Frank Modell: Home of the Smythes

Cartoonist Frank Modell's drawing of the Smythe home, with its distinctive front yard sign, went up on the auction block yesterday in Stamford. The presale estimate for the framed piece was $50 to $100, not exactly a budget buster and already cheaper than obtaining a new frame. Online bidding started at a more than reasonable $35, yet the lot was passed. There are no people in the cartoon, just a house, and that lack might have prevented some people from bidding on the piece. One wonders, though, whether the bidding public might have expressed a little interest if the auction house had been able to identify the art as a 1980 New Yorker original.

Frank Modell
Framed original art
The New Yorker, August 11, 1980, p. 25

Frank Modell
Original art
The New Yorker, August 11, 1980, p. 25

Frank Modell's signature

Frank Modell
Greenwich Auction, June 8, 2023, Lot 271

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/Frank-Modell-Framed-Cartoon-271-c-F0441D897F?utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=keywordalerts&utm_content=205576

Frank Modell
Greenwich Auction item description

Frank Modell
Original art
The New Yorker, August 11, 1980, p. 25

Frank Modell
The New Yorker, August 11, 1980, p. 25

A spot drawing by Preston and a cartoon by Frank Modell

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1980-08-11/flipbook/024/

Note:  Spot artist David Preston of Westport created three covers for The New Yorker. They may be seen on Michael Maslin's Ink Spill here.

Spot drawing
David Preston

04344