the
opera house at Bayreuth and is illustrated with woodengraved illustrations of the exterior and interior of the
theatre.
Following his return to Hohenschwangau, Ludwig expressed
personally his gratitude at being present at what he believed
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015 25
RICHARD WAGNER
47. [WAGNER, Richard.] Illustrirte Zeitung. Leipzig: J.J.
Weber, 20 June 1901.
£98
49.
[WAGNER,
Richard.]
Leipziger
Nachrichten. Leipzig: 16 April 1905.
Folio, original colour-printed self-wrappers; pp. [945]–984;
colour-printed and monochrome illustrations, some full- or
double-page; minor marking, rust around staples, otherwise
very good.
Folio, self wrappers; pp. 4 with large wood-engraved
illustration on front page; creased from being folded, a little
chipped and creased, paper yellowed, otherwise in very good
condition.
With an article about the designs for the statue of Wagner to
be erected in Berlin. Four proposed designs are illustrated,
by Eduard Beyrer, Franz Metzner, Ernst Wenck and Hans
Dammann. The final commission was awarded to Gustav
Eberlein, and the monument was unveiled in 1903.
This issue of Leipziger Neuesten Nachrichten includes a full-page
article by G. Wustmann on Max Klinger’s statue of Wagner
in Leipzig, illustrated by a large wood-engraving of the
statue.
48. [WAGNER, Richard.] Illustrirte Zeitung. Leipzig: J.J.
Weber, 13 April 1905.
£48
50. [WAGNER, Richard.] Illustrirte Zeitung. Leipzig: J.J.
Weber, 29 May 1913.
£78
Folio, original colour-printed self-wrappers; pp. [245]–296;
colour-printed and monochrome illustrations, some full- or
double-page; minor marking, rust around staples, otherwise
very good.
Folio, original colour-printed self-wrappers; pp. [1415]–1460;
colour-printed and monochrome illustrations, some full- or
double-page; minor marking, rust around staples, otherwise
very good; blue crayon notes on front wrapper and marking
the article about Wagner.
With a photograph of the statue of Wagner by Max Klinger
in Leipzig on p. 533, which was executed after Klinger’s
celebrated marble statue of Beethoven, an integral part of
the Vienna Secession exhibit of 1902.
26
Neuesten
£28
With an illustrated article about the Wagner centenary exhibition
held in the museum at Wagner’s home-town of Leipzig, ‘Die
Wagner Gedächtnisausstellung im Stadtgeschichtlichen Museum
zu Leipzig’, on pp. 1446 and 1448.
MISCELLANEA
51. [WAGNER, Cosima.] ‘Ihrer hochwahlgeboren Frau C.
Wagner Wahnfried’ [titled thus on upper wrapper]. [?Berlin],
13 August 1901.
£98
Broadsheet (450 x 290mm),
loose as issued in original
printed wrappers; text printed in
gothic types in red and black on
recto only, within decorative
border incorporating vignette at
head; wrappers slightly chipped
and marked at edges, short split
on fold, nonetheless the text very
clean.
A printed testimonial to Cosima
Wagner, commemorating the
occasion of the 25th anniversary
of the première of Rheingold in
1876, and presented on behalf of
the Wagner-Verein Berlin by B.A.
Wagner, R. Sternfeld, and P.
Thelen.
52. BURRELL, Mary. Thoughts for Enthusiasts at
Bayreuth. Collected in Memory of 1882 and 1883. Pickering
and Chatto. 1888-1891.
£2,500
Folio, three volumes in original limp vellum with silk ties
(some ties replaced). Printed in red and black, illustrated
with plates including maps and portraits (some folding).
Volume 3 with some soiling to upper wrapper and prelims,
some offsetting from plates and bookplates, generally a very
good set.
First edition limited to 100 copies handsomely printed by the
Chiswick Press. The set comprises Chapters 1, 2 and 4.
Chapter 3 was never issued. Chapter 1. Historical and
Antiquarian; Chapter 2. Frédérique Sophie Wilhelmine de
Prusse, Margrave de Bareith, Soeur de Frédéric-le-Grand;
Chapter IV. Unpublished Journal “Voyage d’Italie” and sixty
unpublished letters of the Margravine of Bayreuth to
Frederick the Great, together with sixteen unpublished
letters from the King to the Margravine.
Mary Burrell considered Wagner’s early biographers little
better than “scribblers” who had merely “touched up” the
great composer’s autobiographical fragments. Even while
Wagner was alive, she set out to track down every relative,
friend and acquaintance, gather material for a biography
“that would tell all.” Before she was through she owned 840
items, mostly letters, and the printer’s copy of the first
edition of Wagner’s My Life, which Wagner himself had
suppressed. She made a start at writing, but died, in 1898,
before she reached the point in Wagner’s life where her
material might have shed fresh light.
“The beauty of the slim vellum-coloured folio wherein
appears Thoughts for Enthusiasts at Bayreuth is so great that it
may seem rather hard to place it among guide-books; but
after all it is one, and it can at least have the first place
among them…Its main feature is the admirable illustration maps, plates of arms, plans, portraits etc, being reproduced
regardless of size, and by the most satisfactory processes,
with all the aid of exceptional print and paper. Such a guide
de luxe we have seldom - we do not know that all Arcadia
hath ever - seen” (Saturday Review August 25 1888).
From the library of music publisher Walther Richard
Linnemann with his bookplate in each volume. In 1919 the
brothers Carl and Richard Linnemann, the proprietors of the
music business of C.F.W. Siegel, which their family had
owned since Siegel’s death in 1869, bought the company of
Kistner. Their business had been founded by Carl Friedrich
Wilhelm Siegel and Edmund Stoll in 1846, and was almost as
important as the Kistner firm: it published works by
Schumann, Spohr and Rubinstein and good light music, also
issuing the popular collection Der Opernfreund. Under the
direction of the elder Richard Linnemann (from 1870) it
developed alongside the flourishing choral society movement
in Germany. In 1903 Linnemann’s sons bought E.W. Fritzsch’s
book and music publishing firm, and they subsequently
brought out a substantial amount of Wagner literature;
distinguished musicologists collaborated closely with the
firm, which had issued about 30,000 items by 1943.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015 27
RICHARD WAGNER
53. [WAGNER, Richard]. CHAMBERLAIN, H.S. Richard
Wagner. Translated from the German by G. Ainslie Hight
and revised by the author. J.M. Dent & Co. 1900.
£125
Royal 8vo. Original dark green cloth, blocked in gilt; with a
frontispiece and numerous illustrations and facsimiles; a very
good copy.
First UK edition.
54. [WAGNER]. DONINGTON,
Robert. Wagner’s ‘Ring’ and its
Symbols. The Music and the
Myth. Faber and Faber. 1963. £35
55. NIETZSCHE, Friedrich and Richard WAGNER. The
Nietzsche-Wagner Correspondence. Edited by Elizabeth
Foerster-Nietzsche. Translated by Caroline V. Kerr.
Introduction by H.L. Mencken. New York: Boni & Liveright.
[1921].
£298
8vo. Original light tan buckram, printed paper spine label; a
fine copy in the dust-jacket.
First edition, limited to 1500 numbered copies. Fascinating
record of one of the most remarkable friendships, and
quarrels, of the nineteenth century.
8vo. Original red cloth; with an
Appendix of musical examples;
neat ink name, otherwise a very
good copy in the dust-jacket.
First edition.
56. NASH, Paul. LEROY, L. Archier. Wagner’s Music
Drama of the Ring. Noel Douglas. [1925].
£148
56
28
8vo. Original cloth-backed patterned boards, printed paper
spine label; 4 wood-engravings by Paul Nash; a very good
copy.
First edition.
57. NIETZSCHE, Friedrich. Nitche o Vagnere. I. Vagner
kak iavlenie. II. Nitche contra Vagner. Perevod s
Nemetskago N. Polilova. S vvedeniem perevodchika. Saint
Petersburg, [A. S. Suvorin], 1907.
£1,250
8vo. Contemporary half-cloth over patterned boards; pp.
lxxxiii, 100; shelfmark label removed from spine, a little
rubbed; title and p. lxiii with repaired marginal tears, title a
little browned; provenance; a few marginal pencil annotations
in Classical Greek; 1930s stamp of the library of the Latvian
Academy and releasse marks on title-verso.
Extremely rare first edition in Russian of both Der Fall
Wagner (1888) and Nietzsche contra Wagner, an essay written
during his last lucid year (1888-1889, published not until 1895),
where he explains why he parted from his one-time friend
Richard Wagner, whose philosophy, theories on tonality,
music and art he assesses critically. This edition contains as
well a very long prefatory essay on Nietzsche’s relation with
Wagner by Nikolai Nikolaevich Polilov, Nietzsche’s translator
into Russian.
The only other copy we were
able to locate via OCLC,
COPAC and KVK is in the
Russian State Library.
58. PARKER, Louis N.. Richard Wagner and the Ring of
the Nibelungs. Published for the Royal Opera Syndicate & Alfred
Shulz Curtius by Rudolph B Birnbaum. 1898.
£1,998
8vo., 2 volumes in original card and glassine wrappers. With
illustrations by Charles Robinson and border designs P.J.
Billinghurst. A little chipping to glassine wrappers a little
creasing to a few corners otherwise a very good set.
First edition of this rare Souvenir to mark the Three Wagner
Cycles held at Covent Garden in June 1898. Volume 1
includes Louis N. Parker’s essay on Wagner’s Ring, with 6
full page black and white plates of characters from the
operas by Charles Robinson, and charming border
decorations by P.J. Billingshurst. The second volume
includes reproductions of the Covent Garden programmes
for the 1898 cycles and has 23 fine photographic portraits of
members of the cast including Jean de Reszke, Marie Brena,
Anton van Rooy, and Rudolf Wittekopf. A scarce and
attractive item.
HENRY SOTHERAN LTD, LONDON 2015 29
RICHARD WAGNER
59. [WAGNER]. PORGES, Heinrich. Wagner Rehearsing
the “Ring”. An Eye-witness Account of the Stage
Rehearsals of the First Bayreuth Festival. Cambridge
University Press. 1983.
£125
8vo. Original black cloth; frontispiece portrait, musical
notation; a fine copy in the dust-jacket.
First English edition. This book presents Wagner’s view of
how the Ring should be performed and was originally
published in the monthly Bayreuther Blätter in instalments that
were not completed until 1896.
60. [WAGNER, Richard] MAUD, Constance. Wagner’s
Heroes [and] Wagner’s Heroines. Edward Arnold. [1895] 1896.
£148
8vo., 2 volumes, Heroes in original decorative green cloth
lettered in silver on spine and upper board with 8
illustrations by H. Granville Fell. Heroines in original black
cloth lettered and decorated in silver on spine and upper
board with 7 illustrations by H. Granville Fell. Neat ink
inscriptions otherwise very good copies.
First editions. “These stories are for little people, and are
not written for Wagnerites or any other learned persons.”
30
61. WAGNER, Wolfgang. Acts. The Autobiography of
Wolfgang Wagner Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 1994.
£35
8vo. Original blue cloth; illustrated with photographs; a very
good copy in like dust-jacket.
First UK edition. The memoirs of the grandson of Richard
Wagner, including a detailed account of his years as director
of the Bayreuth Festival.
Henry Sotheran Limited
Fine and Rare Antiquarian Books and Prints
2 Sackville Street, Piccadilly, London W1S 3DP
tel: 020 7439 6151 — fax: 020 7434 2019
email: books@sotherans.co.uk
31