Peter Arno: Roughing It on a Yacht

Reader and contributor David from Manhattan writes about a sketch by Peter Arno done on board ship:

Arno's biographer has seen the attached, but almost no one else, so I thought I'd share it. Back in the 1990s, I was friends with an antiquarian book dealer by the name of James Carr. You might have heard the name. The ultimate packrat, he turned a five story building on the east side into his private warehouse of books, prints, photos, jewelry and many many other things. Tough to get him to part with anything, but I helped him put together consignments for auction. We once got into a discussion about Arno, and he showed me a rough of the artist's that was apparently one page in a guest book for a yacht owned by John Wanamaker, Jr. Carr had long ago chopped up the book and sold the signatures within, but still had the Arno. Long story short, it became a Christmas gift one year after a very successful auction. Not exactly side-splitting, and one suspects Arno promptly forgot about it. [Michael] Maslin thought early 1930s. The watermark on the paper is XXIX, presumably 1929. The book turned up in a garage in Tuxedo Park that was being used for storage. One of the running jokes with Carr is that he swore that somewhere  he still had a couple of George Price drawings. He'd vow that this time, he'd find them, but they never surfaced, at least when I was around.

Peter Arno, "Yes—this is our little skiff."

Note:  While awaiting my own invitation onto a luxury yacht, I've put together these links for your Arno education.

Peter Arno's new biography by Michael Maslin on Amazon.com.

Peter Arno conversation at the Butler Library on April 18.

Peter Arno posts on Ink Spill.

Peter Arno in Chris Wheeler's Cartoon(ist) Gallery.

Peter Arno in the April Vanity Fair.

Peter Arno posts on this blog.

By the way, can you guess this blog's secret password?

01827