Several pieces of ephemera

For the love of Gorey...

Theatre, postcard collectors and the Metropolitan Opera

It's astonishing how many pieces of Edward Gorey ephemera of such variety can be found. Even pillow cases, shower curtains, cigarette lighters and who knows what! Gorey was happy for some of his images to be used by organisations he approved of and provided much artwork for memorabilia to be sold to benefit such loves of his as the opera and ballet.

Then since his death there has been a plethora more items bearing his distinctive imagery.

I'm featuring three pieces of ephemera here. The most recent, appearing some years after his death, is the programme for a theatrical production of The Doubtful Guest by the Hoipolloi company in 2008. I saw the show at Southampton University - it incorporated some great ideas but overall I found it unsatisfactory, though it left us with a pleasing double sided fold-out programme.

The postcard is one of a series designed by Gorey for the annual postcard event, the international post card bourse. This was in association with The Gotham Book Mart, a great supporter of Edward Gorey. The store, like Edward, is alas no longer with us.

The note cube is a typical example of Gorey's illustrations being used wherever there was a suitable surface. Here Gorey has provided a delightful scene of members of the audience in their boxes at a Metropolitan Opera production in New York. This particular note cube remains unused in its original shrinkwrap, with details of its charitable function on a label at the base.

I will be selling these and more ephemera in the coming months, starting around August 31st, 2014.