Jun 24, 2021 - Sale 2574

Sale 2574 - Lot 96

Price Realized: $ 5,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
EDWARD GOREY (1925-2000)
"The Disrespectful Summons." Three concept sketches for the work published by The Fantod Press, New York, 1971. Three separate sheets. Ink on paper. The first sheet measures 215x280 mm; 8 1/2x11 inches and contains a detailed drawing of the book cover plus 6 smaller sketches for the layouts of the final 6 illustrative panels and a list of titles to potential stories, including "The Loathsome Couple," drawn on yellow paper. Signed "Edward Gorey" somewhat hastily on the base of the urn in the main image. Tipped to floating window matte and framed.
Matted together are two additional 8 1/2x11-inch sheets containing numerous character and panel composition sketches along with some trial title and lettering designs. Ink and graphite on paper. Signed three times by way of Gorey's titling. Mounted along verso to double vertical window matte measuring 26 1/4x17 3/4 inches.

Provenance: Aleph-Bet Books, 2011; private collection.

The devil depicted in the sketches is strikingly similar to 17th century woodcut images of the Pendle Witches, a group of women accused of witchcraft in Lanscashire, England in 1612. These images were circulated in America, especially around Gorey's New England, and he would likely have been familiar with them, especially given his voracious curiosity for visual ephemera.