Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller - Old and Rare Books

Teatr Narodowy w Toruniu, Sezon 1933/34 (National Theatre in Toruń, Season 1933/34) [UNIQUE ALBUM W/ 310 ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS]

n/a

[Torun]: [1934]. Softcover. 12mo. 6 3/4 x 9 3/4". 12 un-numbered leaves. Brown paper wrappers with modernist art deco stencil design and hand-lettered text and image in white on the front cover. String-tied binding.

A unique hand-assembled photo-album documenting the productions and actors of the 1933-34 season of National Polish Theater in Torun, Pomerania. The album contains a total of 310* small silver gelatin photographs mounted on 12 leaves of heavy stock brown paper, with leaves single-sided or double-sided. Some images are in portrait orientation and some are in landscape, all the same size, each measuring roughly 1 x 1 1/2". Each image is hand-numbered at the bottom. The images in the album are organized by production with the name of the production hand-labeled at the top of the leaf. The last few leaves are unlabeled and miscellaneous.

The productions mounted included both classic Polish works and adaptations of contemporary international plays, with at least 5 of them being period costume dramas. The theater staged some of the same productions mounted by other regional branches of the Polish National Theater. A total of 12 different productions are labeled here, while others likely contained in the final un-labed section. Productions shown in the album are:

- 'Lilla Weneda' by Juliusz Słowacki (20 images)
- 'Artysci' ("Artists") by A. Hopkins (22 images)
- 'Jan III pod Wiedniem' ("Jan III at Vienna") by Władysław Krzemiński (46 images)
- 'Coś tu Nie w Porządku' (originally in German, "Da stimmt was nicht") by Franz Arnold (20 images)
- 'Proboszcz wsrod Ubogich' (originally in French, "Mon curé chez les pauvres") by André de Lorde and Pierre Chaine (19 images)
- 'Ogniem i Mieczem' ("With Fire and Sword") adapted from the classic historical novel of the same name by Henryk Sienkiewicz (15 images)
- 'Dama w Jedwabiach' ("Woman in Silks") by Fritz Gottwald and J. Franz Gribitz (7 images)
- 'Rewja Na... Kochaj sie...go' (14 images)
- 'Jej Tancerz' (originally in French, "Le Danseur de Madame") by Paul Armont, Joe Bousquet (19 images)
- 'Dom Otwarty' ("Open House") by Michał Bałucki (17 images)
- 'Bajka Perelka ('Fairytale of the Pearl', 11 images)
- "Rewja..." (16 images)
- The final 4 leaves are additional unlabeled misc. photos (84 images)

Text throughout in Polish.

Two German photographic theatrical postcards are laid in at the front.

Covers with minor to light rubbing to extremities. Interior with the first few leaves loosening near to the bottom. Interior and all images clean and vibrant. Wrappers and interior in very good to very good+ condition overall. Protected in modern mylar. vg to vg+. Item #54813

* The total numbering for the album is erroneous, with the written count being 320 images.

The Wilam Horzyca Theatre (aka The National Theater) in Toruń is the oldest and most important theater in the city. It was built in 1904, and as the Stadttheater Thorn served originally as an exclusively German-language stage until the end of the First World. With the establishment of the Second Polish Republic, it operated as a Polish-language theater, starting in 1920 as the State National Theatre in Toruń. From 1922-32 it operated mostly as the Municipal Theater, returning again as the National Theater from 1932-34, and from 1934 until the outbreak of WWII as The Polish Theater. In the postwar period it was known as the Pomeranian Regional Theater, and has been known since 1960 as The Wilam Horzyca Theatre.

Reference: "Encyklopedia Teatru Polskiego" (Encyclopedia of Polish Theatre).

Price: $2,500.00