Charles Addams: To Fetch a Pail of Water

In the summer of 2018, Sotheby's auctioned off an original drawing by Charles Addams that appeared in The New Yorker in 1957. It is an unusual take on a familiar nursery rhyme.

Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 16, 1957, p. 58

The cartoon forces us to reconsider what exactly is meant by those verses about Jack and Jill that we all know by heart. The drawing had a presale estimate of $4,000 to $6,000. But this time bidders chose to scale not a mountain but a hill.

Charles Addams
Sotheby's Fine Books and Manuscripts Including Americana Online sale of June 28, 2018, Lot 229

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/important-books-manuscripts-n09885/lot.229.html

Sold!

Charles Addams
The New Yorker, November 16, 1957, p. 58

Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 16, 1957, p. 58

With a cartoon by Charles Addams and an advertisement for Lunt Sterling

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1957-11-16/flipbook/058/

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