Sir Frederick Ashton | Archive of correspondence and papers, 1920s-80s

Sir Frederick Ashton.

A substantial archive of correspondence and papers, comprising:

i) Correspondence: In excess of 300 letters to Ashton by various correspondents including the socialite Ava Alice Muriel Astor (20 letters, 1935-40), the dancer and ballet designer William (Billy) Chappell writing whilst on active service (20 letters, 1943-45), Princess Margaret (6, including one letter thanking him for teaching her daughter Sarah “your dance as Mrs Tiggy-winkle”, 9 June 1971), Dame Margot Fonteyn (c.12 letters, “…thanks for giving the old horse yet another beautiful moment – there will never be another choreographer like you…”, 30 May 1977), Nora Kaye (7 letters, “… John Gielgud and your old love Terry Rattigan got into a bit of hot water by going to an extremely gay party that got around…”), Benjamin Britten (4), Lydia Keynes (6), J.M. Keynes (4), Constance Lambert, Dame Adeline Genée (4), Anna Pavlova, Serge Grigoriev, Tamara Karsavina (6), Leonide Massines, Irina Baronova, Bronislava Nijinska, Sir John Barbirolli,, Kathleen Ferrier, André Derain (long letter outlining the scenario for Harlequin in the Street, 6 pages, early 1937), John Piper, Graham Sutherland, Edward Burra (with a sketch of Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth I), Vanessa Bell, Terence Rattigan (3, wartime letters), E.M. Forster, John Betjeman, Isiah Berlin, Peggy Ashcroft (praising his ballet of A Month in the Country, 1978), Lady Diana Cooper (6), and Clarissa Eden (“…Lucian [Freud] seemed very restless. I hope his evening resolved itself somehow…” 6 June [1956])

ii) Two notebooks: ballet notebook, with outlines and other notes relating to “Don Juan”, “Symphonic Variations”, “The Fairy Queen”, “Cinderella”, and others, in pencil, c.40 pages, plus blanks, 1940s, 8vo, wrappers; ballet and miscellaneous notebook, c.320 pages, 16mo, c.1940

iii) Group of ballet scenarios and notes by Ashton with contributions by Constant Lambert and others: Ondine (autograph draft, corrected typescript, final typescript); Macbeth (typescript, with related letter); Madame Chrysanthème (corrected typescript synopsis); Sophia (typescript synopsis and notes, 1956); Prometheus, Tiresias, Homage to the Queen (notes)

iv) Other manuscripts and ephemera: autograph manuscript obituary of Ida Rubinstein (1960); two signed contracts (with the Ida Rubinstein troupe, 1928, and Diaghileff Ballet, 1930); ephemera including a signed menu and a poster

v) Photographs: vintage prints of the young Ashton and friends (punting, posing on a beach, etc.); two framed photographic portraits of Ashton by Cecil Beaton, both signed by the photographer and with the photographer’s stamp on the reverse, c.230 x 180mm, framed (455 x 375mm); promotional headshots of dancers; album of theatrical photographs including stage set designs and a series of photos of Dame Maggie Smith

vi) Carl Tom, stage designer, papers: folder including a series of six photos of Antony and Cleopatra with Peggy Ashcroft and Michael Redgrave, 1953, with facetious captions; faxes (retained originals and received copies of faxes sent to Jack and Flora Bazant); print-out of notes on a meeting with Samuel Beckett prior to a production of Waiting for Godot, 6 pages

vii) Jack and Flora Bazant papers: folder, including a series of letters in support of London Ballet Studios scheme of 1978 (adopting a warehouse in Covent Garden) from, among others, Sir John Gielgud, Yehudi Menuhin (Chair GLC), Joan Plowright, Sheridan Morley, Elaine Stritch, Antoinette Sibley, Dame Alicia Markova, Rt Honourable Lord Harewood, Dame Eva Turner, Wayne Sleep, Alec Guiness, Derek Nimmo, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Dowell, David Lazer, Christopher Bruce, and Beryl Grey

AN IMPORTANT ARCHIVE OF THE GREATEST BRITISH BALLET CHOREOGRAPHER OF THE MODERN ERA. This archive includes Ashton’s working notes on various ballets, which provide a unique insight into his working process. The correspondence is also extremely revealing of Ashton’s work – ballet being, after all, an intensely collaborative artform – as well as his social milieu - dancers, artists, performers, socialites, and even royalty (he had a particularly good relationship with Princess Margaret, as her letters to him demonstrate). There are letters discussing artistic collaborations from composers including Benjamin Britten (“…I think the oboe pieces would make a delicious ballet – if they aren’t too short - & if you could find a way of excusing (as it were) the accompaniment being only a solo oboe…”), and a number of leading artists. André Derain, for example, provides a detailed conception of a collaborative ballet, whilst Graham Sutherland writes somewhat ruefully about the response to his set designs for The Wanderer (“…The press seems […] a bit shocked & outraged by my designs…”, 31 January 1941) and Vanessa Bell enthuses about the possibility of working together (“…There’s nothing I should like better than to do a whole ballet for you…”). There are of course many letters by leading figures in the world of dance. Anna Pavlova writes praising his work in 1931, near the beginning of his career as a choreographer, whilst towards its end comes praise from Margot Fonteyn (“…thanks for giving the old horse yet another beautiful moment – there will never be another choreographer like you…”, 30 May 1977).

The socialite and heiress Ava Alice Muriel Astor provides a particularly important correspondence. The two were lovers in the mid-1930s, despite Ashton’s homosexuality, and these letters show that Astor remained devoted to Ashton even after the end of their physical relationship. Many of her letters were written when she was back home in New York and they include news of ballet, theatre and the arts in the city, especially as it concerned mutual friends (“…Cecil [Beaton] is in trouble & lost various jobs – one to do costumes for the Mercury theatre three Harrys, of Shakesp: & he has had to resign from Vogue – because anti-Jewish & anti-Hollywood insults scribbled round a page of Vogue. It was not noticed till all was published & a terrific storm burst over Cecil for his sarcasms…” 8 Feb 1938). Other letters were written from Astor’s rented summer home of Schloss Kammer in Austria (“…life here has turned into a sort of mad ballet, everyone whirling through wild emotions…”, 14 August 1936), until darkening politics made visits to Austria impossible (“…Eleonora [von Mendelssohn] […] wants to sell Kammer now, as Hitler is imminent in Austria…” (20 January [1938]).

The Second World War features prominently in the correspondence. Ashton was called up for military service, as were almost all of his peers in the ballet world. William Chappell, a dancer and designer who had worked closely with Ashton, provides a fascinating insight into theatrical performance within the armed forces, as he put on shows as part of British forces moving from North Africa into Italy (“…We perform one night in a marble hall – the next in from of a lorry – bump and shiver along the bloody roads – and sometimes its satisfactory and sometimes its just very dull and thankless work … We have no costumes no props. All dressing up is done from 3 lengths of material 1 yellow – 1 red 1 blue – 3 cotton frocks – some old Arab hats, and a sports jacket…”, 27 Nov 1943). It was nearly as hard to keep the world of professional dance alive on the home front, as Constant Lambert complains (“…I have made myself a positive nuisance in the theatre trying to see that your ballets are done as well as possible … But naturally there are certain works of yours that can’t be done now except in an altogether inadequate manner…”, 17 December 1943). The distinctive wartime homosexual subculture is alluded to in wartime letters, most flagrantly (given that his letters were passing through the censor) by Terence Rattigan, who was serving in the RAF. Rattigan begins his letters with greetings such as “Dear pirouetting pisspot” and “Dear Overacting Pilot Officer”, complains that “your letter has only just arrived, incidentally, after having gone to the Air Ministry where it was almost certainly read by hordes of horrified clerks who will never go to the ballet again”, and expresses his wish that “you were in love with me, in the same rear turret. I’d forgive your not being nineteen, simpering and half-witted”.

This is an important and substantial archive of papers relating to one of the greatest figures in the history of dance of the 20^th century, and is seemingly unknown to scholars and biographers.

PROVENANCE:

? Carl Toms (d.1999); Jack and Flora Bezant (d.2022)