Leather-bound autograph album, 8.25 x 10, circa 1906–1936. The album was originally owned by Robert “Bobbie” Andrews (1895–1976), the British juvenile actor who later became involved in a thirty-five-year intimate relationship with famed actor Ivor Novello (1893–1951). The album includes approximately 110 signatures, mostly of British and American stars of stage and screen, both one and several to a page. The pages are both single- and double-sided; a number of the signatures are on affixed items. Of special interest are several signed postcard photos, as well as several original works of art, some quite elaborate, created directly on the pages. Most of the signers have included quotations or warm inscriptions to young Bobbie. The album begins with Bobbie’s own ownership inscription and signature, plus an affixed postcard photo captioned “Master Bobby Andrews.” The other signers include Yvonne Morel (with original watercolor of Dutch girl), Winifred Emery, Florence Haydon, Emma Chambers, Wynne Mathison, Kate Harwood, Cyril Maude, Henry Ainley, Suzanne Sheldon, Clare Knowles, Helen B. Wilbraham, Bertha C. Chaplin, Kenneth Douglas (pencil), Bertram J. Lamb, Grace Lane, Letty Lind, Horace Annesley Vachel (with verse), Ethel Haydon Robey, Betty Hawkins, Anthony Hope, Tom Graves, Kate Cutler (two, one a PC photo), Mabel Green (two, one a signed PC photo), J. Martin Harvey, Phyllis Dare, Fay Davis Laurence, Nina de Silva, Lily Morris (two, one a PC photo), Ada Reeve (two, one a PC photo), Gertie [Millar], Marie Lohr, Reginald Lawrence [with amusing ink drawing of a male singer], Viola Tree (PC photo), Neil Kenyon, Hermann Vezin, Maud Gessall (with verse), Pauline Chase (PC photo), Heather Thatcher, Ellis Jeffreys (two, one a PC photo), Lilian Braithwaite (two, one a PC photo), John Gielgud (early, with the inscription “I cannot eat my soup without peppah!”), Emlyn Williams, Harry Kendall , Beatrice Lillie, Fay Compton, Arthur Macrae, Leslie Henson, Leslie Howard, Richard D. Rose, Norma Shearer, Charles Farrell, Clemence Dane, Fredric March (pencil), Ivor Novello (lengthy 1933 inscription: “There are two kinds of courage, one that never lets you rest, and another, far greater, that enables you to sit back and watch the ones you love climbing higher and higher, helping them, spurring them on”), Zena Dare, Constance Collier, G. B. Stern, Keneth Kent, Benita Hume, Mary [Ellis], John Van Druten (quotation from his play The Distaff Side, the playwright adding, “In manuscript before production—as a very great treat!”), Mary Newcombe, Owen Nares, Marie Tempest (closely trimmed signed photo), Viola Tree, Douglas Fairbanks (two, one including “For no bloody reason!,” the other signed on the S.S. Aquatania), Heather Thatcher, Julia Neilson, Phyllis Neilson Terry, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne (on same page), Madge Titheridge Park, Frank Bradley (with original drawing of the character “Zachy” from the play Dad), Edna Best, Adrianne Allen, Raymond Massey (with humorous quote from launching of the Queen Mary), Gladys Cooper, Edward Marsh (including lengthy quote from LaFontaine’s Fables), Helen Hayes, Ruth Gordon, Dickie Cromwell, Ena Burrell, Kenneth Carter, Terry Rattigan, Arthur Marshall, Norah Howard, Robert Helpmann, Marguerite Steen, William Nicholson, Reggie Edward Andrews (with two original watercolors on the same page, one of a rose, the other of a cottage scene), Gertrude Lawrence, and several others. The binding of the album is quite worn and reinforced with tape; the pages themselves range in condition from very good to fine, with mounting-related wrinkles, scattered soiling and staining, and a few pages detached, partially clipped, or with small tears. The writing is generally clear and dark throughout, and most of the individual pages or signatures would display quite nicely if so desired. R&R COA.
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