[Theater. Collecting] Ireland, Joseph Norton - [Small Archive] Three Letters from Joseph Norton Ireland, Offering to Sell His Collection to Fellow Theater Historian, Douglas Taylor

Bridgeport [CT], 1898. 4 pp. 5 x 8 inches. Three letters from theater historian and biographer, Joseph Norton Ireland to collector and biographer, Douglas Taylor . 1. Letter, dated December 8th, 1897. 1 pp. Ireland tells Taylor of the decline in his physical and mental faculties, before he summarizes his collection, which includes the Treasurer's books of the Old Park Theater, portraits & photographs of performers, and bound sets of playbills. Finally, he offers a nearly complete set of John Boydell's Shakespeare engravings for the amount of $40. 2. Letter, dated December 16th, 1897. 2 pp.Taylor clearly wanted the Boydell engravings, as Ireland's second letter was sent with an enclosed return check to Taylor, who had overpaid for the set. "I return your check for $40, as I think you misunderstand my writing 'I would see all for that amount', I then referred to the Shakespeare engravings, which were at the close of my letter, the small ones and the large ones and I meant to say I would sell them all (large & small) for that amount. I think the whole collection is worth rather more than that." 3. Letter, dated March 4th, 1898. 1 pp. Contains a short list of Ireland's collection of autograph letters, all bound, which he suspects "will be of little use" to Taylor. Ioseph Norton Ireland (1817-1898) wrote "Records of the New York Stage from 1750-1860 (1866); "Mrs. Duff" (1882); and "A memoir of the professional life of Thomas Abthorpe Cooper" (1888). Douglas Taylor (1830-1913) was president of the Dunlap Society, whose own biographical works included "Autobiography of Clara Fisher Maeder" (1897) and "Autobiographical sketch of Mrs. John Drew" (1899). Very good, indents and remnants of paperclips along top edges, minor soling to folds on versos, contents clean.