Edward Sorel: Christmas Past, Christmas Present

One of the highlights of the November 4 Illustration Art sale at Heritage Auctions was Edward Sorel's original cover artwork for The New Yorker's December 16, 1996 issue. The magazine gave it the title Christmas Past, Christmas Present. It had been in the collection of Irvin Greif.

Christmas Past, Christmas Present
Edward Sorel
Original cover art
The New Yorker, December 16, 1996

Christmas Past, Christmas Present
Edward Sorel
Framed, original cover art
The New Yorker, December 16, 1996

Bidding was strong, up at $7,000 (not including the buyer's premium) thirteen hours before the live bidding started. How high would the price go?

Edward Sorel
Heritage Auctions listing accessed thirteen hours before the November 4, 2025 sale

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/edward-sorel-american-1929-christmas-past-christmas-present-new-yorker-cover-december-16-1996/a/8224-71066.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-MyTrackedLots-101116

It sold for $15,000 including the premium to an online live bidder. What would our ancestors have made of that?

Edward Sorel
Heritage Auctions item description

Christmas Past, Christmas Present

Edward Sorel

Original cover art

The New Yorker, December 16, 1996

Christmas Past, Christmas Present

Edward Sorel

The New Yorker, December 16, 1996

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1996-12-16/flipbook/CV1/

I'll repost my photograph of the present work from the New York preview:

Christmas Past, Christmas Present
Edward Sorel
Framed, original cover art
The New Yorker, December 16, 1996

05165

Gahan Wilson: Apparently Every Christmas . . .

In the November 4 sale of illustration art, Heritage Auctions offered an original Gahan Wilson Playboy cartoon that is hardly the usual Christmas fare.

"Apparently, every Christmas he'd take the tree out of storage and add a few more ornaments!"
Gahan Wilson
Original art
Playboy, December 2001

Wilson inscribed the original "For Doc Schiff from" followed by his signature. Playboy's stamps are in place in the upper margin of the art.

"Apparently, every Christmas he'd take the tree out of storage and add a few more ornaments!"
Gahan Wilson
Original art
Playboy, December 2001

Sixteen-and-a-half hours prior to the sale, when I checked in, online bidding was going strong.

Gahan Wilson
Heritage Auctions listing of November 4, 2025 accessed sixteen hours before the live bidding 

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/mainstream-illustration/gahan-wilson-american-1930-2019-apparently-every-christmas-playboy-cartoonmixed-media-on-paper/a/8224-71273.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-MyTrackedLots-101116

Gahan Wilson
Heritage Auctions item description

And an even better price was achieved when the bidding went live.

Note:  Many thanks to David from Manhattan for identifying the month and year of publication. 

05152

Otto Soglow:: A 1951 Little King Christmas Card

The Little King appears on a 1951 Christmas card designed by his creator Otto Soglow and published by his syndicate King Features. The monarch is shown carrying a Christmas tree home through the snow, as kings are wont to do. The vintage card opens to reveal how the Little King trimmed the tree and gave it pride of place.

Otto Soglow
eBay listing accessed December 10, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/156495847560?_skw=Little+King+Christmas+Card&itmmeta=01JESC2ABXHS00N63BE60G95KZ&hash=item246fe12088:g:gc4AAOSw4N1j0WIQ&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKlmbsokPDd8OUb4VoAgz7qjq8jaToPs4ngElbZs6dgBj%2BD89BqqRvseQIdRe%2BStRVSVNZFdFlHrDMfaP9dd9iCxCkzYy3XGh4U4JaCzlCLJK1o8vVKK

Wh4sav%2B0C7ORjyoaAog4agMAO17wUGtjlCFwQlPq4zoZTI2F5zu5xf%2F0xhWTdEtKat3CDJAHEZXL76tAD4pKpMOac7Q26yK7jfkuNtWmtGHNL1Mkl2w30PyrbnY%2BRWrRkpS%2F3CbNLXp%2Fq7kv81mKkDjAsFIkyeeDdeeUMhVZINy2B7O9IdMtBojrXA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4ymiaz2ZA

Otto Soglow
eBay item description

04821

Dorothy McKay in College Humor, December 1936

I now have in my hands the December 1936 issue of College Humor. Dorothy McKay's two cartoons this month are set indoors. Her women this time around are fairly young; the men are not.

"Well—This isn't just the position I had in mind, but I'll take it."
Dorothy McKay
College Humor, December 1936, p. 33

Will the two sexes ever learn to communicate with each other? Here's one of those little Christmas misunderstandings:

"But, Miss Finch—I only wanted to put something in your stocking!"
Dorothy McKay
College Humor, December 1936, p. 44

Note:  As of this date, not every issue of College Humor has crossed my path. Readers with Dorothy McKay cartoons from the magazine that have not made their way to this blog yet are invited to submit images of such.

04689

Mischa Richter: Trimming the Tree

Tucked away in the black-and-white back pages of The New Yorker's December 18, 1995 issue is a seasonal cartoon by Mischa Richter. The parents are fully enjoying trimming the Christmas tree, but the next generation has an issue with it. The original art was sold in October on eBay. The image of the boy on the right has been patched in by the artist. In publication, Richter's signature has been moved photomechanically towards the center to fit the image tightly into two columns.

"Santa Claus is no longer part of my belief system."
Mischa Richter
Original art
The New Yorker, December 18, 1995, p. 127

Mischa Richter
eBay listing ended October 25, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/355058276787?hash=item52ab1f59b3:g:wFIAAOSwFF1k25SN&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4L4CUJ9t%2Fj7EaWpot38W0HU0s1uyxCrrZXCh9ME8oYYsv6JdnsaJMP1SaO0WH6NBPQr%2FynLKfRG4FiDQzadqOeCd4%2B9Qm%2FEtfVCpMXLoCvSvYEXpK7CEOUVceeIkU33IqyyM6A

cgtphgyzOXv2fJ7LT7WErSKj%2F7CIrVQe9gKBRNp7HAF8wmUsGXxM4JSlwxREXLA5qM8YmMnGGdwQvFH2vbJf8FCSFSobbKJyg104EUJFFIOG2je%2BBx01U4owkF7B9kQ%2B7QK1AF3dGNQLIdWP1S3xR%2BcY9RiedhPHqrKmw4%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6L0y4-gYw

Mischa Richter
eBay item description

"Santa Claus is no longer part of my belief system."
Mischa Richter
The New Yorker, December 18, 1995, p. 127

"Santa Claus is no longer part of my belief system."
Mischa Richter
Original art
The New Yorker, December 18, 1995, p. 127

With a drawing by Mischa Richter

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1995-12-18/flipbook/126/

04556 

Gardner Rea: A Moving Christmas

Dick Buchanan just dropped off an old Christmas cartoon by Gardner Rea. It was printed in two colors, black and green, in the December 23, 1939 issue of Collier's. Consumption was conspicuous, apparently, even during the Great Depression.

"Just the same, I'd feel better if I saw somebody."
Gardner Rea
Collier's, December 23, 1939

Note:  My thanks to Dick Buchanan for dipping into his amazing Cartoon Clip Files just for us. This is Dick's 63rd contribution to Attempted Bloggery, a new world record I'm sure the Guinness people will soon be noting. Dick also contributes to Mike Lynch Cartoons. His latest effort there is a post related to this one entitled "From the Dick Buchanan Files:  More Wiggly Rea Cartoons 1938-1953." Be sure not to miss it. Wiggly, by the way, referred to the erratic quality of Rea's line.

04174

A Garrett Price Christmas Card Drawing

Cartoonist Garrett Price (1896-1979) started working for the Chicago Tribune in 1916 and for The New Yorker in 1925. He drew the comic strip White Boy from 1933 to 1936. In 1940, he moved east to Westport, Connecticut. 

A hand-drawn Christmas card of his currently listed on eBay features caricatures of fellow cartoonists at the Tribune. The biggest names of the era—John McCutcheon, Carey Orr, and Gaar Williams—are not to be found here. Those cartoonists labeled with only one name, or with a nickname, aren't easily identified. Gary Sheahan (1893-1978) is helpfully indicated by both first and last name. Today he has his work archived in the Chicago History Museum here. In 1942, he was to do a wraparound cover for The Line Book, published by the Tribune, fifteen years after The New Yorker's Peter Arno had that very honor.

The eBay seller of the Price drawing notes that it had been given to a fellow Tribune cartoonist, and that it bears evidence of having been kept in a scrapbook. It is dated by the seller to circa 1927, plausibly enough.

Garrett Price
eBay listing accessed February 12, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194131966306?hash=item2d332ab962:g:dxwAAOSwACNgoGhq

Note:  I would appreciate hearing from anyone who can identify Walt, Gross, Lundy, Cagh, Cy, Milt, or Wag of the Chicago Tribune.

Additional art by Garrett Price, just Price to his fellow Chicago cartoonists, is welcome for future blog posts.

Here's that Line Book cover I mentioned by Gary Sheahan:

Gary Sheahan
The Line Book, 1942

https://www.printmag.com/article/a-chicago-tribune-geek-out/

04156

The 2021 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

I did not get to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree this year. But my wife did.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
December 23, 2021

03837

Edward Gorey: Gorey Holidays

The Gorey Holidays boxed set of Christmas cards contains an assortment of four Edward Gorey designs. The box's artwork, also on one of the cards, depicts some bare-bones tree trimming. It may seem familiar: it is the design of Gorey's first New Yorker cover, the only one to be published in his lifetime.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/373787879194?..._

Edward Gorey
The New Yorker, December 21, 1992

03819