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Oliver Messel (British, 1904-1978) A set design for Ring Round the Moon, Globe Theatre, 1950 image 1
Oliver Messel (British, 1904-1978) A set design for Ring Round the Moon, Globe Theatre, 1950 image 2
Oliver Messel (British, 1904-1978) A set design for Ring Round the Moon, Globe Theatre, 1950 image 3
The Roy Astley Collection: Theatrical Designs by Cecil Beaton and Oliver Messel
Lot 65AR

Oliver Messel
(British, 1904-1978)
A set design for Ring Round the Moon, Globe Theatre, 1950

20 May – 3 June 2025, 12:00 BST
Online, London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £2,048 inc. premium

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Oliver Messel (British, 1904-1978)

A set design for Ring Round the Moon, Globe Theatre, 1950
gouache, watercolour, chalk and pencil
22.5 x 35.5cm (8 7/8 x 14in).

Footnotes

Ring Round the Moon is an adaptation of Jean Anouilh's Invitation to the Castle (1947) commissioned by Peter Brook and staged at the Globe Theatre in 1950. The production ran for over a year and a half with 682 performances, before moving to New York and Copenhagen.

Messel's sets here are considered to be some of his most memorable, perhaps due to his insistence on the use of metal and glass to create a 'soaring Winter Garden, or hothouse'. Peter Glenville, who often worked with Messel, writes that this was 'one of the finest sets [Messel] ever created...[it was] a classic - a triumph of elegance and originality.'

A photograph of Messel on set can be found R. Pinkham, Oliver Messel, exhibition catalogue, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1983, p.120, Fig.58, 57b.

Provenance
With Wright Hepburn Gallery, London, no.95

Additional information

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