Ronald Searle: The Zoodiac Wheel

Ronald Searle's Zoodiac was published in 1977. The reader is treated to two full color animal illustrations for each sign of the zodiac, and then some. An original drawing for the frontispiece showing Capricorn the goat bearing the zodiac wheel was listed by Henry Sotheran, Ltd, in 2016 for 2995 GBP. It was sold only recently.

Ronald Searle

https://www.abebooks.com/Zoodiac-Original-artwork-showing-Signs-Zodiac/20659499930/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore

Ronald Searle
AbeBooks listing as of October 24, 2016
The dollar amount corresponds to 2995 GBP

November 24, 2025 Update:  It's in the book, of course. Note how the signature is divided. This is the 1977 U.S. edition as photographed for an eBay listing.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/326881627286?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m164380.l178264&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=3065ae2fd4be4c7b8b6a385b7357e41b&bu=4
3186000575&ut=RU&exe=0&ext=0&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20251124013621&segname=11021&recoId=326881627286&recoPos=2

Note:  It's Ronald Searle's centenary through his birthday on March 3. Your horoscope says to help celebrate it by sending scans of original Searle artwork to the unassuming proprietor of this blog.

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Audrey and Matthew's Copy of Favorite Haunts by Charles Addams

Audrey and Matthew must have had something to celebrate in 1977—an anniversary, perhaps?— when Charles Addams made them this splendid drawing in a copy of his 1976 cartoon collection Favorite Haunts. Two of his classic Addams Family characters, Uncle Fester and Grandmama, prepare to cut the cake. The book sold for $1,135.25 at Heritage last New Year's Eve.

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/sketches/charles-addams-signed-favorite-haunts-with-original-art-sketch-simon-and-schuster-1976-1-/a/121753-15001.s?ic3=ViewItem-Auction-Open-BrowseWantlistMatches-080917#121753-20003

Note:  You know the drill. If you have access to an original Charles Addams drawing like this one—or even not like this one—you are encouraged to scan or photograph it and send it along to Attempted Bloggery for the sake of posterity.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Charles Addams

Uncle Fester

Grandmama

The Addams Family

Other Copies of Favorite Haunts by Charles Addams

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Haunted Index

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Ronald Searle's China Shop

In 1977, Ronald Searle published Zoodiac, a series of full-color illustrations, a different animal appearing on two facing pages for each sign of the zodiac. The illustrations were all created specifically for the book and are among the funniest and most technically-brilliant ever created by the artist. It could have been Searle's last word on the subject—but it wasn't.

More than twenty years later, Searle revisited the same territory—one full-color, full-page illustration of an animal for each sign of the zodiac—and the series appeared in Town and Country magazine. In the case of Taurus in the China Shop, we can now compare the original magazine art published in 1998 with an alternative version offered last month at Sotheby's London. The published version of the art has a more physically-active and more casually-dressed bull, a more concerned saleswoman, and a more varied collection of animal figures.

Ronald Searle, Taurus in the China Shop, 1998
Original art, Town and Country, 1999

http://www.ronaldsearle.co.uk/taurus.htm

Ronald Searle, Taurus, 1998
Alternative version to that in Town and Country, 1999

Ronald Searle
Sotheby's London
July 11, 2017 Lot 231
Unsold

Ronald Searle
Sotheby's London
July 11, 2017 Lot 231
Details and Cataloguing

Taurus, from Ronald Searle's Zoodiac, 1977:

Ronald Searle, Zoodiac, 1977, title page

http://ecc-cartoonbooksclub.blogspot.com/2014/01/zoodiac-by-ronals-searle.html

Ronald Searle, Zoodiac, 1977, endpaper

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1st-American-Edition-Hardback-Jacket-ZOODIAC-Ronald-Searle-Pantheon-Books-1977-/332103140502?hash=item4d52e3c496:g:yfYAAOSw-0xYiPJu

Ronald Searle, Zoodiac, 1977, procession

http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2012/03/arty-farty-friday-two-march-3rd.html

Which version of the 1998 illustration do you prefer?

Ronald Searle, Taurus in the China Shop, 1998

Original art, Town and Country, 1999

Ronald Searle, Taurus, 1998

Alternative or preliminary version to that in Town and Country, 1999

Note:  Attempted Bloggery is looking for submissions of published and unpublished original book and magazine illustrations by Ronald Searle and other New Yorker artists. Alternative or preliminary versions are especially welcome. You break it, you bought it.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ronald Searle

Preliminary Art

Attempted Bloggery's Fragile Index

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1977: It Was a Very Good Year

Ah, 1977....

Things seemed simple to me back then. I figured all I really needed in order to be happy was to drive a Corvette and marry Marcia Brady. At that point, I should basically be set for life.

"1977"
New York State license plate

Note:  As it turns out, I never drove a Corvette or married Marcia Brady.

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