Carla and Simon Bowden's Copy of Man Bites Man by Steven Heller

Man Bites Man:  Two Decades of Satiric Art is a 1981 survey by prolific author and editor Steven Heller. A copy inscribed by Heller to Carla and Simon Bowden in the year of publication is currently available on AbeBooks for a reasonable $30. (I believe Carla worked at the Leo Burnett advertising agency at the time and the couple either lived or came to live in Westport. I also believe they eventually divorced.) Heller has written, coauthored, or edited more than one-hundred thirty books, mostly about design. A partial listing of his published work on Wikipedia currently does not include this book or indeed any of his books published prior to 1986.

Cover drawing by Edward Koren

The world-class cartoonists whose work appears in this project

Steven Heller
AbeBooks listing accessed September 3, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30825029207&searchurl=kn%3Dgeorge%2Bbooth%26sgnd%3Don%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image20

Note:  That back cover shows the signatures of many of the first-rate cartoonists who originally captivated me, inspiring my interest in the field. I would be honored to hear from anyone with personal reminiscences, original art, photographs, correspondence, or other rarities relating to any of them.

04067

A Family of Swans: Garrett Price Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

Swans, the most graceful of birds, have yet to feature as the sole subject of New Yorker magazine covers. Garrett Price certainly tried to introduce a family of mute swans in their natural habitat, as can be seen in a proposed magazine cover recently offered on eBay by Illustration House. It's a bold design, with one swan's head in extreme close up and the other parent with their cygnets in the middle distance framed by the neck line of the first. It may have been thought too unconventional a design for The New Yorker, or it simply may not have been deemed compelling enough.

Garrett Price
eBay listing ended October 21, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Garrett-Price-New-Yorker-color-cover-sketch-Signed-circa-1950-Original-Art-/143791063318?hash=item217a9d8116%3Ag%3ARSQAAOSwFN9fZA8p&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Garrett Price
eBay item description

[End of eBay listing]

I should perhaps note that cartoonist and illustrator André François welcomed the summer of 1967 with a cover that included a swan. While it isn't the main subject, it is a small but by no means insignificant element in the overall design:

André François
The New Yorker, June 17, 1967

January 16, 2021 Update:  Sold!

Note:  I'm happy to post more images of original art by Garrett Price. Why not send me a few scans?

 

03459

Numerals 1980: Paul Degen Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

For the New Year of 1980, Paul Degen submitted this cover proposal to the New Yorker. Anthropomorphic numerals representing 1980 make their stage entrance. The artist has roughly sketched the magazine's logo across the top, and incorporated the magazine's characteristic strap as a part of the curtain along the left-hand border. Often it is fruitless to speculate as to why a given submission was not used, but in this case I think the idea is a little too close to a lively cover by André François from five years earlier with the numerals of the old and new year performing acrobatics in a circus setting.

Paul Degen, Proposed cover illustration for the New Yorker, 1979

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paul-Degen-Original-Drawing-for-New-Yorker-/141082434777?pt=UK_art_prints_GL&hash=item20d92b1cd9

André François, The New Yorker, December 30, 1974

Paul Degen, Proposed cover illustration for the New Yorker, 1979

The actual published cover for the New Year 1980 was by Edward Koren:

Edward Koren, The New Yorker, December 31, 1979

January 15, 2017 Update:  The offering price remains 300 G.B.P., but the corresponding price in U.S. dollars has come down by about $110 over the past three years.

eBay Listing as of January 15, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paul-Degen-Original-Drawing-for-New-Yorker-/141082434777?hash=item20d92b1cd9:g:a5UAAOxywFtSULzO

Note:  More posts about Paul Degen may be seen here, while posts about André François are here and about Edward Koren here.

I have been calling them proposed New Yorker covers because the term sounds positive, but they are rejections by any other name. You can see a few more of them over here.

01013

Thoughts of Spring: André François New Yorker Cover Art

This rather unconventional artwork for the cover of The New Yorker is by André François. It is executed on a burlap bag in charcoal and oil. It was published in the spring of 1963. Although one is struck by the rough appearance of the illustration, particularly the central face, this unfinished quality successfully places the emphasis on the man's thoughts, which are decidedly not at his office desk.

The New Yorker, of course, had the luxury of a subscription-based readership. Newsstand sales were not paramount among the magazines concerns. Cover blurbs were nonexistent and thoughtful cover artwork was always welcomed. More than a decade after this, François was to use a rectangle of unfinished wood with applied feathers as the medium for another unconventional New Yorker cover illustration.

André François
Original artwork for The New Yorker, April 20, 1963

André François
The New Yorker, April 20, 1963

http://www.illustrationhouses.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/exhib/a45/a45pages/a45_063.html

André François
La tête fleurie

Image added May 4, 2019

https://robharvey76.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/andre-francois/

Note:  It's been more than a year since my last post about André François. I must be losing my touch. 

0784

André François: World Class Chess

André François's exceptional cover for The New Yorker recalls a time when the game of chess captured the attention of the world. For a brief period, world chess championships seemed to encapsulate all the intrigue the Cold War and garnered much news attention, particularly when a U.S. and Soviet player faced each other.


François's brilliant original art is sadly lost, but in this case not from the fire that destroyed his studio. After publication, the original artwork was purchased by a collector from the artist's U.S. representative John Locke, but apparently it was lost in the mail en route to its buyer.

André François, The New Yorker, June 24, 1974

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180852709405&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

0284

A Collection of Caricature Medals by Ronald Searle

You know there's a problem somewhere when seven items, in this case brilliant silver commemorative medals designed by none other than Ronald Searle, are photographed for an auction catalogue and only six are present on the day of the sale. It sounds kind of sloppy to me. 

Nevertheless, getting five of the "Six Fathers of Caricature" set together is indeed still something of a coup, along with "La Gloire" (bottom of the first photo) and eight other bronze medals also designed by Searle. The buyer did all right for himself, no? I wonder what kind of restitution the auction house has to make to the seller, assuming it was they who misplaced the medal (Thomas Rowlandson, center) that would have made one set complete and, presumably, more valuable? In the auction house's defense, the photos are four years old, and this is the third attempt to sell the set at Bonhams. It might be the seller who misplaced or even sold one of the medals. In addition, the bronze medals have diminished as well, from twelve in the 2007 sale to eight by the 2008 sale! What gives? Attrition?

Clockwise from the top:  George Cruikshank, James Gillray, Pier Leone Ghezzi, La Gloire, William Hogarth,  and Annibale Carracci. In the center, but not in the sale, is Thomas Rowlandson.

Lot No: 236^AR

(n/a) Ronald Searle (British, born 1920)

Collection of Cariacture medals
Including 'Six Fathers of Caricatures', the set of six silver metal medals depicting Annibale Carracci, Pier Leone Ghezzi, William Hogarth, James Gillray, George Cruikshank and an additional medal by Searle entitled "La Gloire", each numbered from the edition of 100 and dated 1976-79, commissioned and struck by the French Mint, 95mm diameter, together with eight bronze metal medals depicting Charles Philipon, John Heartfield, Jose Guadalupe Posada, James Thurber, Willhelm Busch, George Grosz, Otto Dix and "L'Humor" by Searle, each numbered from an edition of 100 and dated 1979, 90mm diameter (14) 

Sold for £750 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Lot Notice:
Please note that 5 medals from 'Six Fathers of Caricatures' are offered in this lot. The illustration for this lot is incorrect.


Not from this auction, but from the November 12, 2007 sale 15395 at Bonhams, lot 112, comes this photo of bronze medals by Searle, the same as the ones that were offered here, only there were a few more. Several seem to have been lost by the attempted sale in 2008:

Clockwise from the top:  James Thurbur, José Guadalupe Posada, Edward Lear, André François, "L'Humor," John Heartfield, Otto Dix,  Charles Philipon, and George Grosz.  In the center are Wilhelm Busch (top) and Tim Bobbin (John Collier). Not in photo, but in the 2007 sale: Captain Francis Grose.

Captain Francis Grose

Links:

The sale at Bonhams, Knightsbridge, September 21, 2011:  http://www.bonhams.com/eur/auction/18930/lot/236/


For more on Searle's medals, your first stop should be the Ronald Searle Tribute Blog:  http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.com/2008/04/mint.html


My most recent post on Searle describes what happened when he and two other cartoonists submitted the same gag to the New Yorker.  I promise you won't find this information anywhere else:  http://attemptedbloggery.blogspot.com/2011/09/three-cartoonists-walk-into-bar-bruce.html     


The Grose medal:  http://ecc-cartoonbooksclub.blogspot.com/2011/03/about-almost-rare-books.html 


The Bonhams 2007 New Bond Street sale:  http://bonhams.com/eur/auction/15395/lot/112/  


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