Joel Jacobus, devotee of cartoonist Charles Addams and cataloguer of divers Addamsiana, today adds to our knowledge of rarities so obscure that the creator of the Addams Family himself may never have seen them. Joel now reports the existence of a third copper printing plate bearing the reverse image of an Addams cartoon published in the New Yorker. Dating from the issue of October 16, 1948, the cartoon depicts a jungle scene with two Anglo men seated outside of a hut threatened by dangerous-looking tropical snakes. The man who is apparently the host, drink in hand, says to his squeamish guest, "Bothered me a bit too, at first, until I discovered they were real."
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"Bothered me a bit too, at first, until I discovered they were real."
Charles Addams
Copper printing plate
The New Yorker, October 16, 1948, page 29
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The plate was sold just last month on eBay—where else? Joel notes that "the plate is quite worn and was displayed in a printmaker's house in New York for years." Ever the scholar, he points out that the cartoon was reproduced in the classic 1950 Addams collection Monster Rally on page 69, where it was certainly printed with a different plate.
There has never been a real market for these printing plates, at least until very recently. It can't be an accident that three of the very few plates which survived and made their way to eBay were of Addams cartoons, each individually spared destruction in the printing plant by enterprising workers who were also, one assumes, fans. (There is, as we have had occasion to note, a surviving Barney Tobey cartoon printing plate as well.) That's all that's come to light so far after 95 years of New Yorker cartoons although, to be sure, such plates are no longer used in the process of printing the magazine.
Here's the rest of the eBay sale:
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| Charles Addams eBay Listing Ended June 25, 2020 |
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| Charles Addams eBay Item Description |
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| Charles Addams eBay Bid History One bidder places two bids; the second is for insurance. |
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| [End of eBay Listing] |
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| "Bothered me a bit too, at first, until I discovered they were real." Charles Addams The New Yorker, October 16, 1948, page 29 |
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The plate image is here flipped horizontally into the orientation of the cartoon.
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| A spot drawing of passenger ship terminal and a cartoon by Charles Addams |
Note: I would like to thank Joel Jacobus for bringing this eBay sale to my attention. He continues to provide us with many insights into these rare copper plates once used to print cartoon images in the New Yorker. There are no doubt other extant printing plates corresponding to published New Yorker cartoons. I would like to hear from anyone in possession of these. (I would also like to know whether readers can identify the artist of the passenger ship terminal spot drawing.)
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| "Bothered me a bit too, at first, until I discovered they were real." Charles Addams Copper printing plate The New Yorker, October 16, 1948, page 29 |
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