Georgia O’Keeffe Group, ca. 1970
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APPRAISER (chuckling): You've brought a-a number of Georgia O'Keeffe items signed. What's your connection?
GUEST:
Well, when I was young and crazy, I was invited to work for her for a while as a cook. But she rapidly discovered that I was a terrible cook, so she fired me. This little Indian pudding recipe is a result of that short time that I was cooking for her. After a while, she called me up and said, "Well, you can't cook. You don't clean very well, but can you type letters?” And I said, "Yeah, I can type letters." She hired me to stay up in Abiquiú, and type letters for her, read to her. She was just losing her eyesight at that time. We had a very nice time together. I stayed up there for a couple of years. One evening, we were sitting in her studio. The ceiling was painted white, the walls were painted white. She said, "You know, I wish I had a white floor." And I said, "Well, why don't you get a white rug?" She said, "Well, I can't get a white rug. If I get a white rug, it'll get dirty." And I said, "Oh, Georgia, you're richer than God. Get a white rug, and when it gets dirty, tear it out and put a new one in."
APPRAISER:
(chuckles)
GUEST:
So she kind of laughed at that. But she said, "It would be wonderful because if I had a white rug, and we were sitting here, it would be like sitting inside one of my cloud paintings." I stopped working for her after a certain amount of time, and she got the white rug. She mentions it in the book and she mentions it here. She says, "The white carpet is getting dirty now, but not too bad yet, though."
APPRAISER:
Did she talk about her artwork at all?
GUEST:
She did not. And she never talked about her past.
APPRAISER:
The book itself shows up everywhere. It's-it's not a rare book, but of course, if you open it up and have a nice, long inscription in it from 1978. And would she just keep in touch or send you things or...?
GUEST:
Yes, she did for a while. When I left, she said, "Well, who's going to help me now with my secretarial stuff?" I said, "Well, my mom lives in Santa Fe, she can help you." My mom came up and they got along really well. And it was when my mom was working for her that this book was created. They put this book together, and my mom did the essential editing.
APPRAISER:
In the letter nearest you...
GUEST:
Mm-hm.
APPRAISER:
...she actually mentions Stieglitz. She mentions Henry Miller. Not necessarily all that favorably, but uh...
GUEST (laughing)
APPRAISER:
...but-but it is there.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Which is if you have a letter by Georgia O'Keeffe, typed with her handwriting, mentioning people who have known, prominent and so on is important. One of the things, though, that I liked very much is to have a recipe of hers. I think if anything, in this grouping, individually, people would get almost more excited about that.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
It continues on the back, and you could make her Indian pudding. The Georgia O'Keeffe book, I would say, would be about $750 because of the inscription. The two letters, one letter is better content wise, because it says more, but it's typed. One letter is handwritten, which is better. Each of those, probably about $500 each.
GUEST:
Good heavens.
APPRAISER:
The recipe-- people love cooking.
GUEST:
(laughing)
APPRAISER:
And just the idea of having a recipe of Georgia O'Keeffe that she wrote out, easily $750, maybe more.
GUEST:
(chuckles)
APPRAISER:
And this is all on a retail level.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And I think the thing that would really be the attraction that if things were going to go higher, is the, the short little recipe.
GUEST:
Oh, absolutely, I'm going to try to make it someday. (both laugh)
APPRAISER:
Or maybe you could have someone make it for you so you'd know what it would ta-taste like.
GUEST:
(laughing) That's a, that's a better idea. A much better idea-- maybe my husband can, he's a good cook.
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