Heritage Auctions Signature Illustration Art Sale New York Preview, April 2026

Select pieces were on view at the midtown Manhattan reception Wednesday evening for the Heritage Auctions Signature Illustration Art Sale to be held on April 21 in Dallas. Naturally, I couldn't resist photographing some of these highlights, starting with the bold illustration by Patrick Nagel that appears on the catalogue cover.

Untitled [Tracy Vaccaro in Polka Dot Dress], 1983

Patrick Nagel

Untitled [Close Up—Heidi Sorenson], 1983

Patrick Nagel

Patrick Nagel

And Forsaking All Others
Edward Sorel
The New Yorker, June 15, 1998

Constantin Alajálov
The Saturday Evening Post, April 13, 1946

Garth Williams

James Gurney

To bring out the colors, I enhanced this 1917 advertising illustration image for Kellogg's Corn Flakes by J. C. Leyendecker:

J. C. Leyendecker

J. C. Leyendecker

J. C. Leyendecker

Edmund F. Ward

Mead Schaeffer

Gil Elvgren

Gil Elvgren

Dean Cornwell

Thomas Blackshear II

Frank R. Paul

05240

Garth Williams: Happy New Year?

A drawing by illustrator Garth Williams that failed to make it into The New Yorker in the mid-1940s was sold a year ago on eBay for an undisclosed best offer. Let the revels begin.

Garth Williams
eBay listing ended December 28, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/295151153290?hash=item44b861308a%3Ag%3Arw0AAOSwSc9i9Fnk&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4AH6Hhpxrp2zC1b%2FWsv3Yz3c9tQrhZwUdI1v2km5OkjMLo9zJljCWTiQQrJ1kwOkWblIq2L%2F63eyx99W8YK54

x7QCzhJDtNRFjl%2FUd363u4NnX3TflAbR4DCSpoeJUBMvA%2BrAhuO0y%2FnG3ZZ0lDdm5kxSryVhiQ%2BoS%2FbFK%2FfQxcA56aX%2F0UXj5WYUSyq3QnjjjAnxlujiKmXNXsyXwkxSbcrUfB4lXM1qxgl539IocdVzJwE06ChUXjI5j67evSCBPNZ

gj1EX71%2FnseCnSmJGmuZnZLS%2BlIcsb%2B2RmsVu9Ck%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5ziovfcYQ&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

04543

Garth Williams: The New School of Dancing

Garth Williams's 1940 drawing The New School of Dancing makes fun of modern dance, depicting its practitioners as awkward marionettes in a mechanized art form. Their movements are anything but graceful. The turntable on which the male dancer stands is rotated by a fan belt. The drawing apparently predates the illustrator's attempt to break into The New Yorker. It has been sold by Downtown Brown Books of Portland, Oregon, for $300.

Garth Williams
AbeBooks listing accessed May 8, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/art-prints/New-School-Dancing-1940-Williams-Garth/31176576055/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook_high

Sold!

04395

Charles Addams: Addams Family Photo

For me, the highlight of yesterday's Illustration Art Signature Auction at Heritage was an original Charles Addams New Yorker cartoon featuring four of his Addams Family characters. Today we know them as Pugsley, Wednesday, Morticia, and Gomez, but they were as yet unnamed in 1951. Morticia prepares to use the camera to photograph the children. Helpfully, she instructs them how to pose.

"All right, children, a nice big sneer, now."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, June 9, 1951, p. 37
Charles Addams, Homebodies (1954)
Charles Addams, My Crowd (1970)

"All right, children, a nice big sneer, now."
Charles Addams
Framed original art
The New Yorker, June 9, 1951, p. 37
Charles Addams, Homebodies (1954)
Charles Addams, My Crowd (1970)

The presale estimate was $12,000-$18,000. Bidding reached this range a full twenty-three days before the sale.

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions listing accessed April 2, 2023, twenty-three days before the auction

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/works-on-paper/charles-addams-american-1912-1988-all-right-children-a-nice-big-sneer-now-addams-family-cartoon-ink-and-wash/a/8114-71039.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions item description

The sale price including the 25% buyer's premium:

"All right, children, a nice big sneer, now."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, June 9, 1951, p. 37
Charles Addams, Homebodies (1954)
Charles Addams, My Crowd (1970)

A spot drawing by Garth Williams and a cartoon by Charles Addams

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1951-06-09/flipbook/036/

"All right, children, a nice big sneer, now."     "I'm sorry, sonny. We've run out of candy."
Charles Addams, Homebodies (1954)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/125903726566?hash=item1d507267e6:g:xQ8AAOSwv05kOzlL&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwKqJMm

TO%2BYjQQLbZ4hdldNBKo1LXxE%2FriSaO27c1JaAHLm8vr6VplNkP%2BDCWl4kbRjHbqX3NHdNE5jR95XThn4zONWK5yzH9HoOZV

pILkBDmeC1Krlx%2Fd7cv7RPBlo%2FadtPrppURM0YpO6myCcB7mfZJ70DMA0NRgMIUe%2FboZW%2B4lVLVDbWffQy1M7w95wtRTjGB

WoobTDxQi%2F%2FbaY%2BfHCgQYskoVmuiDEvHzZWg85UcGUafMYG6uuzYYU%2FuJU7pbw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6SZprX3YQ

Oh, why not?

Spot drawing
Garth Williams
The New Yorker, June 9, 1951, p. 36

04301

Garth Williams: A Man Browsing Watercolors

A spot drawing by Garth Williams of a man going through a portfolio of watercolors did not make it into The New Yorker and remained unsold in the illustrator's lifetime. Williams's association with the magazine did not have a huge impact there, but his relationship with The New Yorker's E. B. White had a profound effect on children's literature. Williams illustrated White's books Stuart Little (1945) and Charlotte's Web (1952). He illustrated scores of other books as well.

Garth Williams
AbeBooks listing accessed May 8, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/art-prints/Man-Looking-Watercolor-Paintings-Williams-Garth/31176568696/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore_low

Garth Williams
AbeBooks listing accessed May 8, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/art-prints/Man-Looking-Watercolor-Paintings-Williams-Garth/31176568696/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore_low

04053

Garth Williams: And They're Off!

Illustrator Garth Williams's attempt to break into The New Yorker in the early 1940s produced a good deal of unpublished work (along with seven sales). A racetrack spot, shown here, is certainly not bad but it's not especially compelling either. Given the magazine's surfeit of talent, Williams was unable to carve out a meaningful space for himself there.

Garth Williams
AbeBooks listing accessed May 8, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/art-prints/Horses-Leaving-Starting-Gate-Williams-Garth/31176568697/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore_high

04052

E. B. White Needs No Introduction

When you're a famous writer, everyone wants you to write a little something for them. When everyone wants you to write a little something for them, you need to be able to politely decline at least some of their offers. An uncollected 1967 letter from famous writer E. B. White politely declines such an offer with some eloquence, but also with an abiding sadness. 

E. B. White
TLS, November 2, 1967

A page from the New Yorker

E. B. White
eBay Listing Ended July 12,2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-E-B-White-typed-letter-hand-signed-on-New-Yorker-letterhead-1967-/111711460579?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1a02859ce3&nma=true&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

E. B. White
eBay Item Description

E. B. White
eBay Bid History
Six bids from three bidders, each of whom was active in the final minute of the auction.

Note:  I would like to hear from anyone who can identify this letter's recipient Mr. Lowe or the book he asked E. B. White to introduce. The historical record presented in this eBay listing is far from complete.

Also incomplete, evidently, are the collected letters of E. B. White. Readers who would like to help me remedy this situation, at least in part, are invited to share correspondence from the great stylist. Scans and photographs of his letters, especially of uncollected letters such as this one, are welcome here. My blog is at your disposal.

I don't have as much here as I'd like, but feel free to check out the archives for a few choice blog posts about E. B. White and even about Charlotte's Web illustrator Garth Williams.

TLS stands for typed letter, signed. If you're British, it also stands for the Times Literary Supplement. I am not British.


More Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

The Letters of E. B. White

The New Yorker

Attempted Bloggery's Flipping Index

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