HOUSE, Gordon

Gordon House poster and original art work for ‘Alice in Wonderland’

Description

Gordon House poster and original art work for ‘Alice in Wonderland’ poster. Four original pieces of art work and the original poster for an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ exhibition of work by Peter Blake and Graham Ovenden.

The poster was designed for an exhibition of work by Peter Blake and Graham Ovenden. Originally they had hoped to produce books based on Alice In Wonderland. Blake to illustrate ‘Through the Looking Glass’ while Graham Ovenden ‘Alice in Wonderland’, however the project was never realised and the artists produced sets of prints.

A large white card with 25 small photographic images of other artist’s interpretations of what Alice looked like. These include illustrations by Rackham, Tenniel, Pease, Bowerly etc. At the bottom, in a row, there are original photographs of Dodgson (Carroll), Peter Blake and Graham Ovenden.  The card is discoloured with time and the occasional brown mark; photographs not adhered strongly, just lightly glued onto surface; there is a 3cm tear in the lower right margin, some surface dents and pin holes in margins. Masking tape along top margin and some discolouration on verso. Not pristine but it was a working item.     Size 800x 540cm

A large card with a white surface on front with ‘CS10 line board’ by ‘Colyer and Southey’ on verso. The front white surface is divided into squares with two onlays in paper/ soft card. ‘Alice’, possibly written by hand in one of the sections; adjacent to this is written in blue pencil ‘Type A with 7 ” width’ another with ‘Waddington Galleries with their address and ‘1^st -23^rd of December, 1970′. On verso, the board is discoloured with old masking tape along tope edge; the occasional brown mark and pencil marks on all four corners.  Size 795 x 540cm

A sheet of thin paper with the same design but smaller in scale with directions for the printer. The design is a drawing with the colours and line in pencil, by the designer Gordon House. He has directed that there should 100 on cartridge and 900 printed on mellotex. From my experience, the poster on Cartridge were for a limited edition. The sheet has light handling folds, else very good. Size 29 x 21cm

A piece of thin card which has a shiny surface on one side only. The sheet has text printed onto it regarding the exhibition for the books illustrated by Blake and Ovendean. (These were never printed at the time) In the top margin circled with a star ‘Black Borders on Red white type on red’ , to the right written in blue pencil is ‘A enlarge width 7” width’ . Below the type ‘Gordon House 12.11.70  12908’ has been crossed out with a blue line. This is an enlargement for the text which was to be added sitting adjacent to the word ‘Alice’ on the final poster. The sheet has been cut horizontally but reattached with sellotape; has pin holes in all four corners and some brown marks. Size 15.5 x 25cm

Poster: Very light creases around edges, else very good.

Item details

PROVENANACE: Gordon House

‘Blake planned to illustrated ‘Through the Looking Glass’ while Graham Ovenden did ‘Alice in Wonderland’, for a proposed new edition of the books. However the project was never realised and the artists contented themselves with set of prints’

Quote from Peter Blake’ published by Tate Gallery, 1983.

Peter Blake produced a set of set of 8 screen prints on wove paper, in an edition of 100 signed copies. He did eventually illustrate a book ‘Alice through the Looking Glass using the same 1970’s images, which was published in 2006. This item that we have for sale came from Gordon House’s collection. It is a mock up for the potential book. Gordon House was a printer as well as an artist. He worked very closely with many artists including Peter Blake.

The poster has only recently been obtained due to its rarity and comes from a separate source.