“JAWS” COMPOSER ANDWRITER
264
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WILLIAMS, JOHN; AND PETER BENCHLEY. Autograph Musical Quotation
Signed with a small ink drawing, both by Williams, and a small ink drawing Signed by
Benchley. The quotation, two bars of the theme from the film
Jaws
, notated on a hand-
drawn stave, below a sketch showing the water line with a protruding shark’s fin, upper
right. Benchley’s drawing, a sketch showing a shark’s head in profile, upper left. 1 page,
oblong 8vo.
Np, nd
[350/500]
MENTIONS RICHARDWAGNER, NIETZSCHE, HANSVON BÜLOW
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(WAGNER, RICHARD.) WAGNER, COSIMA. Group of 4 Autograph Letters
Signed, “Cosima,” to “Dearest Elisabeth,” on various subjects.Together 16 pages, 8vo, each
written on a folded sheet; the 1874 letter dampstained and soiled, otherwise condition
generally good.
Vp, 1874-80
[800/1,200]
Bayreuth, 23 October 1874: “. . .Wagner has been so enchanted with the snuff box that . . .
he thinks it (and he is right) quite a little masterpiece . . . ; he has had ordered an étui made for
the little jewel, and wants it to be upon his writing table, to snuff out of it on great occasions,
and to see it always. . . . I am glad to have . . . found once more that our friendship remains the
same through years and distances! I wrote today to H[ans] v[on] B[ülow] to tell him of the
Stift [Luisenstift: boarding school; location of Cosima’s two eldest daughters] and also of the
english Lady . . . . Do you think I could ask Bertha von Bülow to go from time to time to pay
a visit to my children if they would come in the Stift? . . . .
“
Today I begin the new publication of Nietzsche and I do find it so beautiful that I send it to
you; he is truly a very exceptionally intelligent man. . . .”
Bayreuth, 26 April 1877: “. . . . I was obliged to give Isolde [von Bülow, Cosima’s daughter]
in Altenburg to see orthopedic institute; it was hard to see, but I hope she will soon be recovered
and return to me. . . .”
Np, 29 July 1878: “. . . It must be magnificent in Norway; my husband has kept the most
vivid impression of the Fjords, which he saw almost forty years ago . . . . [W]e are . . . enjoying
our life which the shine of genius makes always grand and always new. . . .
“
I heard also that the dresdner theatre [Semperoper in Dresden] was a failure . . . and that 800
persons cannot see in it, but that it is beautiful to be seen. Pity, that a theatre has more the ten-
dency to let people see, than to be itself seen. My husband sends best regards to you and Carlo,
and I send all my love with a sort of bitterness . . . you would not care much to see me? was
very unkind indeed, after a friendship of twenty two years, o! . . .”
WITH
—
Commemorative tin plate featuring profile of Richard Wagner in relief with decorative
border, bronze patina. 17 inches in diameter. 20th century.
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