Jullien's Celebrated Polkas No. 2. The Royal Polka. As performed at Buckingham Palace by the band of the Coldstream Guards, and Danced at the French Plays by Mdlle. Forgeot, & Mdme. Albert... Price [illegible]

London: Jullien, 1843. Folio, 340 x 251 mm. Colour lithograph by J. Brandard heightened with gold depicting dancers Forgeot and Albert in identical costumes of white knee-length ballet dresses with bolero jackets and red and gold sashes and hats with feathers, both facing front with hands on each other's shoulders, en pointe, hands clasped in front. Within decorative gilt border. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [1] (directions for performing the polka and publisher's advertisements), [2]-5, [i] (blank) pp. Signed by the artist in the stone. Printed by M. and N. Hanhart.

Small composer's facsimile signature stamp to lower outer corner of title.

Slightly worn, browned, foxed, and stained; small binding holes to blank left margin; slightly trimmed, affecting last line of imprint; spine reinforced with tape; loose, but with original stitching present. NYPL catalogue id b19758956. Scarce. NYPL/Chaffee suggest that this is an image of the dancers Fanny Cerrito and Camille.

John Brandard (1812-1863), an English lithographic artist, was a master of the illustrated sheet music cover, designing hundreds of title pages, primarily for ballets and operas.

Jullien was a French composer, conductor, and music publisher. "Considered something of a child prodigy by his violinist-bandmaster father Antonio, Jullien served in the army before entering the Paris Conservatoire in 1833 or 1831. He left in 1836, preferring dance music over counterpoint. For the next three years, Jullien's lively entertainments of dance music at the Jardin Turc brought rapid popularity, rivalling Musard's, and three duels brought notoriety. He left Paris for England in 1838... In the democratization of music and the establishment of the early promenade concert, Jullien's role was significant... Davison... was a supporter and personal friend: 'M. Jullien', he wrote in the Musical World, 'was undoubtedly the first who directed the attention of the multitude to the classical composers ... [he] broke down the barriers and let in the "crowd".' " Keith Horner in Grove Music Online.