Original pencil drawing, signed by Paul Landacre at lower left. 9x7½, archivally matted and framed under plexiglass.
Original drawing by Paul Landacre of the Beverly Hills home of Hollywood director George Cukor, the part of the main house that borders on a large, inner patio. This is the drawing from which Landacre created the bookplate he designed for Cukor. And the house is the one Cukor had recreated, to scale, for the set of "Something's Got To Give," Marilyn Monroe's last film, which was never finished, cut short by her sudden death on August 5, 1962, at the age of 36. Present with the drawing is a handsome restrike of the bookplate produced by George Houle, 5½x3¾ on full sheet 13x9¾, archivally framed, of which only 175 examples were struck. Also included is an example of the Cukor bookplate in its original size, 3¼x2¼. Paul Landacre, 1893-1963, was at the time of his death generally acknowledged as being the finest wood engraver at work in the United States. His work had been represented in a number of one-man shows at such institutions as the Los Angeles County Museum, San Francisco's de Young Museum and the Smithsonian. His skill as book illustrator had won him many honors as well, and no less than five Landacre-illustrated volumes had been selected as one of the "Fifty Books of the Year." During his early years, the 1920's and 1930's, part of his oeuvre were the numerous bookplates, or ex-libris, he created for book collectors, many of them Hollywood luminaries. These commissions provided a vital source of income for the fledgling artist. Legendary director George Cukor, who ventured west to Hollywood in 1929 with the advent of talking pictures, and created such classics as The Philadelphia Story, Gaslight, A Star is Born, and My Fair Lady, was also a noted collector of books and art, and set Landacre upon the task of designing a suitable bookplate. Unlike may bookplates, which depict the collecting interests or profession of the collector, Cukor requested his striking art-deco Beverly Hills home, at 9166 Cordell Drive, be pictured. The result was striking and original as an engraving, but the pencil drawing upon which it was modeled is in many ways even more sublime, presenting a softer and more delicate vision of the domicile, backed by the Hollywood Hills.