7356

James Whale Signed Costume Sketch

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
James Whale Signed Costume Sketch

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2019 May 23 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
British-born film director (1889–1957) who helmed such horror classics as Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man. After a series of strokes left Whale physically weak, he committed suicide by throwing himself into his swimming pool. Original vintage pencil and watercolor sketch of a grimacing woman in Victorian clothing accomplished by Whale on an off-white 7 x 9 sheet, captioned "Freda Fay as 'Mrs. Otherly,'" and signed in pencil, "J. Whale 1920." The consignor notes that the drawing is a costume sketch for an Irish production of Simon Cameron's Abraham Lincoln: Sketches from behind the Footlights. In fine condition.

A decade before his debut in cinema, Whale had garnered acclaim for himself as a set and costume designer on the British theater scene. Having enlisted in the army during World War I and commissioned a second lieutenant, he was captured and made a prisoner of war in 1917. It was during this imprisonment that Whale discovered a flare for staging theatrical productions, leading him to an eventual encounter with Frankenstein's monster. Whale's autograph remains quite rare in any form, making this original sketch a particularly desirable example.