Showing posts with label Barbara Nicholls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barbara Nicholls. Show all posts

Saturday, February 7, 2026

Peter Arno: The Fireman's Farewell

In a 1939 New Yorker cartoon, Peter Arno's firefighter bids farewell to a befuddled homeowner:

"Well, if you ever need us again just give us a ring."
Peter Arno
Original art
The New Yorker, June 17, 1939, p. 18

The cartoon reads left to right, foreground to background. The firefighter is the most prominent and the most illuminated figure. He is leaving the scene, but he leans back into the cartoon panel with a raised arm. You can't miss him. The poor, portly homeowner in his robe is seen next seemingly trying to lean back out of the frame. There is no place for him to go. The smoldering ruins of the home are behind him. The firemen have left behind great reflecting puddles of water in the middle ground. The birdcage is a fine comic detail which may or may not be noticed later. Anyone whose eyes linger over an Arno drawing can expect to be rewarded.

The original art, framed and matted, was sold yesterday at Heritage Auctions. It was the useful practice of Barbara Nicholls of the Nicholls Gallery in the 1970s and 1980s to write the caption on the matte in a calligraphic hand. No doubt Irvin Greif, Jr., purchased the artwork from her. Her ink has faded over the years more than Arno's.
"Well, if you ever need us again just give us a ring."
Peter Arno
Framed original art
The New Yorker, June 17, 1939, p. 18

On the back of the artwork, The New Yorker's founding editor Harold Ross approved the drawing with his customary R. 
Verso with Ross's R


Bidding opened at $1,250 some three weeks before the sale with no reserve. The first bid appeared quickly, proof, if any were needed, that Arno's star continues to shine bright in the firmament of New Yorker cartoonists.
Peter Arno
Heritage Auctions Mainstream Illustration listing of February 6, 2026



Peter Arno
Heritage Auctions Mainstream Illustration item description

The work sold for $5,000 plus a 25% buyer's premium of $1,250. In other words, the final buyer's premium was the same as the amount of the opening bid.







Here's how it appeared in the magazine:
"Well, if you ever need us again just give us a ring."
Peter Arno
The New Yorker, June 17, 1939, p. 18

"Well, if you ever need us again just give us a ring."
Peter Arno
Original art
The New Yorker, June 17, 1939, p. 18


With a cartoon by Peter Arno and a spot drawing by Victor de Pauw




* * *


On the page opposite, Victor de Pauw's spot drawing of a railway station is as unassuming as Arno's cartoon is bold.
Spot drawing of a railway station
Victor de Pauw
The New Yorker, June 17, 1939, p. 19





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Saturday, November 22, 2025

Peter Arno: Not the Crosstown Bus

What cartoonist, one may ask, seems more at home drawing the inside of a police van than Peter Arno? A work of original art from a 1937 issue of the magazine College Humor was sold at auction on Thursday by Nate D. Sanders in L.A. It is the sale's second lot, offered right after the scouting drawing by Chas Addams we saw in yesterday's post.
"Am I to understand this is not the Forty-ninth Street crosstown 'bus?"
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, April 1937, p. 11


The caption written on the matte is in the hand of gallerist Barbara Nicholls to whom the work was consigned, with others, in 1985.
"Am I to understand this is not the Forty-ninth Street crosstown 'bus?"
Peter Arno
Matted original art
College Humor, April 1937, p. 11

With the matte opened up, we see Arno's caption written across the top. He planned to italicize the word not for emphasis and to hyphenate crosstown. He wrote out 49th Street with its numerals. He did not, though, have an apostrophe before bus. That punctuation must have originated with an editor keen to show that the word is a shortening of omnibus. The drawing is signed at the lower left with Arno's initials.
"Am I to understand this is not the Forty-ninth Street crosstown 'bus?"
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, April 1937, p. 11



The bidding started at $250. Four bids were placed and the art sold for $506 including the premium. If memory serves, that's well under half of its 1985 price.
Peter Arno
Nate D. Sanders auction listing of November 20, 2025



By some cosmic quirk of blogging, we've seen this cartoon here on the blog before. 
"Am I to understand this is not the Forty-ninth Street crosstown 'bus?"
Peter Arno
College Humor, April 1937, p. 11


"Am I to understand this is not the Forty-ninth Street crosstown 'bus?"
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, April 1937, p. 11


Here's how it appeared with two other cartoons in "Peter Arno's Side-Show," a two-page spread delighting readers of College Humor in April of 1937. None of these have ever been republished
"All right—I take the key, to to your hotel, go to the twelfth floor and walk down one flight, and go                                                        "—And then he assaulted me without so much as a 'Thank you'!"       
                        in your room and wait till you come—and then what do I do?"                                                                            "Am I to understand this is not the Forty-ninth Street crosstown 'bus?"
Peter Arno
College Humor, April 1937, pp. 10-11


The artwork was photographed by the Nicholls Gallery. It appeared on a contact sheet with other consigned or purchased work, nearly all of it Arno's.
"Am I to understand this is not the Forty-ninth Street crosstown 'bus?"




Note:  I wrote at length about the full contact sheet from the Nicholls Gallery here. You may survey this blog's collective posts on Peter Arno's work for College Humor here. There's nothing else like it on the internet. Trust me, I've looked.






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Sunday, July 13, 2025

Blog Post No. 5000: Peter Arno's Side-Show for February 1937

In July of 1985, seventeen works of original cartoon art by Peter Arno published in the magazine College Humor were brought to the Nicholls Gallery in New York. All of them were believed to have been published in the mid-1930s but the specific dates were unknown. Over the years, I have been hunting down various issues of the magazine to identify the print history of each of the drawings in the consignment. Now, forty years after the Arno trove was left with the gallery, I have located the final three cartoons hiding out in the February 1937 issue. 


Yes, I've been searching for decades. For this!
Modeled by Bil Baird
Color photo by Dudley Lee
College Humor, February 1937

As usual, Peter Arno's "Side-Show" includes three cartoons.
"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."

"It isn't every student I'd let mark her own examination paper, Miss Dawson." 
* * *
"You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe!"





The original art for these cartoons were included on the photographic contact sheet given to the consignor:
"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."
February 1937

The original art was sold by the Nicholls Gallery at a Guernsey's auction in March of 1986:
"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."
Guernsey's March 1986 illustration art auction catalogue Lot A720
Image added November 14, 2016




A private collector has shared the piece with the blog:
"It's the master's idea—says it keeps them out of the Stork Club."
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, February 1937, p. 18


The Miss Dawson cartoon is also on the contact sheet:
"It isn't every student I'd let mark her own examination paper, Miss Dawson."
February 1937


As is the Oglethorpe cartoon:
"You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe!"
February 1937


If you thought I couldn't come up with original art a second time, you'd be wrong.
"You may shut off the heater now, Oglethorpe!"
Peter Arno
Original art
College Humor, February 1937, p. 19

Here's the full spread in all its glory:


This February 1937 issue is surprisingly hard to find today given that back in the day every Arno fan in America should have wanted a copy. I eventually came across one on eBay, paired with another issue:

The two College Humor issues were sold together. I made an offer of $25, which was accepted by the seller.
College Humor
eBay listing ended March 10, 2025

College Humor
eBay item description






Note:  The full contact sheet produced by the Nicholls Gallery can be seen here. This blog's collective posts on Peter Arno in College Humor are here. Enjoy!

Even though the publication history of all the Arno cartoons in the Nicholls Gallery consignment now have been identified, the quest is not over. There are other issues of College Humor with Arno art that is often quite wonderful but has never appeared in any Arno cartoon collection. Readers with access to such issues of College Humor with obscure Arno cartoons not already on the blog are invited to get in touch.


There are now fifty Attempted Bloggery centennial posts. About a quarter of them have some Arno content. Happy browsing.


The Attempted Bloggery Centennial Posts 💯
Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story




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Friday, June 16, 2023

Saul Steinberg: Three Landscape Views

An untitled 1970 work by Saul Steinberg was given by the artist in December of 1971 to Barbara Nicholls, then assistant to The New Yorker's cartoon editor James Geraghty. Later she became a gallerist and art dealer representing a great many leading New Yorker cartoonists. The ink and watercolor composition is enhanced by rubber stamps and a wax stamp. It consists of three postcard-like landscape views.





The presale estimate was $7,000 to $9,000.
Saul Steinberg
Shapiro Auctions listing accessed June 14, 2023


The hammer price of $6,500, meant that the full price was $8,125, including the 25% buyer's premium.This total was within the range of the estimate.





June 28, 2023 Update:  For more information, see the Saul Steinberg Foundation's page on Postcard-Style Landscapes.





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Thursday, November 1, 2018

In Pursuit of Charles Addams

After American Frank Shorter won the men's marathon in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, jogging became suddenly popular in America. Cartoonist Charles Addams naturally had his own take on this running boom. An autograph letter by Addams is coming up for sale next week in the Swann Galleries Autographs sale. He's personally responding to a query from one Mr. Bernstein who is looking to acquire a running-themed drawing from the previous issue of the New Yorker. "Can you be a jogger?" is a pretty specific clue here that Mr. Bernstein must be looking for the Addams cartoon published in the March 22, 1976 issue. This would date the Addams letter to the last week of March 1976. The original cartoon art was not available as it was being held for an exhibition at the Nicholls Gallery in November. Was Mr. Bernstein ultimately successful in his pursuit of this Charles Addams original?

Charles Addams
ALS, c. late March 1976


Charles Addams
Swann Galleries
Sale 2492 Autographs
Lot 364
November 8, 2018











Charles Addams
The New Yorker, March 22, 1976, page 26

Cartoons by Charles Addams and Stan Hunt


Goings On About Town
The New Yorker, November 8, 1976, page 8





 November 8, 2018 Update:  Sold!
Hammer Price $80
Note:  I would like to hear from anyone who knows the whereabout of the original Charles Addams jogger cartoon.
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Charles Addams

 Jogging

Autograph Letters, Signed

 Nicholls Gallery

 Original New Yorker Cartoon Art

Attempted Bloggery's Runaway Index
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