Joel Jacobus, cataloguer and chronicler of all things Addams, writes of three recent eBay sales of copper plates used in the printing process for cartoons. The first sale was in May of 2019. An eBay seller located in Illinois offered a Charles Addams copper printing plate featuring the reverse image of a full page cartoon. Joel noted that a plate such as this is apparently quite rarely if ever seen on the market. He writes, "The seller said that she had been to an estate sale in April of someone who work[ed] in the printing industry and that they had a lot of printing plates. She had bought a few to see if anyone was interested in them. There were very few bids on the Addams plate..."
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| Charles Addams copper printing plate
Photo courtesy of Joel Jacobus
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Joel goes on, "This copper printing plate is 7.25 x 10.5”. The drawing shows explorers bushwhacking through the jungle as they come upon a giant maze. It appears in Addams’ last book Creature Comforts. The website Artnet, states that the drawing is from 1980 and that the original was sold at auction on May 10, 2003. Since it had no caption, the auction gallery selling it listed it in their brochure as Intrepid Explorers About To Enter A Maze.”
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| Artnet |
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| Printed copy of Addams cartoon marked 36
Photo courtesy of Joel Jacobus
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| Charles Addams copper printing plate
Photo courtesy of Joel Jacobus
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Prior to its appearance in Creature Comforts, this drawing appeared in the May 19, 1980 issue of the New Yorker. The number 36 written across the printer's proof corresponds to its page number in the New Yorker.
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| https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1738241852/drawing-life-with-george-booth/description |
Joel continues, "Then a month later another Charles Addams printing plate was offered by a different seller and it had a lot of interested bidders and sold for six times" the price of the first one. "Why? No idea. Strange that I’ve never seen one for sale before and then suddenly two show up within a month of each other. Perhaps they came from the same estate sale."
That seems likely, as the two Addams cartoons were published only six weeks apart.
That seems likely, as the two Addams cartoons were published only six weeks apart.
The number 49 is written on the printed page above and on the back of the copper plate, below. This, we will soon see, again corresponds to the cartoon's page number in the New Yorker.
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| "49" Back of Charles Addams cartoon copper printing plate |
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| Charles Addams cartoon copper printing plate |
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| Charles Addams eBay Listing Ended June 13, 2019 |
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| Charles Addams eBay Item Description |
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| Charles Addams eBay Bid History Four bidders place a remarkable six bids in the last seven seconds of the auction. |
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| "Don't worry. They'll be out by the tenth." Charles Addams The New Yorker, April 7, 1980, page 49 |
Joel notes that "Each plate at the estate sale was wrapped in several layers of plain white paper and had a magazine page, showing the image from the plate, taped to the wrapping paper. The page looks like an actual page from the magazine, same type of paper and it’s printed on both sides, so it probably isn’t a printer’s proof." That's an interesting observation. If it isn't a printer's proof, why did someone go to the trouble of trimming off the caption? The caption, of course, was not part of the plate and had to be set in type separately.
A third plate sold on eBay, much smaller, is by New Yorker cartoonist Barney Tobey.
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| "31" |
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| Barney Tobey cartoon copper printing plate |
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"31"
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| Barney Tobey eBay Listing Ended June 5, 2019 |
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| Barney Tobey eBay Item Description |
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| Barney Tobey eBay Bid History One early bid |
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| Printed copy of Tobey cartoon marked for page 31
Photo courtesy of Joel Jacobus
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| Barney Tobey cartoon copper printing plate
Photo courtesy of Joel Jacobus
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| "I want her first marriage to be a beautiful one." Barney Tobey The New Yorker, June 2, 1980, page 31 |
Finally, Joel asks, "Is the entire printing run of the New Yorker magazine done in one printing plant? If so, does that mean that this is the only copper plate for this Addams image? Or, if multiple printing plants around the country are used, how many printing plates might there be of this image? Of course, these questions pertain to the New Yorker printing as it was done circa 1980."
Note: So those are very good questions. How many printing presses were needed to produce the national net press run? Were multiple copies of the copper plates produced for the published cartoons or is each unique? Over what years were these copper plates used in production? Does anyone know of other cartoon printing plates?
I want to thank Joel Jacobus for introducing me to this brand new subject. Who knew?
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