AMQS on a 6.25 x 9.25 album page, three bars from his "2 Concerto pour Piano, op. 18," signed and inscribed, "Mademoiselle Eugenie Smeenk, S. Rachmaninoff, Arnheim, 7 December 1908," the date of his concert in that city. The page is housed in an extraordinary early 20th century guest book from the Hotel Du Soleil in Arnhem, Netherlands (featuring a deluxe binding with spine and corners of gilt and polished calf with marbled boards, all edges gilt with rounded corners).
The book contains 26 signed pages (some items affixed), comprising autographs of notable musical, literary, and artistic figures of the day, including six original drawings, one etching, one watercolor, five musical quotations, and one signed photo. These autographs were collected by Eugenie Smeenk, the daughter of the hotel's owner.
Willem Mengelberg, who conducted the Rachmaninoff concert, signs with an AMQS from a Robert Schumann work on the page following Rachmaninoff’s. Other musical signers include cellist Pablo Casals and pianist Harold Bauer, who performed together on November 26, 1907; opera singers Jeanne Raunay, Sigrid Arnoldsson, Hermine Bosetti, and Georgette Leblanc—with her husband, the author Maurice Maeterlinck —violinists Jacques Thibaud and Kathleen Parlow, and composer Richard Strauss.
The artists represented include: painter Charles Dankmeijer (ink sketch of an old farm); sculptor Toon Dupuis (signed photo of an an equestrian statue); painter Hendrik Haverman (ink sketch of rabbits); landscape painter Jozef Israels (ink sketch of a girl on a dune); painter Herman Moerkerk (acquarel and crayon drawing of an old man); genre artist Benjamin Prins (pencil sketch of an old man); still life painter Willem Roelofs, Jr. (ink sketch of still life with fish); painter Hendrik van Bloem (landscape etching); and painter Kees van Waning (charcoal landscape drawing). In fine condition. An amazing assemblage of leading artistic figures of the era, highlighted by the excellent Rachmaninoff musical quotation.
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