# Edward Gorey artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/edward-gorey/
Profile generated: 2026-08-19T20:15:16.487Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1925-02-25
- Death date: 2000-04-17
- Nationality: American
- Common media: Pen-and-ink drawing, Book illustration, Cover art, Black-and-white hatched drawing

## Portrait

![Edward Gorey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Gorey28.jpg)
Christopher Seufert, of Mooncusser Films (shot a documentary with Edward from 1996 to his death in April, 2000) · CC0
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gorey28.jpg

## About Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey was an American artist, author, illustrator, and costume designer whose distinctive practice joined literary storytelling with meticulous drawing. Born in 1925 and active until his death in 2000, he created his own illustrated books while also producing covers and illustrations for works by other writers. Gorey is especially associated with finely hatched, predominantly black-and-white pen-and-ink images. His compact narratives frequently place enigmatic or unsettling events within imagined Victorian or Edwardian surroundings, balancing dark humor, theatricality, and deliberate ambiguity. The Gashlycrumb Tinies is among the best-documented titles connected with his authorship and illustration. Collectors may encounter Gorey's work through original drawings, book-related illustrations, printed editions, and objects derived from his visual vocabulary. His continuing visibility is supported by library authority records and by the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, which preserves and promotes his literary and artistic legacy.

## Common works and media

Auction and appraisal contexts may include original pen-and-ink drawings, black-and-white illustrations, book and cover artwork, works on paper, prints, published or limited editions, and decorative or mixed-media objects based on Gorey's designs. For editioned or publication-related material, the specific title, printing, edition statement, signature, inscription, and relationship to an original illustration are important distinctions.

## Market and appraisal context

Edward Gorey's auction market spans works on paper and prints as well as editions, mixed-media objects, decorative material, and some entries classified more broadly as fine art. A useful appraisal begins by identifying the precise medium, dimensions, date, subject, publication relationship, and edition status of the object. Signatures, inscriptions, provenance, exhibition or catalogue references, condition, restoration, and confidence in attribution should then be compared with closely related public sales. Reported auction totals are not always presented on the same basis and may include buyer premiums or fees. Private sales, incomplete feeds, and later attribution changes can also limit the conclusions supported by public records, so an observed result should not be treated as a universal price prediction.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine researched artist identity data with matched public auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Public records are evidence for comparison, not a substitute for inspecting the individual object.

## Sources

- Bibliothèque nationale de France: https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb11905434g
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q982401
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/026897490
- Edward Gorey: https://edwardgorey.org/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500069917
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gorey
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/edward-gorey/