€80
De Valois & Fonteyn in Dublin
Autograph Book compiled by a Dublin theatregoer 1938-9, including signatures of the distinguished dancers Ninette de Valois (born in Co. Wicklow as Edris Stannus), Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann, also other dancers, actors George Formby and Margaretta Scott, band leader Billy Cotton, comedian Jimmy O’Dea, radio host Joe Linnane, [Lord Mayor] Alfie Byrne (in English and Irish), and the great singer John Count McCormack. Some signatures on tipped in letters or photos.
Ninette de Valois, born near Blessington in 1898, danced with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes before setting up the Vic-Wells Ballet School in London, and later at the request of W.B. Yeats, the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet in Dublin. She invited Margot Fonteyn, then aged 14, to join Vic-Wells, where she danced with the Australian-born Robert Helpmann, becoming prima ballerina in 1935. The three signatures sum up a whole era in dance.
With a printed menu for the Officers’ Dinner of the Irish Red Cross Association, Dublin Division, July 1943, 4pp, with about 20 signatures including the chairperson
[Judge] Conor Maguire (later Chief Justice). (1)
Fees apply to the hammer price:
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23% inc VAT*
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26.075% inc VAT*
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