Unfinished Sylvia Plath Drawing at Auction

Next week, on 25 March 2020, an unfinished drawing by Sylvia Plath will be up for auction via International Autograph Auctions Europe S.L. The official Lot number is Lot 437. Bidding can be done online. As far as I can tell the auction is going forward.

The description for the auction reads:

PLATH SYLVIA: (1932-1963) American Poet, wife of Ted Hughes from 1956 until her death. A good, original pencil drawing, unsigned, one page, 8vo, n.p., n.d. Plath has drawn an appealing image of an old street scene with an empty wooden cart abandoned in the foreground and several buildings in the immediate background including a church tower, the spire of which features a cross at its highest point and which Plath has carefully heightened in dark fountain pen ink. Annotated and signed to the verso in pencil, 'By Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes', by her husband, the English Poet Laureate. Any original item in the hand of Plath is extremely rare and desirable as a result of the poet's tragic suicide at the age of 30. Some very light, extremely minor foxing and a few very minor creases to the corners, VG £2000-3000 The present drawing is one of just a small handful by Plath in existence, and most likely dates from the late 1950s, shortly after her marriage to Hughes. The poet was an artist of some talent, and Hughes wrote of her artistic nature in Birthday Letters - 'Drawing calmed you. Your poker infernal pen Was like a branding iron. Objects Suffered into their new presence, tortured Into final position. As you drew I felt released, calm. Time opened When you drew the market at Benidorm. I sat near you, scribbling something. Hours burned away. The stall-keepers Kept coming to see you had them properly. We sat on those steps in our rope-soles, And were happy…' -'Drawing'

This particular drawing appeared at auction at least once before on 13 July 2006 via Sotheby's. It sold for £900. That day four other drawings, some complete and some not, appeared as well.

You can read more about Sotheby's Past Sylvia Plath Lots if you desire.

Thanks to Peter Fydler for tweeting about the auction and thus notifying us about the forthcoming sale.

All links accessed 3 March 2020.

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