[Thomas Anstey Guthrie ['F. Anstey'], Punch humorist and novelist.] Autograph Letter Signed 'Anstey Guthrie' to the actor-manager Arthur Chudleigh, sending a present and commenting on the success of 'Pinero's brilliant play'.

1p, 12mo. Letterhead in green. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of glue from mount adhering to blank reverse. Addressed to 'My dear Chudleigh'. He asks him to accept 'the accompanying volume', which he ordered to be bound for him 'weeks ago but it has only turned up this morning'. He is 'delighted to know that Pinero's brilliant play seems to he having the great success it deserves'. (Pinero's farce 'Preserving Mr Panmure' ran for 99 nights from 19 January 1911 at the Comedy Theatre.) Guthrie's 1885 novella 'The Tinted Venus' served as the basis of the 1943 Broadway musical 'One Touch of Venus', with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ogden Nash, and book by S. J. Perelman and Nash, which was made into a 1948 Hollywood film starring Ava Gardner and Robert Walker.