Yesterday, items from the estate of Chita Rivera were sold at auction by Bonhams, New York. One of the mementos of her storied theater career was Al Hirschfeld's illustration of her, Jerry Orbach, and Gwen Verdon in the original Broadway production of "Chicago." Hirschfeld made the drawing while Bob Fosse's show was still out of town in Philadelphia. It was published in the Timeson June 8, 1975 after the Broadway opening. The Hirschfeld illustration has seven Ninas, but I can locate only six.
The presale estimate was $4,000 to $6,000 dollars. Online bidding was already at $7,500 fifteen hours before the sale ended.
Al Hirschfeld Bonhams All That Jazz: The Estate of Chita Rivera listing accessed November 25, 2024
Surrealist Salvador Dali made a pencil drawing of comedian Harpo Marx in February of 1937. Harpo did not get to keep the art, but he was rewarded with a signed print inscribed by the artist. The original is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Harpo's print, though, is available from Schubertiade Music.
Harpo Marx Schubertiade listing accessed June 12, 2023
If you would rather pay less, get yourself a reliable time machine and go back to the Bonhams auction of November 25, 2013, where it sold for $4,000 including the premium.
Charles E. Martin's cover for The New Yorker's issue of February 1, 2023 depicts the Metropolitan Museum of Art bathed in early morning sunlight. The original art was sold at auction yesterday by Bonhams Skinner in Marlborough. Carrying a presale estimate of $2,000 to $3,000, it sold for a hammer price of $2,800, which comes to $3,584 with the 28% buyer's premium.
Charles E. Martin Original art The New Yorker, February 1, 1969
Charles E. Martin Framed original art The New Yorker, February 1, 1969
Charles E. Martin's signature
Charles E. Martin Bonhams Skinner Marlborough auction of May 24, 2023
“A woman [Mrs. Eliza Powel of Philadelphia] asked Dr. Franklin well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy[?]—A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”
James McHenry (1753–1816), Diary September 18, 1787
James Thurber's response to the children of Class 5-1 in Public School 11 in the Bronx is dated May 2, 1960, toward the end of the school year. Thurber starts out stating that he hasn't had time to read all their letters and he notes that he gets "three thousand letters a year now and couldn't get anything else written if I answered them all." His tone is a bit harsh for a message directed at a group of fifth graders all of whom wrote him letters, and particularly so to the girl who wrote and advocated for freedom. His response, written in the years after Joseph McCarthy, seems to be the sort of warning that boys and girls might not yet be ready to appreciate, but that adults from Benjamin Franklin's time to our own would do well to heed.
Still, there's a certain illogic here, a laxness of rigor. Thurber chides the girl who wrote, "Everybody wants to keep hold of freedom," then himself writes, "Too many people leave it [freedom] lying around instead of holding on to it..." So what exactly would he have wanted her to write instead?
James Thurber Bonhams New York listing accessed December 1, 2022
People fortunate enough to have their work featured as the subject of a New Yorker cartoon just might decide to purchase the original art for themselves. That's precisely what director Joseph L. Manciewicz did when a poster for his movie "Cleopatra," advertising it as "the motion picture the world has been waiting for," appeared in a 1963 cartoon by Rober Weber (1924-2016). Manciewicz passed away in 1993 and his estate held onto the drawing for nearly three more decades, selling the artwork only this past December.
Weber set his scene at a suburban commuter railway platform. Two well-dressed women on their way into the city regard the movie poster by Howard Terpning, which must have been ubiquitous in the summer of 1963. It depicts the stars Rex Harrison (Julius Caesar), Elizabeth Taylor (Cleopatra), and Richard Burton (Mark Antony). The production of "Cleopatra" experienced widely-publicized delays, but the film was to become the biggest box office draw of the year.
"What annoys me is that I know I'm going to see it." Robert Weber Original art The New Yorker, July 20, 1963, page 21
Note:Robert Weber published more than 1,400 cartoons in The New Yorker over the course of his career. Yet this is only the second original New Yorker cartoon art of his to appear on this blog. (There's also a New Yorker magazine ad original for Absolut vodka. But I digress.) Where then is all his original New Yorker art? Have I been subconsciously suppressing it? Or perhaps, dear collectors, have you been deliberately keeping it from me?
By the way, if you should ever pop into Bonhams in Los Angeles, you might let them know that Bruce Weber is a fashion photographer and Robert Weber was a New Yorker cartoonist. Thank you in advance for clearing that up.
I don't really believe the artist who created that spot with the dragonfly and cattails can be identified, but by all means write if you can prove me wrong.
Saul Steinberg'sCafé Scene of 1949 is strangely haunting. The three figures inhabit the room but appear unnaturally stiff and isolated from each other. The interior space is rendered in a deliberately subverted perspective. The mirror reflects a separate version of reality which seems to follow its own rules. The art deco jukebox and the table are boldly colored, yet the café seems eerily silent. Bonhams Paper Jam sale from last month is mystifying in its own way. There is an undisclosed presale estimate and no published sales result. After the sale, the listing quickly vanished from the auction house's website.
Saul Steinberg Café Scene, 1949
Saul Steinberg Bonhams New York Paper Jam Contemporary Works on Paper Lot 3, 29 March 2019
Note: I would like to hear from anyone with knowledge of the auction house estimate or the outcome of the sale. Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives: Saul Steinberg
Many of Ronald Searle's Christmas illustrations captured a special luminous joy, but he could also be critical of the holiday's commercialism. Three unpublished illustrations for a circa 1960 Holiday magazine article entitled "Christmas Lifemanship" were apparently owned by Hilary Knight, whose conception of Eloise was somewhat influenced by Searle's devilish St. Trinian's girls. The watercolors were sold off at Bonham's earlier this month. Unfortunately, only one of the three is illustrated in the catalogue.
Ronald Searle Commercial Christmas from Christmas Lifemanship Holiday, unpublished, c. 1960
Note: If you haven't seen the Christmas cards that Ronald Searle sent to his friends, you're in for a real treat. They're collected on Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog, here. See what I mean by "luminous joy?" I would love to hear from the buyer of this lot, or from anyone who might have photographed the other two drawings in this suite while they were at Bonhams.
My little survey of original New Yorker cover art continues with this disarming example by the brilliant Saul Steinberg. Needless to say, it is not your typical magazine cover from the early 1960's, and it is by no means even a typical New Yorker cover. The remarkable $27,000 price tag five years ago at Bonham's reflects the market's high regard for Steinberg's extraordinary originality and inventiveness.
Saul Steinberg Original artwork for The New Yorker, October 12, 1963
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