Michael Maslin: A Traffic Stop

An original New Yorker drawing by Michael Maslin was on the auction block yesterday in Rockville, Maryland. The cartoon brings us to a traffic stop in which a police officer has pulled over a produce truck driver. 

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to issue you a summons for
reckless grammar and driving without an apostrophe."
Michael Maslin
Original art
The New Yorker, September 7, 1987, p. 37
Mixed Company:  Cartoons by Michael Maslin, Fireside, 1990, p. 3

The artwork comes nicely framed and glazed:

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to issue you a summons for
reckless grammar and driving without an apostrophe."
Michael Maslin
Framed original art
The New Yorker, September 7, 1987, p. 37
Mixed Company:  Cartoons by Michael Maslin, Fireside, 1990, p. 3

Michael Maslin's signature

Weschler's, the auction house, has misidentified the artist as Eric Maskin. Maskin, born in 1950, is really a Nobel Prize winning economist and mathematician who teaches at Harvard. His accomplishments are considerable but, in the last analysis, he does not draw cartoons for The New Yorker. There's always a chance, when the artist is incorrectly identified, that interested bidders might never be able to find the piece. Twelve hours before the sale, it seemed this might be the case. With an estimate of $50 to $100 the bidding was at an anemic $35:

Michael Maslin
Weschler's listing accessed May 19, 2025, twelve hours before the auction

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/Eric-Maskin-American-b.-1950-,-Sorry,-But-I-m-G-154-c-3E644ED861?utm_term=new%20yorker&utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=keywordalerts&utm_content=341704&utm_term=341704

Michael Maslin
Weschler's item description

Sold!

[End of Weschler's listing]

The art first appeared in the magazine in 1987 and subsequently has been reproduced on a number of products. It also appeared in Maslin's collection Mixed Company (Fireside, 1990).

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to issue you a summons for
reckless grammar and driving without an apostrophe."
Michael Maslin
The New Yorker, September 7, 1987, p. 37
Mixed Company:  Cartoons by Michael Maslin, Fireside, 1990, p. 3

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to issue you a summons for
reckless grammar and driving without an apostrophe."
Michael Maslin
Original art
The New Yorker, September 7, 1987, p. 37
Mixed Company:  Cartoons by Michael Maslin, Fireside, 1990, p. 3

With a spot drawing by Judith Shahn and a cartoon by Michael Maslin

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1987-09-07/flipbook/036/

* * *

Spot of table and chair
Judith Shahn
The New Yorker, September 7, 1987, p. 36

Works by two New Yorker cartoonists were sold back-to-back in the auction, probably from the same consignor:

Note:  This blogger would be happy to post other examples of original art by Michael Maslin. Or Eric Maskin.

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