MS Mus. 1824/2/4

The material comprises: Sullivan's autograph full score (photostat copy); annotated vocal scores; parts for Song No. 2 and for the Finale; and Francis J. Buckley's arrangement of the Overture for piano duet (autograph manuscript).

Cox and Box received its first performance in private on 16 May 1866. This took place at Moray Lodge in Kensington, the home of Arthur Lewis, and the regular venue for the 'Moray Minstrels', a group of musicians, actors and artists. Burnand later claimed that the first performance actually took place at his house three days earlier, but this may have been no more than a rehearsal. The libretto was adapted by Burnand from the famous farce Box and Cox by John Madison Morton.

Cox and Box was performed for the first time in public in 1867 at the Adelphi Theatre, and from then on it became a favourite, appearing as a curtain raiser to many productions world wide. In an abridged form, it eventually entered the repertoire of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1894 as a partner to another Burnand and Sullivan work, The Chieftain.

Abridged even further, Cox and Box was again staged by the D'Oyly Carte in the 1920's and continued, in the so-called 'Savoy Version', to partner at various times The Sorcerer, H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance well into the 1970's.