An amazing binding of wonderful operatic and classical sheet music. Boards are quarter leather bound with gold embossing and patterning. Title on the spine is MUSIC and five gold ornamental flourishes and gold dividers. The endpapers are marbled.
Condition is only good. The boards have some tears as can be seen in photo. The leather shows wear at the joint, spine, and corners. Still the book is sound. The front endpaper pages are loose. There is foxing throughout. Some light pencil marks on a blank page. Small pen marks identifying songs chosen from lists. Its flaws feel make one feel the book has had an amazing life and simply shows it and the stiff pages make the book usable on singing stand or piano.
Provenance: This was a museum piece and has a label which reads "PROPERTY OF THE READING PUBLIC MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY. Reading, PA. " It was decommissioned by the museum.
Included within:
- I DUE AMICI, A collection of Most Favorite Duets for Soprano & Bass or Baritone. Donizetti, Nocolai etc. Beer & Schirmer
- GEMS OF ITALIAN MUSIC Beck & Lawton, this frontispiece is followed by CIURAMENTO Donizetti, not the listed arias.
- ROMEO E JULIETTA Theodore Barker Oliver Dits & Co frontispiece followed by Ah! Non Partir with English translation
- FIORI D'ITALIA, A Collection of Gems, followed by Sull'aria by Mozart, but not the rest of the listed arias. H. Millard.
- ITALIAN DUETS WITH ENGLISH WORDS followed Vivo E Tamo by Campana and not the rest of the listed arias. FA North.
- UNA SERA D'AMORE Notturne a due voci F.Campana CC Cuidi, Firenze.
- CHEERFULNESS (Frohsinn) Waltz duet for soprano and mezzo Gumbert G Schirmer in German and English
- L'AMICIZIA (Friendship) Polka Duett Faustina Hasse Hodges, Schirmer
- MARGHERITA di SAVOJA by Nicola de Ciosa, frontispiece followed by Peccato di Bugia
- SEMPRE PIU T'AMO (I love thee evermore) duet for soprano & tenor or baritone Max Braun, Brooklyn
- L'UNIONE ARMONICA, A collection of Vocal Duets with Italian and English Words, frontispiece followed by La Sorpresa by Lucantoni G. Andre,publisher
- G SCHRMER'S EDITION OF SELECT VOCAL DUETS BY ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS with English translations, followed by One Word (Un Mot) by Otto Nicolai
- A NIGHT IN VENICE BY L Arditti. Duet, CH Ditson
- ORPHEON, Duets,Trios and Choruses for Female and Mixed Voices. Frontispiece followed by Una Notte a Venzia by Lucattone with English version.
- SIMON BOCCANEGRA by G. Verdi.
- SCHIRMER'S VOCAL DUETS BY ITALIAN AND FRENCH COMPOSERS, frontispiece followed by The Sister Birds, by Luigi Bordese with English version
- BEAUTIFUL GERMAN SONGS FOR MEZZO SOPRANO with English and German words, frontispiece followed by The Rose and the Nightingale by Franz Abt
- THE LORD WILL PROVIDE HYMN XXVIII Sacred Quartette, Soprano, Alto, Tenor & Bass by Jen Louis. Lee & Walker
- I KNOW A BANK Shakespeare and J Barnet G Preed and Co, Boston
- STRIKE THE SILVER SPRINGS Nocturne for Two Voices J Blockly Wm DuBois, New York
- CALL ME NOT BACK FROM THE ECHOLESS SHORE Chas Carroll Sawyer and Henry Tucker Sawyer & Thompson, Brooklyn
- EVENING SONG TO THE VIRGIN (AT SEA) Words by Mrs. Hemans and music by her sister. G Willig Jr, Baltimore
- THE ALPINE MORNING A beautiful duett by Fr. Kucken Translated by Miss Mary Solliday, Beck & Laughton, Philadelphia.
- MIGNON by Ambroise Bierce, Ouverture pour piano seul Schirmer, New York.
- THE PIRATE'S CHORUS from The Enchantress, poetry by Alfred Bunn, Esq. and music by M. W. Balfe Firth Pond & Co, New York