Dec 16, 2021 - Sale 2592

Sale 2592 - Lot 43

Price Realized: $ 21,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
EDWARD GOREY (1925-2000)
Signals, Drawing #6. A proposed but unfinished work intended for the set of limited-edition prints published by Signals Limited, 1995. Ink, watercolor, graphite, and wash, with three small collaged pieces, on Strathmore paper. 265x215 mm; 10 1/2x8 1/2 inches, on 14 1/2x11 1/2-inch sheet. Initialed "EG" in lower right corner. Taped to the lower right margin is a 1 1/2x2 1/4-inch swatch of paper containing a penciled grid. Within it, Gorey worked out a cross design for one of the intricate wallpaper backgrounds in the drawing.

Provenance: The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust.

Signals began as a catalogue that featured items related to PBS shows and carried a large amount of Gorey-related material over the years. Beginning in 1992, Gorey produced a series of ten limited edition offset lithographs exclusively for Signals. Each of the ten prints in the series featured highly detailed scenes filled with imaginative Gorey characters and locations. For this piece, Gorey shows the interior and exterior of a three-story home using a cloud-like cutaway technique that is both intriguing and somewhat confusing. The exterior portions of the house are defined with a watercolor wash that enhances and slightly blurs the pen and ink details. In several areas, the watercolor became overworked leading to necessary corrections. These corrected areas, in conjunction with several unfinished details, indicate that Gorey abandoned this piece as it was nearing completion. The swatch with the wallpaper design draft taped to the bottom margin further evinces Gorey's painstaking attempts at graphic patterning
These qualities make this a desirable work for the true Gorey fan as such process pieces are uncommon on the market.
Special thanks to Irwin Terry for his insights and assistance with this lot.