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Marvelous leather-bound autograph album, 8.25 x 5, containing over 100 signed autograph musical quotations by popular composers and musicians from the late 1880s and early 1900s, a group highlighted by an exceptionally rare handwritten musical quotation from the great Russian Romantic composer Alexander Borodin, who signs his name an astounding three times, “A. Borodin,” adds several bars of music from a work entitled, “Der reizendsten 'Ersten Geige,’” and writes an inscription to “Fraulein Elise von Hartog…Antweren, 7th 1885.” Other standouts include musical quotations from Norwegian master Edvard Grieg, who writes 10 bars of music from his Ballade Opus 24, and Italian composer Ruggero Leoncavallo, who pens three bars from the third act of “La Boheme.” Additional quotations appear from Vincent D’Indy, Anton Rubinstein, Ignacy Padarewski, Pietro Mascagni, Arthur Nikisch, Carl Reinecke, Max Reger, Eugen d’Albert, Alexander Glazunov, Léo Delibes, Camille Saint-Saens, and many, many others. The front of the album page is gilt-titled with the name of the album’s owner, Elise de Hartog, the adopted daughter of the Dutch composer Edouard de Hartog (1826-1909). It seems that Hartog made a study tour starting in Amsterdam in 1880, which was later continued in Belgium and Germany. During this tour, she met numerous eminent musicians who all contributed to her ‘liber amicorum.’ In overall fine condition, with wear to the spine and covers, and three of the pages detached. A remarkable assemblage of classical luminaries made special by the presence of Alexander Borodin, who remains virtually unobtainable across all handwritten formats. Our research reveals no other example of an autograph musical quotation from the Russian composer.
