The plot, or soup, thickens around Edward Gorey's original artwork for
The Tuning Fork, which is being offered at
Sotheby's Auction House next week.
According to Edward Bradford, the official Edward Gorey bibliographer and author of
F is for Fantods; Edward Gorey's Fantod Press: A Bibliographical Checklist, the art being offered was most likely the version of
The Tuning Fork published in
Status Magazine in November 1968 (two other complete books by Edward Gorey also appeared in the magazine in March 1969 & July 1969) under the title -
Theoda; A Gothic Tale of the Generation Gap, Alienation and Despair Driving Parents and Children into Monstrous Behavior which Solves Nothing. This is, quite possibly, the most convoluted title to any tale penned by Mr. Gorey.
So the question remains - Why redraw the book? The most reasonable explanation offered by Mr. Bradford is that the original artwork simply was not returned to Mr. Gorey by the magazine, and when
EG thought of including this story in
Amphigorey Also, the art could not be found. The only option would be to redraw the entire book. This also explains why there were no changes to the story and the illustrations match the originals so well - Mr. Gorey had no choice but to copy his own work from the printed magazine pictures.
It is not as unusual as it sounds for an artist not to get art back from a publisher, especially in the 1960's. It usually fell to the artist or their agent to keep track of such things, and if a significant amount of time had elapsed before anyone thought to get the work back, it could easily be lost.
The 1974 exhibition had 46 pieces of original artwork created by Mr. Gorey specifically for the show (see my posting from June 30, 2009 for the complete list). So far, I have now seen ten of the pieces in person or in print. After a Staffordshire sugarbowl was #14 on the list and is drawn in what appears to be dried blood, but is really just deep red ink. This masterful genre drawing presents a delightful scene with an abundance of birds and animals.
Les Roses bleuatres l'oubliette dans la cuisine was included in the 1975 Graham Gallery show. I have yet to find a checklist of the pieces that were displayed. This stunning piece is reproduced in Looking for Edward Gorey (see my post from December 20, 2011), but was not on display in the exhibition at the University of Hawaii. The cutaway scene includes just about everything anyone could ever hope to see in a piece by Edward Gorey.
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