Gloria and Arthur's Copy of Paris Sketchbook by Ronald Searle and Kaye Webb

Paris Sketchbook (1950) is a husband-and-wife collaboration between English artist Ronald Searle and writer Kaye Webb. The very special copy which once belonged to the couple Gloria and Arthur has been offered for sale on the AbeBooks website since July of 2023. Recently, it found a buyer. Whoever the pair may have been, these recipients were lucky enough to have the book signed by both creators with the addition of a small sketch, by Searle, of a Frenchman. Although the book was first published in 1950, this edition is apparently from 1953 and it was presented to Gloria and Arthur in November of 1954.

Sold!

Ronald Searle
AbeBooks listing recently ended

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Paris-Sketchbook-SIGNED-Doodle-Ronald-Searle/31565330908/bd

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Ronald Searle: A Strange Procession

For the occasion of a christening held in St. James's, London, on November 24, 1951, cartoonist Ronald Searle created a presentation drawing for the child's family. The paper backing the frame is inscribed, "With love from Kaye & Ronald Searle" so it seems the Searles framed the drawing themselves before giving it to the recipients. The child depicted is attended by four girls, two of whom are clearly winged angels. They are easily recognized as Searle's popular St. Trinian's girls by their trademark black stockings. The drawing, which has some color, was sold yesterday at Sworders in the Modern and Contemporary Art sale.

"A strange procession
seen passing into
Saint James' thiſ day
Novemb^r 24 1951."
Ronald Searle

"A strange procession

seen passing into

Saint James' thiſ day

Novemb^r 24 1951."

Ronald Searle

Framed original art

"With love from Kaye & Ronald Searle"

Ronald Searle
Sworders item presale description accessed April 7, 2024

https://www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-200---ronald-searle-1920-2011/?lot=496

443&so=0&st=searle&sto=0&au=&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=96&pn=1&g=1

Sold!

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Laddie's Copy of From Frozen North to Filthy Lucre by Ronald Searle

From Frozen North to Filthy Lucre (1964) collects Ronald Searle's North American travel pieces published in Holiday magazine between 1961 and 1964. Much of the art is in color. This was a tumultuous time for Searle after he left his first wife, Kaye Webb, for Monica Koenig who would eventually become his second. The American magazine market paid well enough in those days for Searle, not yet divorced, to travel across the continent—and Hawaii—with Monica.

What's noteworthy about one Laddie's copy of the book, inscribed in 1965 on the day before Searle's 45th birthday, is that the cartoonist describes it as his "favourite Picture Edition." He had been illustrating books and periodicals prolifically since 1946 and was to continue at the top of his field essentially for the rest of his life. As many artists may harbor fond sentiments for their most recent undertakings, one hopes Searle came to feel equally warm toward much of his work that was to follow.

"For Laddie
my favourite Picture Edition
L.A. 2 March 1965.
Ronald Searle"

Ronald Searle
eBay listing accessed February 28, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134242589014?hash=item1f417b5956:g:HV8AAOSwkwhjKj1j&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsIDnVJEz%2FsdinPdDURa11g3w2uicTMRFUTbH2OGnsuZlZ1IhXrQu1IVHjJeG1%2FaM0M4BePCUBxgl%2BLnyqsa6DKXFZKM5M0afa1f7NZsHlOfPONNjDWNNp3K%2FEscZUSrTs6I%2FEde2HVaaFt1JldLNsoAvaKEanEunb1SndK1j285buC%2FXccGuXsuPZBJaWoXro6%2Fv1ekxftM0R5gm4%2BAXEt8%2BXq4vU7aMf7hs7XYs2dtr%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4anv6DTYQ

Ronald Searle
eBay item description

04246

The Lovers' Keepsake by Raymond Peynet

The French take pride in knowing a little something about love. French cartoonist Raymond Peynet's les amoureaux, or the lovers, became exceedingly popular in the postwar period. Through their imprint Perpetua, the couple Ronald Searle and Kaye Webb introduced Peynet's work to the British public. The Lovers' Keepsake (1958) was the fourth book in the series. Searle himself wrote the foreword. An exceptionally nice copy complete with dust jacket showed up recently on eBay, but was ended by the seller because of a supposed error in the listing.

Which lover is speaking in these cartoons?

Raymond Peynet
eBay listing ended January 31, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/373905988119?mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m43.l1120&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=7bbcfd17c3bb4555a5a1862ae850e24e&bu=43186000575&ut=RU&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20220128013704&segname=11021

&sojTags=ch%3Dch%2Cbu%3Dbu%2Cut%3Dut%2Cosub%3Dosub%2Ccrd%3Dcrd%2Csegname%3Dsegname%2Cchnl%3Dmkcid&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Raymond Peynet
eBay item description

 

03873

Sir William Alexander Fitzwilliam Barrington's Copy of The Journal of Edwin Carp

Edwin Carp was a fictitious personality, a fish impersonator and eccentric poet played on radio by British character actor Richard Haydn. Haydn "edited" The Journal of Edwin Carp (1954), his only book, published with "embellishments" by Ronald Searle. A copy of the book dedicated by the illustrator to Fitzwilliam Barrington with birthday wishes was offered on eBay in 2015. After the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in the Second World War, Barrington and Searle were fellow Prisoners of War. Fitz's copy of the book is personalized by Searle with caricatures of the illustrator and his wife Kaye Webb depicted not as people but as—oh, you guessed it!

Ronald Searle
eBay Listing Ended April 19, 2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ronald-Searle-Original-Drawing-Inscription-Journal-of-Edwin-Carp-1st-Ed-1954-/141611058652?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item20f8ad45dc&nma=true&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Ronald Searle
eBay Item Description

The Return of Edwin Carp

"The Dick Van Dyke Show" 

Season 3, Episode 27

April 1, 1964

Richard Haydn as Edwin Carp

Note:  This year is the centenary of Ronald Searle.

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Ronald Searle: A Contented Smoke Signal

A 1950s-era Boxing Day card from Ronald Searle also writing for his wife Kaye Webb (who is "elbow deep in washing up") thanks "Dearest June and Charles" for a set of knives. These knives—are they "super" or "superb?"—must be of the type whose blades fold into the handles as illustrated here on the headdress of an American Indian indulging in a peace pipe and sending, we are told, "A contented smoke signal." Presumably dating from the latter part of 1951-1960, the drawing possibly bears a thematic relationship to Searle's Holiday magazine cover of July 1959. The card was sold on eBay ten years ago for 369.99 GBP ($530).

The eBay seller failed to get the artist's name right in the main title of the listing:

Ronald Searle
eBay Listing Ended February 19, 2009

Thanks to eBay for providing the translation…from British English:

Ronald Searle
eBay Item Description

The Holiday cover, not that you asked:

Ronald Searle
Holiday, June 1959

http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.com/2007/10/

Note:  Ronald Searle and Kaye Webb's modernist home at 32 Newton Road is the subject of Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog, here. 

Images of illustrated letters of this sort from the hand of Searle are just the sort of submissions welcomed here at Attempted Bloggery. Hint, hint.


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02850

Ronald Searle: Cats for James Mason's Family

Some years ago a watercolor painted by cartoonist Ronald Searle of James Mason's cat and presented to his family showed up on eBay for the asking price, if memory serves, of $6,000. There was no bidding at this level and the price was not lowered in response, so I don't believe it ever sold. In the 1950's Searle was not yet the cat specialist he was to become, but the Masons were very much the quintessential cat fanciers. Indeed, they wrote and James illustrated a book about cats, and it is intriguing to speculate what influence they might have had on the eventual development of Searle's Cats and later work dating from the 1960's and onward.

Inscribed "For Pam, James and Porty
with love from Kaye and Ronald. May 1953"

Then, for Christmas 1956, James and Pamela Mason received a copy of Ronald Searle's latest book, Merry England, Etc., personally inscribed to the Masons by Ronald on behalf of himself and his wife Kaye Webb. The inscription includes a drawing of a supremely spoiled cat.

Inscribed "For James and Pam
with love from Kaye and Ronald
Christmas 1956.
—a sort of reminder of this
side of the water..."
in Ronald Searle. Merry England, Etc. London: Perpeptua, 1956.

Photo courtesy of  David from Manhattan

This book sold for $511 on eBay in January of 2008.

Few actors are more riveting than James Mason, so please forgive the suggestion that his cat illustrations are somewhat less compelling than his acting. Still, they're not bad for amateur work and The Cats in Our Lives is meant to be a highly personal reflection on cats, so he gets a pass. His reaction to Searle's work we can only imagine, but we know the watercolor was framed and the book remained in his library for more than half a century.

Pamela Kellino and James Mason, The Cats in Our Lives, Lives. New York: Current Books, Inc., 1949
Illustrated by James Mason

https://www.etsy.com/nz/listing/223810413/rare-the-cats-in-our-lives-1949-written

Pamela Kellino and James Mason, The Cats in Our Lives. New York: Current Books, Inc., 1949
Illustrated by James Mason

https://www.etsy.com/nz/listing/223810413/rare-the-cats-in-our-lives-1949-written

Pamela Kellino and James Mason, The Cats in Our Lives. New York: Current Books, Inc., 1949
Back cover photo

https://www.etsy.com/nz/listing/223810413/rare-the-cats-in-our-lives-1949-written

Note:  It should go without saying that I'd love to hear from anyone else with drawings of cats made by Ronald Searle for James Mason's family. I would also be interested in cats made by Searle for anyone not in James Mason's family, or indeed, to keep it simple, for anything on any subject drawn by Searle for anyone in or not in James Mason's family. That about covers it.

Once again, I am indebted to David from Manhattan for opening up not only his library but also his eBay archive to us. Thanks, David!

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