Ed Arno: Nursing St. Bernards

A decade ago, eBay hosted Live Auctions. One could bid on individual lots from many of the smaller auction houses through the eBay platform. Apparently, the margins were too small to make it worth eBay's while, and the online service shut down Live Auctions giving only short notice. Today, this market is largely divided between Invaluable and Live Auctioneers.

A 1969 cartoon original by Ed Arno was sold by National Book Auctions late in 2016.

The subject was nursing St. Bernards—one could almost imagine the gag from those three words. It had been published in The New York Times.

Ed Arno's signature

Copyright notice

Ed Arno
eBay listing ended October 8, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Ink-Drawing-ED-ARNO-Signed-Framed-New-Yorker-New-York-Times-Lot-8114-/201683868328?hash=item2ef54b9

aa8%3Ag%3AVfAAAOSwLnBX8wyl&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Ed Arno
eBay item description

Ed Arno
eBay bid history
The lone bidder must bid against the auction house's reserve.

Note:  A little Ed Arno art serves to warm up one's insides. Readers are encouraged to submit examples to this blog.

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The Doorman Whistles: Ed Arno Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

A watercolor and ink drawing by cartoonist Ed Arno changed hands on eBay nearly ten years ago. Yes, I'm just getting to it.

The art depicts a red-carpeted hotel entrance. The uniformed doorman, umbrella in hand, steps out of doors to whistle for a cab while a man in business attire waits warm and dry inside.

It's snowing in the great city, although you might miss this if you didn't look carefully just to the sides of the awning.

It's hard to imagine this artwork as anything but a proposed New Yorker cover. The eBay seller's description suggests it was used as an actual New Yorker cover, but sometimes we must indulge sellers their delusions of grandeur. If mika-1234 really thought this was a published cover from The New Yorker, I doubt she would have let it go for $53.58.

Large detail of upper portion including where the magazine's logo presumably would go

Large detail of lower portion of art

Detail of doorman blowing his whistle

Ed Arno's signature

Verso

Ed Arno
eBay listing ended January 28, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Ed-Arno-Original-New-Yorker-Magazine-Cover-Illustration-Art-Painting-/121869202035hash=item1c5ff87273

%3Ag%3A2cQAAOSwLnlWnX6d&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Ed Arno
eBay item description

Note:  Personally, I don't fault The New Yorker's editors for not buying this cover proposal. It seems to not tell us enough about the personalities of the two men who are shown here. I can imagine someone like Charles Saxon doing a lot more with the concept.

As you may have already gathered from your reading here, this blog endeavors to showcase New Yorker cover proposals and New Yorker cover originals, from Ed Arno art to Peter Arno art. Not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily in a timely fashion.

Ten years ago, as a younger blogger, I was not in the habit of archiving the eBay bid history. Not seeing it here, I kind of miss it.

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Ed Arno: Social Realism

Ed Arno is best remembered for his work as a New Yorker cartoonist. An eBay auction from 2017 shows a different, more serious side of his art. The piece offered is an original illustration dated 1956 in a style of social realism. Its subjects are race, poverty, and neglect. It's setting is urban and gritty. The torn shirt is a reminder of need. The poster depicted on the brick wall recalls hunger in a supposed land of plenty. Only the cat, probably a stray, seems willing to provide some comfort to the child.

Ed Arno's initial and date

Ed Arno
eBay Listing Ended August 20, 2017

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ED-ARNO-NEW-YORKER-1950s-Gouache-of-Black-Child-Civil-Rights-Movement-A-/141942128074?hash=item210c68fdca

%3Ag%3AFjkAAOSwAuNW8aKc&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Ed Arno
eBay Item Description

Although it was apparently sold in 2017, the same artwork was sold again three years later by the same seller. This time the price was reduced and the sale benefited a charity.

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Ed Arno and Warren Miller, et al., From the Collection of Paul P. Goldberg

One has to admire the zeal of collector Paul P. Goldberg, who sent out hundreds of self-addressed blank postal cards to a great many of the cartoonists of his day. The present set of twenty date from the years 1966 to 1974, a time when Goldberg moved from Philadelphia to Plymouth Meeting. There are two New Yorker names here. Ed Arno's drawing may or may not predate his first appearance in the magazine in 1969, which was permitted only after the passing of his near-namesake Peter Arno in 1968. Warren Miller is represented as well with a bold and bearded self-portrait.

Well-known panel cartoonists Lawrence Lariar and George Dole are included; neither ever had their work appear in The New Yorker. Jean-Claude Suares, the first art director of The New York Times's Op-Ed page, has drawn his nose as a pen nib much as Arnold Roth did elsewhere in the Goldberg collection. One wonders, with this assortment of talented cartoonists, what proportion of the sale price of $135.50 owes to the presence of Brad Anderson's big dog Marmaduke.

Twenty cartoonists
eBay listing ended December 17, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176094313816?itmmeta=01HPTDN7ZC6KWM14VY3HT1XR63&hash=item290009fd58:g:~uEAAOSw3dBlddBR

Twenty cartoonists
eBay item description

Twenty cartoonists
eBay bid history
This time the second-to-last bidder wins it.

Note:  I don't make any of this up. Michael Maslin's "The Two Arnos" from 2008 appears online at The New Yorker's website here.

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