Autograph booklet of musicians.

12mo: [41] ff. (2 lvs disbound).

Contemp. garnet French morocco, curved boards framed by a blind fillet, silver chiselled cypher on the front board, flat spine, gilt inside dentelle, a.e.g. (rubbed, turn-ins missing, corners and cuts sl. used, sl. discolouration around the cypher).

Autographs collected by Anne-Marie Gevers, daughter of Maximilien, cousin of the famous Belgian writer Marie Gevers, who left an unpublished poem in the booklet ("La ronde des mères inquiètes", "pour Anne-Marie, qui a un visage aux couleurs de France"), dated 2 February 1933. Except for her and the sculptor Ossip Zadkine, all the signatories are musicians, including several of the most important composers and conductors of the last century: composers (e.g. Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, Serge Prokofiev, Georges Enescu, Arthur Honegger, Paul Hindemith),- conductors (e.g. Erich Kleiber, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Bruno Walter),- pianists (e.g. Walter Gieseking, Wilhelm Backhaus, Jacques Thibaud, Edwin Fischer, Robert Casadesus),- violinists (Samuel Dushkin, Joseph Szigeti, Zino Francescatti),- cellist (Gregor Piatigorsky), sopranos (Elisabeth Schumann, Ria Lenssens, Lotte Leonard, Ninon Vallin), etc. Often with dedications (mainly in French, some in German...), often dated Antwerp, and sometimes with a musical quotation.
Prov. Anne-Marie Gevers (1913-2006), wife of Jean-Marie de Bousies (chiselled cypher "A.M." and ms. mentions).