![[BEATON, CECIL] GIELGUD, JOHN. Two exceptional autograph letters signed, from John Gielgud to Cecil Beaton.](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/290/1443290.jpg?itok=5wg_SPXK)
Lot Details
Lot 1059
[BEATON, CECIL] GIELGUD, JOHN. Two exceptional autograph letters signed, from John Gielgud to Cecil Beaton.
The first on Gielgud's personal stationery, addressed 16 Cowley Street and dated December 14 (no year, but from internal evidence likely 1958), single sheet closely written on both sides; signed "Love to you as ever/John." The second on the stationery of The Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C., dated May 16th (no year but almost certainly 1947; with a mention of an upcoming performance in Love for Love by Congreve, presumably the perfomance opening in DC on May 13, 1947); two sheets, with 4 closely written pp., one with a diagram of a stage set; also signed "Love to you as ever/John." The first letter a little toned; the second with faint traces at the head of mounting in an album, with a very small loss in the upper margin.
Two remarkably discursive letters of considerable length, with a vast wealth of chat about mutual friends, current performances and their virtues, etc. A footnote to the second letter has a wonderful account of a visit to [Pavel] Tchelitchew: "he spends literally years painting skulls and skeletons with arteries, veins and circular obsessions that seem to me dangerously near the Nijinsky mad drawings, and though they are marvelously drawn and painted they are repulsively like medical diagrams on a doctor's wall," concluding with a note about an abortive Tchelitchew/Orson Welles project.
C Estate of Thomas P. Lacy
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