Caruso

1909 · 007852 — New York: The Metropolitan Company 1909. First Edition. Hardcover. Paper pastedown on boards. Good. 8vo. 24 by 15 cm. 71 pp. With two plates each with a photo of the respective singers. The plates are on a glossy stock and accompanied by tissue guards. Binding solid in terms of holding book together but spine perished with all of original paper pastedown gone. You see mostly the flexible card that is essential for the binding architecture and this somewhat minimizes the conspicuousness of the missing layer in this volume at least in our view but you do catch a glimpse of the mull the fabric mesh binding material and the gatherings and obviously this is undesirable. The boards' paper pastedown are heavily stained and soiled. The prelim leaves and final leaves are stained. Otherwise the leaves are generally clean with very occasional light stains and the copy is solid. On the title page the address for the Metropolitan Company publishers is crossed out -- it was printed as a 42nd Street address and in ink below is written 8-12 East 34 Street. The opera house -- the original or old house was on Broadway and took up the entire block of 39th to 40th Street with its back elevation on Seventh Avenue. We have not looked into this. We assume the inked address is the accurate one at the time. We have no idea who would have made this correction nor whether this correction was made in other copies. We do not think this will be an issue for most people interested in the title. The Metropolitan Company hardcover