QUADRILLE: A Play in Three Acts.

First edition, first printing. Inscribed presentation copy. Original red cloth with gilt and gilt on black lettering to spine and front panel, with facsimile of the author's signature stamped in gilt to the lower edge of the front panel. In the dustwrapper illustrated by Cecil Beaton. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt bright, the contents clean throughout. The pages are a little toned to margins (owing to the paper stock used) and there is a tiny stain (c. 4 mm) to the upper outer margins of pp. 49-53. Spine tips are a little softened and rubbed. In the bright dustwrapper, rubbed and nicked to corners and folds, with an area of loss (c. 0.5 cm deep) at the head of the spine. Loosely laid in to this copy is a folded sheet of paper headed with a printed monogram and address "Heronden House / Belgrave Square". As this is the fictional address of the central characters in the play, the Marquess and Marchioness of Heronden (there is no such house in Belgrave Square), it is likely that this item of stationery is a stage prop (a letter left for the Marchioness by her husband plays a significant part in the plot). Not price-clipped (8s 6d net to the front flap). A very attractive association copy.

Inscribed by the author in blue ink to the title page, "For Ginette et Marie Antoinette / With, love / Noël". The recipients were Coward's friends, Ginette Spanier (Jenny Yvonne Spanier, 1904-1988) and her husband Paul-Emile Seidmann (who was affectionately nicknamed Marie-Antoinette by Coward). Spanier was director of the House of Balmain, the fashion house founded by Pierre Balmain and patronised by such luminaries as Ava Gardner, Brigitte Bardot, and Marlene Dietrich. According to Philip Hoare, in his biography of Coward, the author met the couple while holidaying in France during the summer of 1946, and he would later provide the Foreword to Spanier's 1959 autobiography, 'It Isn't All Mink'. 'Quadrille', "a glittering Victorian comedy of marital misapprehension" (Sheridan Morley) was first performed at the Opera House, Manchester, on 15 July 1952, before moving to London for an extended run of 329 performances at the Phoenix Theatre. [Philip Hoare, 'Noël Coward: A Biography' (1995); Stephen Cole, 'Noël Coward: A Bio-Bibliography' (1993)]. (Cole B-101).