On 6 May
1895 the touring D'Oyly Carte C-Company arrived in Leeds, the date
coinciding with the re-opening of the Grand Theatre and Opera House which was
under new management. To mark the occasion the first night programme of the two-week
Gilbert & Sullivan season, for “The Mikado”, was printed in
blue ink on cream silk, making this one of the very few known silk D'Oyly
Carte programmes. The 15” x 9.5” programme, which was probably originally
folded in half, has full details of the cast including Fred Billington as
Poo-Bah (sic). The programme is clean, with just a few light marks. There are
some splits at the spine which have been tacked with small strips of Scotch tape on the reverse and also around the “T” of “Grand Theatre”. It was initially photographed behind plastic, as displayed
in John’s collection, but has since been removed from its mount and both sides have been photographed against a black background.
*This item was formerly in the collection of John Cannon, the respected G&S collector and researcher who died in 2021. He left instructions that all collectors should have a chance to acquire the treasures in his collection, which will therefore be auctioned here over the next year or so by StageMemories and PaperJoys. Please let us know if you would like to be added to a mailing list, to be informed of all or specific items from John’s collection.
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