Back in the 1980s, if you were shopping for original Charles Addams New Yorker cartoons, you could expect much of his work to fall into a standard price range. If you wanted an Addams Family drawing, though, you would have to pay a steep premium. If you were willing to take a cartoon about a tribe of African cannibals drawn in questionable taste, you could get a real discount.
Next week the British auction market will test the salability of an original work by Peter Arno published in The New Yorker in the summer of 1941. The drawing includes a pair of shockingly insensitive caricatures of African natives. Arno is one of the best cartoonists ever, but the conventions of racial caricature that were deemed acceptable, apparently, in the 1940s are quite rightly anathema today. Arno himself had no qualms about collecting this cartoon as late as 1957 in The Penguin Peter Arno.
Bidding for the framed original art starts at 480 GBP ($625) with a presale auction estimate of 600-800 GBP ($780-$1045). Will such an image find a buyer today?
February 27, 2019 Update: Sold! The original art went today for 550 GBP ($730) plus buyer's premium.
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:
Peter Arno
Original New Yorker Cartoon Art
Race
Attempted Bloggery's Cliffhanger of an Index
Next week the British auction market will test the salability of an original work by Peter Arno published in The New Yorker in the summer of 1941. The drawing includes a pair of shockingly insensitive caricatures of African natives. Arno is one of the best cartoonists ever, but the conventions of racial caricature that were deemed acceptable, apparently, in the 1940s are quite rightly anathema today. Arno himself had no qualms about collecting this cartoon as late as 1957 in The Penguin Peter Arno.
Bidding for the framed original art starts at 480 GBP ($625) with a presale auction estimate of 600-800 GBP ($780-$1045). Will such an image find a buyer today?
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| Peter Arno "Pardon me. Have you seen any condor eggs?" Framed original art The New Yorker, July 26, 1941, page 17 Peter Arno's Man in the Shower, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944 The Penguin Peter Arno, 1957 |
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| The caption written on the matte in calligraphy |
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| Peter Arno's signature |
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| Langton Gallery exhibition label |
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| Back of frame with Langton Gallery label |
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| Peter Arno "Pardon me. Have you seen any condor eggs?" Original art The New Yorker, July 26, 1941, page 17 Peter Arno's Man in the Shower, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944 The Penguin Peter Arno, 1957 |
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| Peter Arno John Nicholsons Fine Art Auctioneer & Valuer February 27, 2019, Haslemere, UK Lot 137 |
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| Peter Arno "Pardon me. Have you seen any condor eggs?" Framed original art The New Yorker, July 26, 1941, page 17 Peter Arno's Man in the Shower, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944 The Penguin Peter Arno, 1957 |
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| https://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1941-07-26#folio=016 |
February 27, 2019 Update: Sold! The original art went today for 550 GBP ($730) plus buyer's premium.
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:
Peter Arno
Original New Yorker Cartoon Art
Race
Attempted Bloggery's Cliffhanger of an Index
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