Hammersmith Hoy: A Book of Minor Revelations

A presentation copy inscribed by Playfair ‘For Mr. & Mrs. Wickens in gratitude for their kind and continued appreciation of my small endeavours. Nigel Playfair’ on a blank before the main book. The book has been rebound later to accommodate the fascinating insertions which illustrate Playfair’s career. The binding is half russet silk with decorative patterned boards and the original title label placed on the spine, top edge gilt. On the front pastedown is the bookplate of ‘A.W. Wickens’ who seems likely to have been responsible for the collection and rebinding. There are substantial archival insertions added to the text, notably a signed hand-written letter from E. Ray Lankester, Hugo Bell, & Miles Malleson. The signed photographs include: composer Eugene Goossens,George Grossmith, Leon M. Lion, Miles Malleson, Barry Jackson, Marie Nay, and Edith Evans with a letter snippet signed Charles Trevelyan, a playbill for Bespeak Night June 20th 1929 featuring the Crummles, a ticket to an event at the Foundling Hospital and original programmes for two of Playfair’s Lyric Theatre productions of The Beggar's Opera and The Beaux Stratagem. Playfair (1874-1934) transformed the fortunes of the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith as actor and impresario. This