In yesterday's Signature Illustration Art sale at Heritage Auctions, a Charles Addams original cartoon from 1937 was one of four works offered from the Irvin Greif Collection of New Yorker Art. Fourteen days earlier, it had already achieved an online opening bid of $10,000. The official estimate was $20,000 and up. How high would it go?
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| "She shows up every Halloween" Charles Addams Original art The New Yorker, October 30, 1937, p. 25 |
Not surprisingly, the Halloween theme seems tailor-made for Addams. The composition demonstrates a competent two-point perspective. It reads from left to right; all the figures look at the witch, directing our eyes across the cartoon. The chefs wear white while darker clothing first highlights the speaker and his coworker, then the witch and her cauldron.
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| "She shows up every Halloween" Charles Addams Original framed art The New Yorker, October 30, 1937, p. 25 |
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| Verso |
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| Charles Addams Heritage Auctions listing accessed October 20, 2025 |
Two weeks have passed and now the bidding is over:
Here's how the cartoon first appeared in the pages of New Yorker for Halloween 1937.
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| "She shows up every Halloween" Charles Addams Original art The New Yorker, October 30, 1937, p. 25 |
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| With cartoons by Gardner Rea and Charles Addams |
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| "You may inform your readers, gentlemen, that despite my sweepstakes winnings I shall continue in my present occupation." Gardner Rea The New Yorker, October 30, 1937, p. 24 |
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