[Original Art for "The Little Black Dress and Other Signs of Status" Exhibition Listing in THE NEW YORKER]

Near fine. Image 9 3/4 x 7 inches, sheet 12 x 9 inches. Pen and ink on paper. Signed with "EG" monogram. Crop marks in margins. Traces of pencil guide lines, artist's corrections in white tempera, small ink flecks throughout. Near fine.

A drawing made to accompany a listing for the Fashion Institute of Technology's exhibition, "The Little Black Dress and Other Signs of Status," in the March 27, 2000, issue of THE NEW YORKER, appearing only weeks before Edward Gorey's death on April 15. It is one of Gorey's most elaborate later pieces, containing balloons, bangles, a beach pail, a bodysuit, platform shoes, canvas sneakers, skis, gender nonconformity, (truncated) near nudity, a ballerina in bat wings, a child with a dog aloft on a leash, a widow in a veil, and other characters perched around the letters, "B-L-A-C-K," with a young woman at the center in the eponymous outfit. (Inventory #: 941)