Signed by Five New Yorker Artists

In the 1970's, the New Yorker typically referred to its cartoonists as artists and to the cartoons they created as drawings. This imparted a certain stature to the endeavor of cartooning as practiced in the New Yorker as compared with all the other magazines that published generally less sophisticated and more cartoony cartoons. Today there are far fewer magazines publishing cartoons at all and the New Yorker itself hasn't been making the distinction the way it once did.

Of the artists represented in The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975, five have signed the copy currently offered for sale on eBay. They are Al Ross, Herbert Goldberg, Edward Frascino, Warren Miller, and Everett Opie. A similar copy was sold by a different seller last year and mentioned here. That copy was signed by William Hamilton instead of Al Ross, the other four signers being the same. Interestingly, both eBay sellers identified the signature of Edward Frascino as Joseph Farris; just how independent this error was I can't be sure since eBay sellers may check out similar items sold on the site in doing their research. Incidentally, this seller has taken a few blurry photos of cartoons in the book without including a single cartoon by any of the five signers, which is just what the last seller did only with sharper photos.

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975 front cover

Signatures of Al Ross, Herbert Goldberg, Edward Frascino, Warren Miller, and Everett Opie
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Edward Frascino's signature
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

There is really no reason anyone should confuse Edward Frascino's signature with Joseph Farris's, which looks like:

http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/Looks-good-For-lunch-all-12-want-pastrami-on-rye-and-coffee-Cartoon-Prints_i8638301_.htm?AID=644589833

Warren Miller's signature
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Signatures of Al Ross and Herbert Goldberg
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Everett Opie's signature
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Artists represented, top half
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Artists represented, bottom half
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Cartoon by Rea Irvin
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Cartoons by Whitney Darrow, Jr. and Garrett Price
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Cartoon by Anatol Kovarsky
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121257115658?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:VRI&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2661

eBay Item Description

October 16, 2016 Update:  Sold!  Note how sharply the seller had to lower the price over the course of almost three years!

eBay Listing Ended September 5, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Yorker-Album-by-New-Yorker-Magazine-Staff-1975-Hardcover-SIGNED-/112115153195?hash=item1a1a95792b%3Ag%3AC~kAAOxyOypSV2P9&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Note:  Another signed copy of the 1925-1975 album was discussed on this blog last year here.

More truly wonderful signed books have been featured here.

Al Ross has appeared on the blog here, but not enough.

A couple of weblog posts about Warren Miller may be seen here.

A drawing of a sandbox by Edward Frascino is part of my essential post about New Yorker cartoons at auction. Or was it by Joseph Farris? You can see it all here.

Will the real Joseph Farris please stand up? See his Easter Island drawing for the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest here.

It's a big day for football. See my posts about the sport here.

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Signed by Five New Yorker Cartoonists

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975 was the first New Yorker collection I ever purchased. The hardcover volume sold for about $15 and I had to make a very deliberate decision to commit that amount of money to a mammoth book of cartoons. As it turns out, it had a profound and long-lasting effect on me. Can you tell?

A copy is currently available on eBay with the original signatures of five New Yorker cartoonists. I got to know the work of these cartoonists primarily through the magazine and collections such as this one. Indeed, I started collecting older out-of-print New Yorker albums fairly passionately and by this means I became familiar with the work of the pantheon of cartoonists who contributed to the magazine over the years.

The eBay seller has included a generous selection of images from the book and the cartoons are, of course, brilliant. Interestingly, though, the seller hasn't included any cartoons by the five signing cartoonists, which I would have thought good salesmanship. Still, there is an awful lot of Peter Arno instead and who can argue with that?

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975 signed by Herbert Goldberg, Edward Frascino, William Hamilton, Warren Miller, and Everett Opie. In the eBay listing, the seller has mistaken Edward Frascino's signature for Joseph Farris's.

Peter Arno
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Ralph Barton, Alice Harvey, Helen E. Hokinson, Garrett Price
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

John Held, Jr., Rea Irvin, Alfred Frueh
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Rea Irvin, Constantin Alajálov, Barbara Shermund, Peter Arno
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Ralph Barton, James Thurber, William Steig, John Held, Jr.
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Perry Barlow, George Price, Peter Arno
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Mary Petty, Garrett Price, Richard Decker
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Peter Arno, Garrett Price, Chon Day, Helen E. Hokinson
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Robert Kraus, Richard Taylor, Peter Arno
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Leslie Starke, Richard Taylor, Peter Arno
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Garrett Price, Joseph Mirachi, Gardner Rea
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Peter Arno, Garner Rea, Charles E. Martin
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Richard Taylor, Saul Steinberg, Barney Tobey, George Price
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Peter Arno, Frank Modell, Robert Day
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Charles Saxon
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Alan Dunn, Carl Rose, Peter Arno
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Mischa Richter, James Stevenson, Lee Lorenz, Richard McCallister, Ed Fisher
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Donald Reilly, Leslie Starke, John Corcoran
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

Donald Reilly, J. B. Handelsman, Niculae Asciu, Mischa Richter
The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

The artists represented in The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975

The image-hosting service Auctiva allows up to twenty-four photos per eBay auction listing, and this seller is determined to use them all. This is number 23. Instead of this close-up of the back cover, I think it would have been more helpful to photograph pages that include some of the cartoonists who signed this book.

Again, this is really an unnecessary photograph.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-New-Yorker-Album-Of-Drawings-SIGNED-MILLER-GOLDBERG-HAMILTON-OPIE-FARRIS-/390614415738?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item5af26ef97a

As stated above, the eBay seller has mistaken Edward Frascino's signature for Joseph Farris's. Tsk tsk.

Say, did I happen to mention that the eBay seller has mistaken Edward Frascino's signature for Joseph Farris's?

For the record, this is what Joseph Farris's signature looks like:

http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/Looks-good-For-lunch-all-12-want-pastrami-on-rye-and-coffee-Cartoon-Prints_i8638301_.htm?AID=644589833

October 6, 2013 Update:  Sold!

Note:  Yesterday, I was thrilled to see that my recent post about Rea Irvin in the Virgin Islands was mentioned on Ink Spill here. If you're interested in the very latest about New Yorker cartoonists--and why on earth would you be reading this post if you weren't?--then you should be following Ink Spill. 

As if that weren't enough, today I'm quoted on Perpetua, the Ronald Searle tribute blog! The topic is Ronald Searle and the Berlin Wall. The post would be outstanding even if I weren't mentioned. See it here.

I have a daily newspaper panel drawing by William Hamilton on the blog here.

An Edward Frascino sandbox drawing is part of a larger post about New Yorker cartoons at auction. I still don't know whether Mr. Frascino's drawing was ever published. You can see it all here.

Then if you still have the energy, some of the other signed books featured on this blog can be found here. Happy reading!

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