The presentation inscription reads, To George Grossmith from Arthur Sullivan, W. S. Gilbert & R D'Oyly Carte at the close of his First Theatrical Engagement which lasted twelve years 1877 - 1889.
George Grossmith (9 December 1847 – 1 March 1912) was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades. As a writer and composer, he created 18 comic operas, nearly 100 musical sketches, some 600 songs and piano pieces, three books and both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines.
This monteith was likely a gift to Grossmith from famed dramatists and composers W. S. Gilbert (1836 – 1911) and Arthur Sullivan (1842 – 1900) and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte (1844 – 1901) at the time of his leaving their D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in August of 1889. Grossmith joined in 1877 and went on to create all nine of the lead comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan's operas between 1877 and 1889, including Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), the Major-General in The Pirates of Penzance (1880), and Ko-Ko in The Mikado (1885–87).