Attempted Bloggery: eBay 101: New Yorker Cartoon Doggerel

Friday, December 28, 2018

eBay 101: New Yorker Cartoon Doggerel

Aside from the drawing, above, discussed in yesterday's post, a second illustration currently offered by eBay seller toys24-7 is listed as "Original NEW YORKER Cartoon 1939 GYPSY & ELEANOR NEW YORKER Cartoon Art 1939." The title literally doubles down on the unfounded claim that this seller's artwork has a New Yorker publication history while implying perhaps that Gypsy & Eleanor are some sort of popular pet and child pair we should all immediately recognize, like Tige and Buster Brown.

This is Sunday and I'd like to know where Eleanor is?
Gypsy

The drawing seems not so much a New Yorker–type gag cartoon as a cutesy memento created to remind a girl that her dog misses her when she is out on Sunday, perhaps at church or Sunday school. (The date stamped on the drawing—April 27, 1939—is actually a Thursday.) The incorrect use of the question mark is as good an indication as any, if one were needed, that this drawing was not ever subject to the New Yorker's rigorous editorial process.

This is Sunday and I'd like to know where Eleanor is?
Gypsy

In general, every New Yorker cartoon original has some sort of writing, stamp, or printer's directions written on the back. This drawing, of course, does not.

eBay Listing Retrieved December 19, 2018

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-NEW-YORKER-Cartoon-GYPSY-ELEANOR-Original-NEW-YORKER-Cartoon-Art-1939/173698073694?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131231084308%26meid%3Da74b27b9cad343d990891e01bf50956e%26pid%3D100010%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D173698078447%26itm%3D173698073694&_trksid=p2047675.c100010.m2109

ebay Item Description

Like the seller's other amateur wash drawing of the girl (might this be Eleanor?) slipping in the puddle, the drawing of the dog with the chalkboard has had its price discounted twice in rapid succession, with many more reductions likely to come in its unlikely search for a buyer. The Best Offer option is still in place. But at what price point exactly would this become an enticing purchase?

Some readers might find it helpful to see an actual New Yorker dog cartoon from 1939. This one is provided as a public service:

"I said the hounds of Spring are on Winter's
traces—but let it pass, let it pass!"
James Thurber
The New Yorker, March 18, 1939, page 17

https://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1939-03-18#folio=016

So that's what a New Yorker cartoon looks like! James Thurber's well-read woman is quoting Swinburne, if you were wondering...

December 30, 2018 Update: The asking prices continue to fall.