Fulgur Limited Publishers

Catalogue Five - October 2008

Welcome to our latest offering of Zosiana. As before, all enquiries should be directed via our website form, clearly stating the item number in the subject field. Items are sold on a first come, first served basis. Purchases will be packed and dispatched by a secure method with basic insurance up to £250.00 Additional insurance cover is optional and should be requested. Buyers from outside Europe, and those succcessful in securing multiple items can request a tailored shipping quote. For buyers looking to secure items beyond their immediate pocket, we are happy to offer extended terms for purchase.

ITEM 1

And the Moon fleshed…
Watercolour and pencil on paper
Signed in pencil, lower left ‘AOS’ [1952]
Original frame, with paper label on reverse, titled, numbered and signed by the artist.
460mm h. x 470mm w. approx.

Exhibited: Mansion House Tavern, 1952, no.6; Archer Gallery, 1955, no.108

RARE. It is not often you have opportunity to buy an original Spare that Kenneth Grant once lusted after, but here it is! A powerful rendering of lunar energy, this fine magickal watercolour, known informally as ‘Astarte’, is mentioned by Grant in Zos Speaks!

“Friday 20th June, 1952. Saw Zos, would have liked the painting of a heavenly bummed cunt sitting between two trees ‘neath a sickle moon!! [Note: Astarte was the title of this picture, which Zos still had by him in 1954.]” Zos Speaks! p.82

Spare himself thought this picture an ideal acquisition for Gerald Gardner for his fledging Museum of Witchcraft: “He should have bought for his museum my drawing of Astarte… quite on his lines - la Tradition etc.” Zos Speaks! p.97

As mesmeric and replete as a harvest moon Spare’s glimmering goddess draws you in, but be warned, those trees are full of her elementals!

Originally part of Spare’s estate at his death in 1956, it was acquired by Dennis Bardens and later sold around 1964 to Alan Pulleyn-Holden (founder of the Zeus Press) where it remained until the mid-90s.

The frame is completely original and was chosen by Spare, with the typical label in brown paper on the reverse, titled and numbered in his hand. The glass is also original. The drawing is reproduced in Zos Speaks! colour plate 13.

Completely authentic and original this is a rare opportunity to purchase a drawing cited by both Grant and Spare as a powerful representation of Astarte and the energy that informs her.

A full condition report can be given on request.

£4300.00 SOLD

ITEM 2

‘The Lawyer’ Composite Portrait
Pencil on paper
Titled and signed in pencil ‘Osman Spare 1928′
270mm h. x 200mm w. approx.

This fine and subtle pencil portrait holds the key to a legal mystery that surrounds Spare at this important time in his life. We also believe it to be a rare ’straight’ portrait application of his Neither-Neither principle. Were two opposing principles, the lawyers representing prosecution and defense, combined to give a metamorphic truth? What did the writing below reveal before Spare partially erased it?

This portrait was given by Spare to the bookseller Derek Rogers in the early 1930s with many other fine works, reflecting a strong friendship between the two men. It remained in Derek Roger’s collection until his widow prompted a dispersal in the late 1980s.

£890.00 SOLD

ITEM 3

Untitled
Pencil on paper with wash tint,
Signed in pencil, lower centre ‘AOS’ [c.1932]
400mm h. x 260mm w. approx.

This fabulous pencil drawing probably dates from the early 1930s when Spare held a number of ‘home’ shows for which no catalogue seems to have survived. It has some sun damage due to the delicate wash partly fading at some point in the past, but it a strange power still oozes from the lines.

This drawing was once part of the COIL collection and is now located in the United States, from where it will be dispatched direct to the purchaser.

£1400.00 SOLD

The following group of drawings are from an original Zos sketchbook dating from 1954. They are fresh and fast; typical then of Spare’s enormous energy in focussing the current that informs his work. A few seem to be studies for larger pastel works of the period and others here represent ideas that will now forever remain in potential, barely made flesh. Individual condition reports are available on request. Be quick, they are priced to sell!

ITEM 4

Untitled
Pencil on paper
Unsigned, [c.1954]
120mm h. x 160mm w. approx.

£290.00

ITEM 5

Untitled
Pencil on paper
Unsigned, [c.1954]
260mm h. x 170mm w. approx.

Is this a study for a larger pastel? It seems so, but the composition is unfamiliar to us. Again that fluid line breathes life into the slightest portrait.

£390.00

ITEM 6

Protect Us from Evil
Pencil on paper
Signed in pencil, lower left ‘AOS’ [c.1954]
290mm h. x 210mm w. approx.

VERY RARE. We have seen very few sketches by Spare where he demonstrates the process of sigilisation, yet here is one where he develops sigils for the protection of ‘S and K’ who are without doubt, Steffi and Kenneth Grant. This is possibly working material for a stele, or similar sigillised study. There are actually four seperate drawings intermingling here.

£870.00 SOLD

ITEM 7

Untitled
Pencil on paper
Unsigned, [c.1954]
120mm h. x 210mm w. approx.

£290.00

ITEM 8

Untitled
Pencil on paper
Unsigned, [c.1954]
290mm h. x 210mm w. approx.

Is this the landlord’s daughter? Spare loved the round curves of the fuller figure and his hand draws out great beauty from the most humble model. Not sure who that bloke is looking onwards, but the shock of hair looks a little familiar.

£390.00 SOLD

ITEM 9

Untitled
Pencil on paper
Unsigned, [c.1954]
290mm h. x 210mm w. approx.

£290.00 SOLD

ITEM 10

Untitled
Pencil on paper
Signed lower left, ‘AOS’ [c.1954]
290mm h. x 210mm w. approx.

£520.00 SOLD

ITEM 11

Untitled
Pencil and coloured pencil on paper
Unsigned, [c.1954]
210mm h. x 230mm w. approx.

£470.00 SOLD

ITEM 12

Untitled
Pencil on paper
Signed lower left ‘AOS’ [c.1954]
290mm h. x 210mm w. approx.

£460.00 SOLD