CROWLEY, Aleister. Charcoal drawing, ca. 51 x 34 cm. View of the Tyrrhenian Sea, probably from the hill behind the abbey of Thelema, Cefalù, Sicily, 1921. Signed with Crowley’s phallic initial A, the number 17 and the astrological symbol of Aries. According to the thelemic calendar, which starts in 1904, the year 1921 was the 17thyear of the Aeon of Thelema. The symbol allows one to place this work sometime between March 20 and April 21.
Priced at £22,500.
Source: Charcoal Drawing by CROWLEY, Aleister: No Binding – Symonds Rare Books Ltd
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nice! perhaps I can convince the wife to pick it up for me as a Crowleymas gift!
it seems to me as if the clouds are blurred words
Someone posted to the Facebook ‘Thelema’ page a few days ago to remark that in the 1990s they had seen this picture handing in the office of John Symonds, which is a good piece of provenance. Though not amongst my favourite Crowleys, It’s a nice picture. Though the price seems optimistic; interesting to see how much it goes for.
🙂
It is also interesting to see that Tom Symonds is selling off Daddy’s stuff… apparently he still has his offices at the Pindar Press in Hampstead, I visited them in 1995. Damn that’s 23 years… time flies.
Refreshing to know, isn’t it, that the Symonds family firm is still managing to coin it in from Crowley’s estate and bits & pieces they have managed to acquire along the way? They must be quite comfortably off on the back of things. Although £22.5K does seem rather on the exorbitant side considering that fine Spare artworks in colour seem to be going for about a third of this.
Norma N Joy Conquest
The most recent example of “fine Spare artworks in colour” was a drop-dead gorgeous 1955 pastel auctioned six or nine months agoi at Christie, London. There was not much in the way of change from £50,000, me old mucker.
Having said, I think that the price of this on ABEBooks is optimistic.