Souscription pour l’année Mille Sept Cent Quatre Vingt douze.
Amsterdam, 1792-3.
Folio (357 x 268 mm.). ON VELLUM. [15], [65 blank]p. In a single cursive hand, mostly tabular, ruled in black ink, signed by each subscriber. Preceded by a folded letterpress broadside on paper: Réglements Pour Le Collége [sic] Dramatique. [Amsterdam] c. 1783.
Contemporary blind-tooled sheep (scuffed), floral roll frame, blind-ruled spine.
The patron register of an Amsterdam theater company with the names and contributions of over six hundred French, Italian, German and English subscribers to its 1792-3 season. The Collège dramatique et lyrique (est. 1781) offered eighty to one hundred annual performances in French by fifty actors and singers and a large orchestra directed by Ignaz Vitzthumb (1724-1816). Supporters paid from twenty to sixty ducats for the season.
The printed broadside sets seat assignments and theater etiquette (hats off, no foot warmers…). In good condition (the leaves reserved for the 1793-94 season were never completed). Bookplates of Daniel Grand d’Hauteville (1761-1818), the Amsterdam-based French banker, who was a Commissaire and patron of the theater.
¶Fransen, Les Comédiens français en Hollande 355-77.
Price: $7,500.00