Mar 21, 2017 - Sale 2440

Sale 2440 - Lot 103

Price Realized: $ 3,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,500 - $ 5,000
EDWARD GOREY.
Five character studies from "Tinned Lettuce." Including Flora, Hector, The Man, Yipyop and The Woman, circa 1985. Watercolor, pen, ink, and wash on paper. 254x177 mm; 7x10 inches, sheet. Not signed but characters captioned in Gorey's hand. Archivally taped to window mount. Provenance: Ex-Collection P. Matthew Monahan of Gotham Book Mart to present owner.

Additional Details

The characters were created for the skit "The 47 Questions" which appeared in various stage productions of "Tinned Lettuce, or The New Musical." Gorey wrote and designed the costumes and sets for the work which premiered at New York University's theater, Main Stage Two, by its undergraduate drama department in April of 1985. Gorey enjoyed re-staging the work, a series of vaudeville-like vignettes, and he reincarnated it a few times, first in 1992, renaming it "Amphigorey, A Musicale," where it was performed in Philadelphia and, in another redesign, for Off-Broadway in New York's Perry Street Theatre. The show was changed a final time, in 2000, becoming "The Gorey Details, A Musicale." Gorey was less involved in this staging, and the show was still in production at the time of his death, premiering shortly thereafter.