Jun 13, 2017 - Sale 2451

Sale 2451 - Lot 232

Price Realized: $ 5,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
GOREY, EDWARD. The Doubtful Guest Doll. Roughly 18 inches high, grey jersey cloth, leather sneakers, beaded eyes, and a striped green and white cotton scarf with Gorey's handwritten tag: "a/d © 1974 Edward Gorey / The Doubtful Guest." In original box with pictorial label on top, some creasing, toning, and a few tears. A copy of the Peter Weed 1966 reprint edition of the book, signed by Gorey on title-page accompanies the lot. [Yarmouth Port], 1974
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Additional Details

one of only four scarce doubtful guest dolls lettered a through d and signed by gorey, from a small total limited edition of fifty numbered and four lettered dolls signed by him on a tag sewn to the scarf in 1974. While a re-issue of 26 lettered copies was created and dated in 1995, though sold without the box, that series is distinguished by the inclusion of the year on those "colophon" scarf tags (Toledano pages 156-57).
In 1974, two Gorey fans (a press agent and a fashion designer) decided to create a doll of the creature from the story The Doubtful Guest. They showed the prototype to Gorey who "jumped back in glee" and agreed to number and sign his name to a limited edition of the creatures. Otherwise quite pleased with the doll, Gorey did insist that the stripes on the little scarves be equidistant.