This is a rare, antique, original 1860 hand-written letter with signatures of Joseph Stirling Coyne.

A rare document -- a delightfully written letter, penned on 3 sides of his stationery.
A striking piece of history for the theatre and playwright enthusiast.
Written on laid paper with a blind-stamp seen under light. It is IVORY in an embossed box outline.

Coyne was one of the most prolific British playwrights of the mid-nineteenth century. He wrote more than sixty plays; his twenty-seven farces are surpassed in number only by John Maddison Morton's ninety-one and T. J. Williams's thirty. He was a humorist and satirist and one of the founders of 'Punch', or the London Charivari , the famous illustrated magazine of Victorian humor.

We have done our best to decipher the writing in his letter:

1 Shrewsbury Terrace
Talbot Road
Bayswater
Thursday

Dear Sir
M? (Milo?) Edwards leads us to hope we may have the pleasure of seeing you on Friday evening, and that your friends Mr. and Mrs. Bigelow would accompany you. If so, may I request you to forward them the enclosed invitation, and at the same time, explain to them the cause of the shortness of notice.

I remain
Dear Sir
Yours very truly,
J Stirling Coyne

(Philip?) Miles Esq
46 Regent Square
(Gray's?) ? Road

On the inside of the first page, he has written his name and address again:
J Stirling Coyne
1 Shrewsbury Terrace
Talbot Road
Bayswater
June 26, 1860

SIZE: 4" x 6" folded, 6" x 8" when opened.

This came from a collector who worked at the Shubert Theater, Pantages Theatre, and The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There is a rumor that some of his collection belonged to Tyrone Guthrie (who founded the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis).

BIO:
Joseph Stirling Coyne
(Coyne, J. Stirling (Joseph Stirling), 1803-1868)
One of the most prolific British playwrights of the mid-nineteenth century, he wrote more than sixty plays; his twenty-seven farces are surpassed in number only by John Maddison Morton's ninety-one and T. J. Williams's thirty. Coyne brought to the stage accomplished comedic interchanges, puns, irony, exaggerated character traits, ludicrous plot situations, and surprising outcomes. His plays reveal a deft ear for dialogue and an ability to create characters suited to the talents of specific actors.

He was a humorist and satirist in the tradition of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. As a journalist Coyne contributed humorous pieces to many widely circulated journals and newspapers. Coyne was born in 1803, in Birr, County Offaly, Ireland. His first farce, The Phrenologist, appeared at the Irish Royal Theatre in Dublin in June 1835 and was revived two years later at the abbey theatre. Other plays he wrote were "The Queer Subject," "Everybody's Friend," "Nothing Venture, Nothing Win," "Presented at Court," "The Woman in Red," and "How to Settle Accounts with your Laundress," the last of which has been adapted, under other titles, to the French and German stage.

Joseph Stirling Coyne's everyday characters and realistic situations and language appealed to working-class theatergoers, and his plays enjoyed long runs during the middle decades of the nineteenth century, when stage. Coyne is remembered for his humor and puns and for his satire of Victorian social and artistic conventions. His work is a significant link between the stylized French and English comedies of the eighteenth century and the witty, intellectual plays of Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.

He was one of the founders of 'Punch', or the London Charivari , the famous illustrated magazine of humour, along with journalists Henry Mayhew and Mark Lemon in 1841. At first, a strongly radical journal. Undoubtedly the most famous comic periodical in Victorian Britain, Punch first appeared on British newsstands on 17 July 1841. It originated in the attempt by the engraver Ebenezer Landells, the printer Joseph William Last and the journalist Henry Mayhew to make a living from a new cheap illustrated comic periodical. This was a risky move in a period when the genre of comic journalism was troubled. The rapidity with which comic journals rose and fell testified to the fact that by the late 1830s the indecent, slanderous and subversive satire that had proved so popular during the politically turbulent early decades of nineteenth century Britain was failing to amuse the emerging refined and 'middle class' tastes of the chief consumers of comic literature. A more respectable form of comic journalism was needed to cater to this expanding and economically powerful readership.

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Very good condition with no tears or holes. Some folded lines that have softened over the years so there is no way to "bend" them back horizontally. I am guessing that it might have been folded into a small envelope. Some extra small off-color dots (like foxing) inside and a small bit of paper/residue on the back where there is no writing. Some discoloration on some of the folds. The date is written in pencil on the first page--probably written at the time it was displayed---it is light.