Edward Gorey, the famous artist and illustrator of self-proclaimed literary nonsense, sure had a way with words. In a 1992 story with The New Yorker, Gorey told Stephen Schiff, “If you’re doing nonsense, it has to be rather awful, because there’d be no point. I’m trying to think if there’s sunny nonsense. Sunny, funny nonsense for children — oh, how boring, boring, boring.” An image of “Cat Fancy,” the present illustration approaching the block at Swann Galleries, was held in waiting in The New Yorker’s cache for more than 25 years. It was the image not chosen, as it would be, to accompany Schiff’s 1992 article. But “Cat Fancy” was not lost, it just “languished at the bottom of a drawer” as the magazine’s art editor Françoise Mouly said, until it graced the December 3, 2018 cover in a posthumous tribute to the late artist who passed in 2000. And now that the pair of pampered cats broke free, no better time to sell the original, the consignor surely thought. After all, they had waited long enough.
M39836-1 001
SWANN
Sale Date: June 4, 2019
Lot 187
Edward Gorey, “Cat Fancy”
Cover illustration for The New Yorker, published December 10, 2018, with their stamp, dated 1993, on verso. Watercolor, graphite, and ink on paper, 11 by 8½ inches image. Provenance: Gotham Book Mart to present owner.
Estimate $10/15,000
COWAN’S
Sale Date: June 7, 2019
Lot 916
Folk Art Chalk Drawing, “The Valley Farm”
Likely American, Twentieth Century. A framed chalk drawing titled “The Valley Farm,” signed H.D. Payne and dated 1915, 29½ by 53 inches sight.
Estimate: $2/4,000
MARION ANTIQUE AUCTIONS
Sale Date: June 8, 2019
Lot 44
Solar Shelf Clock
Invented by T.R. Timby and made by L.E. Whiting, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., 1865, 27 by 15½ inches. Timby’s solar timepiece is fitted with a globe manufactured by Gilman Joslin, Boston. The globe makes a complete rotation every 24 hours.
Estimate: $1,5/2,500
IROQUOIS AUCTIONS
Sale Date: June 8-9, 2019
Lot 67E
Circa 1835–36, Skaneateles, N.Y., Painting
By Aunt Phoebe Talcott, a snapshot painting of life in Skaneateles in 1835–36 by a local historical family of Skaneateles. A true folk art treasure for someone from Skaneateles, 17½ by 13 inches sight.
Estimate: $3/5,000
HERITAGE
Sale Date: June 7, 2019
Lot 69097
Herbert Gurschner (1901–2001), “The Dancers”
Oil on canvas, 16 by 16 inches, signed lower right. This painting, and three other Gurschner’s in the sale, come from the collection of Dorothy Carless (1916–2012), an English singer and pin-up for the British troops during the World War II. Later, she lived in California and was the musical arranger for the Edie Adams TV show in the 1960s.
Estimate: $6/8,000
ALDERFER AUCTION
Sale Date: June 5–6, 2019
Lot 3246
Mario Botta Quarta Chair
Aluminum angular design with a polyurethane backrest, 29 inches high.
Estimate: $3/500
HELMUTH STONE
Sale Date: June 9, 2019
Lot 18
Follower of Willem Kalf (1619–1693)
Monumental Painting Seventeenth or Eighteenth Century Dutch still life painting with fruit, lobster, Chinese porcelain, silver tazza and goblets. Exhibited at Appleton Museum (Ocala, Florida). Oil on Canvas. Appears to be unsigned. Housed in an exhibition frame, 39 by 55 inches sight.
Estimate: $6/8,000
TOOMEY
Sale Date: June 9, 2019
Lot 182
Dirk van Erp (1860–1933)
Woven basket with copper mounts. San Francisco, copper, raffia, unmarked, 23 ¾ by 18 by 18 inches.
Estimate: $1,5/2,500
MATERIAL CULTURE
Sale Date: June 10, 2019
Lot 134
Jon Serl (1894–1993), “Albatross”
Oil painting on board, 1955, signed. Unframed 35½ by 30 inches.
Estimate: $1/2,000
