This cartoon by
Dorothy McKay may not be a classic, but it is surely worth more than the $50 (plus $25 for shipping) that it fetched last month on eBay. Why aren't people more eager to own original artwork by cartoonists who publish in
The New Yorker?
This cartoon, sold on eBay as a drawing from
The New Yorker, almost certainly did not appear in that publication. As cartoonist Michael Maslin points out on his
Ink Spill blog
here, "...although the listing says it’s a New Yorker drawing, it does not appear in the magazine’s database." EBay sellers and others can sometimes be too ready to assert that a New Yorker artist's work was published in the magazine without being able to confirm it. The seller's given date for this work, 1960, would seem to be two or three decades late as well.
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Dorothy McKay, "You would choose a time like this for your boat drill!"
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Dorothy McKay, "You would choose a time like this for your boat drill!" caption
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Dorothy McKay, "You would choose a time like this for your boat drill!"
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Dorothy McKay, eBay winning bid
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Dorothy McKay, eBay item description
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Dorothy McKay, "You would choose a time like this for your boat drill!"
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I chose not to bid on it because I was unsure if it was an original. The art appeared to be, but the frame appeared to be recent. I am still kicking myself.
ReplyDeleteCraig
I know the feeling, Craig. There have been a number of very fine original works of cartoon art offered on eBay this year for historically low prices that seem almost too good to be true. Most of these works, like this one by Dorothy McKay, appear to be wholly authentic.
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