Mar 21, 2017 - Sale 2440

Sale 2440 - Lot 174

Price Realized: $ 2,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
JO MIELZINER.
Cleopatra. Costume design for Tallulah Bankhead in the 1937 revival of "Antony and Cleopatra." Crayon on paper. 298x203 mm; 11 3/4x8 inches. Signed, dated 1938, and inscribed to costume designer Julia Sze in lower right image. Two tape ghosts visible on recto and verso, short closed tear at upper right corner, paper brittle.
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Jo Mielziner (1901-1976) was regarded as one of the most prolific, influential, and successful scenic and lighting designers from the Golden Age of Broadway. Following an apprenticeship under Robert Edmond Jones, Mielziner enjoyed a career spanning 50 years and is credited with over 200 productions including "Carousel," "Guys and Dolls," "The King and I," "South Pacific," and "A Streetcar Named Desire." His revolutionary "skeletal" designs for the debut production of "Death of a Salesman" were recreated in 2012 for a revival starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. While overshadowed by his work as a set designer, Mielziner also lent his talents to the art of costume design. This is an extremely rare example of such work. At present, we can only locate one record for a costume design by Mielziner to come to auction, however several designs can be viewed in the Jules Fisher Collection at the New York Public Library.