[A card attached to the mount reads: English "Gadroon", staged and executed in multiple printing technique by: Harold Haliday Costain Town and Country Magazine Nov.1941.]

This kind of surreal, hyper-real graphic cut-and-past montage puts Costain in the company of designers and photographers such as M.F. Agha, Grancel Fitz and Nikolas Muray. The image includes a sextant, a finely detailed map, and crashing ocean waves - all in the service of a group of fancy forks, knives and spoons. The effect stimulates the eye but exhausts the mind.

 

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“Crest of the Wave” (Gorham’s Sterling Silver)

Harold Costain, Nov. 1941
vintage gelatin silver print
11 × 13 3/4”