THEATER. 2 ledgers from the Porcher Agency containing playwright’s tickets, 1849–1883; 2 folio-sized ledgers (numbered 2) of 600 pages (35x11 cm, hardcover, green leather spine, binding heavily worn) and 582 pages (39x15 cm, black cloth-bound hardcover). Interesting documents on the earnings of playwrights. The Authors’ Royalty Agency was founded in 1828 by Jean-Baptiste Porcher (1792–1864), a theater promoter, theatrical agent, and banker for playwrights (the model for the character Braulard in Balzac’s *Lost Illusions*). The agency paid playwrights, librettists, and musicians an advance on the “author’s tickets” distributed to them by theaters, and in turn resold them; it also sometimes advanced money against the manuscripts of plays. Porcher ran the agency with his wife Alix, who, after becoming a widow, succeeded him. The ledgers list, by author, the amounts advanced as a down payment, the daily proceeds from ticket sales, a summary of the account, and the payment that settles it—or the amount carried over—along with numerous authors’ signatures as receipts. They detail the distribution of royalties for works written in collaboration. The green ledger was kept from 1849 to 1855 and covers 43 authors: A.-T. Albert and F. Labrousse for *Bonaparte*, Maurice Alhoy, Théodore de Banville (notably for *Le Beau Léandre*, 13 signatures), Armand Barthet (*Le Moineau de Lesbie*), Arthur de Beauplan, Léon Beauvallet, Eugène Bercioux (with a receipt to Mme. Porcher for “balance and discharge of my author’s notes”), Achille Bourdois, Eugène Bourgeois, Philoxène Boyer (*Le Cousin du roi*), Louis Couailhac, Jules Cressonnois, Adrien Decourcelle, Paul Duplessis, Xavier Eyma, Théodore Faucheur, Édouard Foussier, André de Goy, Amédée de Jallais, Numa Jautard, Eugène Labiche (fol. 324–380, 1850–1856, 9 signatures), Achille Lafon, Charles de La Rounat, Laurencin and Chapelle, Auguste Lefranc, Lerouge, Achille Lestrelin, Julien Mallian, Édouard Martin, Albert Monnier, Henry Monnier, Henry Murger (*La Vie de Bohème* and *Le Bonhomme Jadis*, 10 signatures), Gérard de Nerval (*Les Monténégrins*, *L’Imagier de Harlem*, *Misanthropie et repentir*, 27 signatures), Alphonse Royer, Salvador, Élie Sauvage, Eugène Sue (*Jean Bart* and *Le Juif errant*), Auguste and Léon Supersac, Wilhelm Ténint, Théodore Touchard, Gustave de Wailly. The “blacklist,” maintained from 1858 to 1898, includes 36 authors: Edmond About (*Le Financier et le savetier* [Offenbach], *Germaine*, *Nos gens*, *Histoire ancienne*…), Léon Battu, Charles Barbara, Alexandre de Beaumont, Hippolyte Bedeau, Paul Bocage, Marius Carman, René Clément, Théodore and Hippolyte Cogniard, Francis Cornu, Victor Couailhac, Louis Deffès, Adolphe Dupeuty, Charlotte Dupuis, Alexandre Flan, Édouard Foussier, Théophile Gautier (the ballets *Yanko the Bandit*, *Sacountala*, *Giselle*, *The Enchanted Tricorne*, and *Pierrot Posthume* (5 signatures)), Charles Gounod (*The Doctor in Spite of Himself*, *Sapho*, *Faust*, *Philémon and Baucis*, *The Queen of Sheba*, *Mireille*, *La Colombe*, *Romeo and Juliet*—33 signatures), Amédée de Jallais, Jules Lacroix, Henry de La Madelène, Ernest Legouvé (*Les Doigts de fée*, *Louise de Lignerolles*, Bataille de dames, etc., spanning over 35 pages), Charles Lemaitre, Louis Leroy, Gabriel de Lurieu, Alexandre Manceau, Montaubry, Charles Nuitter, Alfred Pouillon, Jules Renard, Jules Rostaing, Maurice Saint-Aguet, Théophile Semet (Gil Blas and La Petite Fadette), Renaud de Vilbac, Albert Wolff.