One cartoon, by Otto Soglow, was deemed "rather dumb" and may not have been taken at all by the gallery, but it was photographed with the Arno cartoons. It is not mentioned in the written agreement between gallery and consignor. Another work of Arno's was in rough condition with some paper loss—"paper eaten at corner" in gallery parlance. That work was returned to the consignor where it remained, it is believed, until after her death. It was sold on eBay in 2011 along with 41 Arno sketchbook pages that may or may not have been declined by the gallery in 1985 as well.
Also included with this lot were the consignment paperwork from the gallery and a contact sheet with eighteen photographs of the original cartoon art. The paperwork gives captions for all but three of the works. The Soglow cartoon is captionless, as so many of his cartoons were. The gallery lists two of the Arno cartoons as being "uncaptioned," but it seems more correct to say they originally had captions and now are missing them.
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| Contact sheet from the Nicholls Gallery, July 1985 Original cartoon art from College Humor, including seventeen works by Peter Arno and one by Otto Soglow |
The original cartoons from the contact sheet are here paired with their respective captions, as modified, when possible, by the actual published captions.
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| "Hurry, dear! Our guests are beginning to arrive!" March 1937 |
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| "Gosh, I forgot to look at your teeth, didn't I?" March 1937
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| "Your husband, Eleanor—what sort of looking man is he?" October 1936 |
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| "Am I to understand this is not the 49th Street crosstown bus?" April 1937 |
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| "It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club." |
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| "It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club." Guernsey's March 1986 illustration art auction catalogue Lot A720
Image added November 14, 2016
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Image added November 14, 2016
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| "It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club." Peter Arno Original art College Humor, c. 1936-1937
Image added August 25, 2018
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| "By gad! I wish I were your father for about five minutes." January 1937 |
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| "By gad! I wish I were your father for about five minutes." January 1937 Guernsey's March 1986 illustration art auction catalogue, Lot A726
Image added November 14, 2016
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| "Here!—You folks ought to know each other." October 1936 |
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| "Here!—You folks ought to know each other." Peter Arno Original art at auction College Humor, October 1936
Image added May 29, 2016
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| "It's for you, dear." October 1936 |
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| "See here, Prentice—it's all right to look, but you needn't cheer them on!" |
January 1937
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| "See here, Prentice—it's all right to look, but you needn't cheer them on!" Peter Arno Original art at auction College Humor, January 1937
Image added May 29, 2016
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| "You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe." |
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| "You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe." Peter Arno Original art College Humor, c. 1936-1937 |
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| "I do wish you'd change your mind and come along!" December 1936 |
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| "Well—put up a fight! Don't just sit there!" December 1936 |
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| "After the part where you tell them to 'speak now or forever hold their peace'—er—don't pause too long." March 1937 |
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| "Come right in, madam. The marster's awaiting you in his lair." December 1936 |
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| "Come right in, madam. The marster's awaiting you in his lair." Peter Arno Original art College Humor, December 1936 |
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"All right—I take the key, to to your hotel, go to the twelfth floor and walk down one flight, and go in your room and wait till you come—and then what do I do?" April 1937 |
 An organ grinder on the street feels sad that his monkey has more satisfying interactions with people than he does. He goes to a psychoanalyst and soon after changes places with the monkey. "I think rather dumb." —Barbara Nicholls |
| Otto Soglow |
July 16, 2024 Update: I have added the publication dates to the three cartoons (nos. 13, 14, and 16, the latter being the "chewed up" original) from the December 1936 issue.
July 17, 2024: Update I have added the publication dates to the two cartoons (nos. 6 and 17) from this group that appeared in the April 1937 issue. I have added the caption to no. 17 which previously was unknown.
July 20, 2024 Update: I have added the publication date for image no. 3 (November 1936) and for image nos. 8 and 11 (January 1937).
August 16, 2024 Update: I have added the information for October 1936 and corrected the captions of image nos. 5, 9, and 10.
August 17, 2024 Update: The March 1937 issue information has been added including the missing caption for the bride and clergyman cartoon. The other captions have been corrected to the printed versions. It's possible that the captions as written on the worksheets are Arno's original captions before editing.
Note: Thanks to Ronan from France for providing the invaluable contact sheet and paperwork issued by the Nicholls Gallery. The unique content of this blog post about Peter Arno could never have been put together without him.
Enjoy my original post about "Come right in, madam. The marster's awaiting you in his lair." You'll eat it up.
I consider many of my posts to be incomplete, but this one is more incomplete than most. Ideally it would have more full-size images of the original art to accompany the thumbnails taken off a contact sheet, the pages from College Humor where the art was originally published c. 1935, the Guernsey's auction catalogue page where some of these originals were sold, and the two missing captions. All this material is out there somewhere, and if it finds its way to me I'll add it to the post. So, collectors of these rare Peter Arno originals and of 1930's issues of College Humor, please get in touch. Write to my email address with AB—for Arno Blogging—in the subject line. Look, I really don't ask for much...
For those wanting to know more about Peter Arno, there's no better place to start than Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist by Michael Maslin. By all means, read the book review in the Christian Science Monitor that calls the book "dazzling." Then perhaps read the excerpt entitled The Peter Arno Cartoons That Helped Rescue The New Yorker which was published on May 5 in the New Yorker's online edition. It's all about the Whoops Sisters. If you don't know who they are, well, hang on to your knickers, dearie!
And, once you come up for air:
Otto Soglow on this blog.
Some original cartoon art on this blog (not from the New Yorker).
College Humor magazine posts here on Attempted Bloggery.
Enjoy my original post about "Come right in, madam. The marster's awaiting you in his lair." You'll eat it up.
You know you want to see them. Arno's original sketchbook pages as well as the contact sheet are posted here.
I consider many of my posts to be incomplete, but this one is more incomplete than most. Ideally it would have more full-size images of the original art to accompany the thumbnails taken off a contact sheet, the pages from College Humor where the art was originally published c. 1935, the Guernsey's auction catalogue page where some of these originals were sold, and the two missing captions. All this material is out there somewhere, and if it finds its way to me I'll add it to the post. So, collectors of these rare Peter Arno originals and of 1930's issues of College Humor, please get in touch. Write to my email address with AB—for Arno Blogging—in the subject line. Look, I really don't ask for much...
For those wanting to know more about Peter Arno, there's no better place to start than Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist by Michael Maslin. By all means, read the book review in the Christian Science Monitor that calls the book "dazzling." Then perhaps read the excerpt entitled The Peter Arno Cartoons That Helped Rescue The New Yorker which was published on May 5 in the New Yorker's online edition. It's all about the Whoops Sisters. If you don't know who they are, well, hang on to your knickers, dearie!
Here are some more links for the budding Arno connoisseur:
Peter Arno in April's Vanity Fair.
Peter Arno here on Attempted Bloggery.
Peter Arno in Chris Wheeler's Cartoon(ist) Gallery. If you could have any collection of Arno books, this is the one you would want.
Peter Arno in the April 26 Record.
Peter Arno in the April 26 Record.
Peter Arno in April's Vanity Fair.
And, once you come up for air:
Otto Soglow on this blog.
Some original cartoon art on this blog (not from the New Yorker).
College Humor magazine posts here on Attempted Bloggery.
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