New-York tribune., 1909-09-07
COLLECTION OF PLAYBILLs.
Mrs. Enthoven Has Fifty Thousand Some Of
Eighteenth Centurv

FnN thousana payoills, covering period reach
ing oacA INTO the eighteenth century and coming
oo"h 70 the present time. Could more uniaue
history OF the drama be imagined? And this "a
the collection which has been made b,, NJ -,
thoVen. an English woman. lover of the drama and
friend Of Miss Ellen Terry and other noted n1ava~s
ana "hlch Is shown TO favored visitors at her fat
In Cadogan Gardens. Here are Covent C;ards, hu1s
for twenty-five consecutive years, from the year
1919, complete: here are fourteen wears of t4a,r,a
ket bills beginning in 17Ss Names OF famous act
ors now dead look up in the quaint LETTERING ~
the past from these papers, yellow with time The
collection has all the present-day pIaybills too.
Tor Mrs EnthOven keeps II up TO date. Among
the more recent bills are those recording the first
appearances of Mrs. Patrick Campbell Miss Vio-
let Vanbrugh and Arthur Bourchier
Mrs. EnthOven's collection had Its birth in her
love for the stage. says The I4adys Realm" sh4
began. when girl. making a scrapbook of press
cuttings dealing with the theatre lust for her own
pleasure One day when she was looking over a
bundle OF old playbls she had bought an idea
came TO her-Why not start a collection? And that
bundle Of old bills the nucleus OF her present
one which is larger and interesting than all
the other collections in the world would he put to-
gether. and which has historic value that the
British Museum has tried more than once to ac-
quire 1t.
Like most collectors says Mrs Enthoven II
have had my share OF good and bad luck. I bought
for few shillings. some time back. large guam
tity OF old bills. and lucky enough find
among them several rare ones. got some Gar
ricks, which are always hard to pick up. and the
Covent Garden bill for the night which the
o. P. riots occurred, and also the pIaybill OF the
performances given in honor Of the Duke of Vel
hngton and Blucher at Covent Garden IN 1s1A
A great difficulty I often beset with in carry
ing out my idea Of collecting the bills of each
theatre in unbroker order is to fix the date OF a
bill accurately. For example a Garrick bill Of
value especially. for 1t given by Miss Terry
is only dated April 10 the year not being given.
have various methods of ascertaiung the year
in such cases-methods too complicated to de-
scribe. It has often taken couple Of years
to get the right date Of an old paybill'
Every pursuit has its penalties For instance
some persons. Mrs EnthOven says. seem to
gard her as of theatrical encyclopedia They
write her wire her. phone her all manner OF
questions about theatrical affairs. Some one for
example. starts to write the life of some actress
and promptly rings me up 10 pour into my ear a
sheaf Of questions about her. I try to oblige my
friends with information when 1 have IT, but
draw the line furnishing facts to the general
public"
So carefully arranged and indexed is Mrs En-
thovens collection that II is a matter of only a
few moments to get at any playful that Is wanted
They kept in boxes of which there are more
than a hundred, and indexed after the system
used in many large libraries.
The bill Mrs. Enthoven esteems her most valu-
last appearance on the stage. II Is the only one
1t in a bundle she bought for few pence.