Antique Books

[Kitty]

I haven't read it yet, either. Do you know who the first lady is offhand? The other two are John Bunny and Lillian Walker. I have the last picture as my Twitter avatar!

[donnie]

I haven't read it yet, either. Do you know who the first lady is offhand? The other two are John Bunny and Lillian Walker. I have the last picture as my Twitter avatar!

No, I’m not sure who that is, though she seems vaguely familiar.

[Kitty]

"Sauntering across this bridge, one passes, on his way to Uffizi, various shops in narrow streets, where the sold off Florentine manufacture are displayed. Such pretty silks, dear girls, and so cheap! For a mere song you may go dressed like the butterflies, in Florence, clad in bright, sheeny raiment, spun by native worms out of native mulberry leaves. Equally cheap are the cameos, and the coral, that are brought here from neighboring Naples, and the turquoises, imported directly from the Eastern market, and the mosaics, inlaid of precious stones in Florence herself." - A Child of Florence

This book is so lovely! It makes me want to go there! I wonder if it's really as lovely as the book says it is? It's really a shame that there is no author.

[donnie]

That does sound so beautiful, doesn't it? How I'd like to be there... My wife was in Florence a couple of years ago and she thoroughly enjoyed it. I believe it was her favorite part of the trip she was on. But she did not go to the Uffizi. I criticized her severely for that!

[Kitty]

Honestly, I feel like a dunce to say that I have never even heard of Uffizi! Can you believe it? This book is the first I've heard of it.

I finished the book. It was not really a story, more a short grazing biography of a rich American who spent her childhood in Florence. More like what it was like to live in an artist's paradise. I was surprised, when I finished the book, that it was over.... there were still like 10 pages left at least! They were advertisements for other books that the publisher put out.

[donnie]

I never looked in the back. A lot of books in that era had ads of that sort in the back, and sometimes they're very interesting.

I probably wouldn't know about Uffizi, either, except I used to have a strong interest in fine art—well, still do, though I don't look at paintings as much. But Uffizi is where there are a lot of famous works, including the Botticelli Birth of Venus.

[Kitty]

The advertisements on the back make me want every book on there! I just love old books so much! The pages in this book are so thick! I didn't know it would be such a quick read.

[Kitty]

Today I found a really cool thing! It's a souvenir book from a play..... From 1886!
The play opened on nov 10 1885 according to ibdb.com, and it says it was the 200th showing. The pictures are printed on silk or something.

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[Kitty]

Today I found a really cool thing! It's a souvenir book from a play..... From 1886!
The play opened on nov 10 1885 according to ibdb.com, and it says it was the 200th showing. The pictures are printed on silk or something.
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Well, guess what? I did some digging, and found mention in the May 13, 1886 issue of Life magazine that One of our Girls would be having its last performance on May 22nd, 1886. Its 200th performance. So what we have here is the playbill for Helen Dauvray's last performance of one of, if not her biggest success.

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I found out that she was married to a baseball player John Montgomery Ward who was famed but average in his playing ability. They were a famous couple while married. Have you heard of something called the Dauvray Cup? It was the first version of the world series trophy, named after Helen, who presented the cup. You can read more about that here.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dauvray_Cup
By my math, the two were married for about 5 years. 3 years later she married Admiral Albert G. Winterhalter, and stayed married till his death in 1920. Helen died 3 years later at 64.
I had a whole lot of fun researching her!

[donnie]

What a wonderful find!! That must have been quite an expensive and prominent production to have such an extravagant program. And I noticed that the orchestra played a composition by Miss Dauvray between acts.

No, I had not heard of the cup, nor of her husband. That’s an interesting bit of hostory.