Bidspirit auction | Bunner, Henry C. Three Operettas.

Bunner, Henry C. Three Operettas. Harper & Brothers, 1897. First Edition. - A first edition, landscape quarto-sized volume titled Three Operettas, authored by Henry C. Bunner with music composed by Oscar Weil. The work features libretti and full sheet music for three children's musical plays: The Three Little Kittens of the Land of Pie, The Seven Old Ladies of Lavender Town, and Bobby Shaftoe. The book is bound in the publisher's original tan pictorial cloth with a wrap-around illustration of black cats. The front cover depicts three cats wearing gold crowns and orange ruffs behind a wooden fence, with a fourth cat seated in the foreground facing away. The spine features stylized orange and green lettering. The title page includes a printed device featuring a hand holding a torch within a laurel wreath, surrounded by Greek text, and bears the imprint of Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, with the date 1897. The interior is illustrated with black and white drawings by C. D. Weldon and C. J. Taylor. Notable internal content includes the score for a ”Tempo di Polacca” and a trio for the characters Jeems, the Countess, and the Earl. Page 82 contains non-contemporary pencil marginalia in a cursive hand, listing various historical figures such as ”Julius Caes,” ”Geo Washy,” ”Alex,” ”Henry VIII,” ”Napoleon,” and ”Confuse,” appearing to designate casting or notes for a performance of The Seven Old Ladies of Lavender Town. The cloth binding shows significant shelf wear and darkening, particularly at the corners and along the edges of the boards (photos 1, 2, and 3). There is visible foxing and irregular brown staining to the title page and several interior leaves (photos 4, 5, and 8). A small corner fold or crease is present on the lower right of the title page (photo 4). Pencil marginalia is present on the right margin of page 82 and 83 (photos 8 and 9). The paper shows overall age-toning typical for the period.