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Ader

314 - THEATRE. 2 registers from the Porcher agency for authors’ ti…
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Estimate €1,500 - €2,000
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Description
THEATRE. 2 registers from the Porcher agency for authors’ tickets, 1849–1883; 2 folio-sized registers (numbered 2) comprising 600 pages (35 x 11 cm, hardback, green leather spine, binding very worn) and 582 pages (39 x 15 cm, black cloth binding). Interesting documents on the earnings of playwrights. The Authors’ Royalty Agency was founded in 1828 by Jean-Baptiste Porcher (1792–1864), a theatre claque leader, theatrical agent and banker to playwrights (the model for the character of Braulard in Balzac’s *Lost Illusions*). The agency paid playwrights, librettists and musicians an advance on the ‘authors’ tickets’ distributed to them by the theatres, and in turn resold them; it also sometimes advanced money against the manuscripts of the plays. Porcher ran the agency with his wife Alix, who, upon becoming a widow, took over from him. The ledgers list, by author, the sums advanced as a deposit, the daily takings from ticket sales, a summary of the account and the payment settling it, or the sum carried forward, with numerous authors’ signatures as receipts. They detail the distribution of royalties for works written in collaboration. The green ledger was kept from 1849 to 1855 and covers 43 authors: A.-T. Albert and F. Labrousse for *Bonaparte*, Maurice Alhoy, Théodore de Banville (notably for *Le Beau Léandre*, 13 signatures), Armand Barthet (Le Moineau de Lesbie), Arthur de Beauplan, Léon Beauvallet, Eugène Bercioux (with a receipt to Mrs Porcher for ‘the balance and discharge of my author’s notes’), Achille Bourdois, Eugène Bourgeois, Philoxène Boyer (Le Cousin du roi), Louis Couailhac, Jules Cressonnois, Adrien Decourcelle, Paul Duplessis, Xavier Eyma, Théodore Faucheur, Édouard Foussier, André de Goy, Amédée de Jallais, Numa Jautard, Eugène Labiche (fol. 324–380, 1850–1856, 9 signatures), Achille Lafon, Charles de La Rounat, Laurencin and Chapelle, Auguste Lefranc, Lerouge, Achille Lestrelin, Julien Mallian, Édouard Martin, Albert Monnier, Henry Monnier, Henry Murger (La Vie de Bohème and Le Bonhomme Jadis, 10 signatures), Gérard de Nerval (Les Monténégrins, *L’Imagier de Harlem*, *Misanthropie et repentir*, 27 signatures), Alphonse Royer, Salvador, Élie Sauvage, Eugène Sue (*Jean Bart* and *Le Juif errant*), Auguste and Léon Supersac, Wilhelm Ténint, Théodore Touchard, Gustave de Wailly. The ‘black register’, kept from 1858 to 1898, lists 36 authors: Edmond About (The Financier and the Cobbler [Offenbach], Germaine, Our People, Ancient History…), Léon Battu, Charles Barbara, Alexandre de Beaumont, Hippolyte Bedeau, Paul Bocage, Marius Carman, René Clément, Théodore and Hippolyte Cogniard, Francis Cornu, Victor Couailhac, Louis Deffès, Adolphe Dupeuty, Charlotte Dupuis, Alexandre Flan, Édouard Foussier, Théophile Gautier (the ballets *Yanko le Bandit*, *Sacountala*, *Giselle*, *Le Tricorne enchanté*, and *Pierrot posthume*, 5 signatures), Charles Gounod (*Le Médecin malgré lui*, *Sapho*, *Faust*, *Philémon et Baucis*, *La Reine de Saba*, *Mireille*, *La Colombe*, *Roméo et Juliette*, 33 signatures), Amédée de Jallais, Jules Lacroix, Henry de La Madelène, Ernest Legouvé (*Les Doigts de fée*, *Louise de Lignerolles*, Bataille de dames, etc., spanning over 35 pages), Charles Lemaitre, Louis Leroy, Gabriel de Lurieu, Alexandre Manceau, Montaubry, Charles Nuitter, Alfred Pouillon, Jules Renard, Jules Rostaing, Maurice Saint-Aguet, Théophile Semet (Gil Blas and La Petite Fadette), Renaud de Vilbac, Albert Wolff.
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About the sale Letters and Autograph Manuscripts – Part II
Auction location
Auction time 10/14/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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