Roger K. Furse Costume & Set Designs, ca. 1948
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GUEST:
Well, it's a 1955 production of "Macbeth," starring Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and this is one of the drawings of the costume. It was drawn by a man named Roger Furse. He won an Academy Award in 1948 for "Hamlet," for costume design. And that's all I know.
APPRAISER:
Okay, well, Roger Furse was known as a costume designer. He's a British artist who died in the early '70s, but he also did set design. And in this production of "Macbeth" in 1955, Olivier got so much acclaim for his role and his depiction of Macbeth that all the other characters practically got no mention in the write-ups. And one thing that Furse was trying to do in the design of the costumes for the male characters was to project an aura of strength and even brutal violence, which, he did this by using tweeds and sort of these heavy, masculine fabrics.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
And in the set designs, he used angles to project a sort of sense of something being awry in the kingdom, and he used very stark lighting and very little detail in the architecture on the sets to give this sense of doom and an atmosphere of something tragic. I really think that this is also by Furse...
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
...even though it's not signed. And in terms of value, I found a very good comparable for a costume design that was worn by John Gielgud, also in a Shakespearean play, that brought about $800 a number of years ago. So I think this might be worth $800 to $1,200.
GUEST:
Oh, great, fabulous!
APPRAISER:
And how much did you pay for the two?
GUEST:
$75.
APPRAISER:
Very good. And I think this might be at least $600 to $800.
GUEST (laughing): Fabulous. Wow, great. Thank you.
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