Moment magazine'sCartoon Caption Contest for the Spring 2025 issue shows an elderly woman and man sitting on a park bench. The woman prepares to eat a sandwich. The man, oblivious, is feeding a bird. Cupid hovers above the woman, arrow drawn. The woman observes him and speaks. My six entries are shown below; I think the first is the best. The drawing is by that old-time romantic, Benjamin Schwartz.
"Matchmaker, matchmaker, just let me snack." "What do you mean, a match for the ages?" "I left my heart in Coney Island."
"I'll take my sandwich over your shidduch." "Golda Meir always said you'd find me." "You don't want to mess with this bubbie."
On April 17, Peter Arno's original 1944 New Yorker cartoon set at the skating rink of Rockefeller Center went on the auction block at Heritage. The Texas auction house, it should be noted, did not identify the drawing's date or its publication in The New Yorker. But the caption was right there. The drawing is unsigned but unmistakably Arno.
"Why, it's Mrs. Courtney Richardson, Senior—she's heading this way!"
Peter Arno
Original art
The New Yorker, February 12, 1944, p. 20
The rink at Rockefeller Center first opened on Christmas of 1936, roughly seven years before this drawing appeared. Its placement below street level makes it immediately recognizable then and now. Arno gives us the static observers above with a well-defined horizontal plane set apart from the strong verticals of Manhattan's buildings and the plaza. The stairs create a flow down to the area of action—no one is going up. The skaters have a flow of their own too as we see three of them making the turn and following the grooves on the ice.
The couple in the foreground on the left direct our attention to the right, their sharp noses—and skates—pointing to Mrs. Courtney Richardson, Senior. Her name and her figure are outsized and attract our attention. So do her dark clothes and her exaggerated angulation; her skates move perpendicular to the gentle curves on the ice that Arno has so carefully established. The sense of movement is achieved without the use of speed lines. The matter-of-fact caption does not prepare us for the madcap scene Arno creates.
"Why, it's Mrs. Courtney Richardson, Senior—she's heading this way!" Peter Arno Original art The New Yorker, February 12, 1944, p. 20
Peter Arno Heritage Auctions listing ended April 17, 2024
Some sleight-of-hand took place before publication. The New Yorker published the drawing with a linear border that looks for all the world like a part of Arno's original. His signature was added as well. Possibly the signature and border together were part of a single overlay. It's a small detail, but the back lining of Mrs. Richardson's coat, which Arno left white, has been shaded.
"Why, it's Mrs. Courtney Richardson, Senior—she's heading this way!"
Peter Arno
The New Yorker, February 12, 1944, p. 20
"Why, it's Mrs. Courtney Richardson, Senior—she's heading this way!"
Arno even took the time to paint the grain of the wood on the floorboards. Such details are largely or completely lost in publication.
Detail
By the way, is Garrett Price's 1944 Valentine's Day drawing of a woodpecker a spot or a cartoon? I'd call it a cartoon. But it is not listed in The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker (2004), so the powers that be have a differing opinion. I might have to file an appeal.
Garrett Price The New Yorker, February 12, 1944, p. 21
Note: I suspect Arno may have used photo references for some of the skaters—no, not for Mrs. Richardson—as well as for the women on the stairs and perhaps the rink's architectural elements, but I have no way of proving this.
Georg Jensen's Moon Fantasy brooch and earrings appear in a 1945 advertisement, according to a seller on eBay. Appearing at the end of World War II in an English language ad, they may very well be a product of Georg Jensen USA and not of the storied Danish silversmith locked away in Europe. They are apparently quite rare today—at least, I've never seen them. The crescent is gold, not at all typical of Jensen even during the wartime silver shortage. The figures seem somewhat crude in design and execution. Human figures are very seldom seen in Jensen jewelry. The ad, with its heart-shaped spotlight, suggests a Valentine's Day promotion.
Georg Jensen eBay listing accessed February 13, 2022
Note: Of course, I'm just guessing that this jewelry is the product of Georg Jensen USA. I would be grateful to anyone who can verify this by providing color photos of the actual jewelry, front and back.
Binky, the rabbit from Matt Groening's comic strip Life in Hell, is depicted on a souvenir card running with a valentine. The original sketch is executed in blue and red ink and dated November 17, 1988. The card is encased in a slab for authentication, a practice I cannot endorse for drawings, but every year one sees more such miniature works of art under plastic. The drawing has been sold on eBay for an undisclosed best offer.
Matt Groening eBay listing accessed November 28, 2021
One of my Valentine's Day gifts this year is a cartoon mug, shown below with one of our cats slinking by behind it. On the side of the coffee mug is emblazoned a 2013 cartoon that I had never seen before from Rick London's website London's Times Cartoons. The idea is by London and the illustration is credited to Tom Kerr.
I don't pretend to know what this cartoon should have to do with me, but apparently there's a popular conception that the cartoons that appear in a certain magazine are elitist and abstruse, requiring some sort of explication in order for the general public to be able to appreciate them. In the nearly ten years I've been writing this blog, which is often about New Yorker cartoons, it has been a very rare thing indeed for me to feel I had to explain any of them. But then, I don't feel the need to tell bedtime stories either.
William Steig's original cartoon for The New Yorker of December 6, 1958 has been listed by bookseller James Cummins with the caption "Sandra, my happiness is in your hands." Perhaps that's what's written on the original, or perhaps it's a transcribing error, but in either case it isn't the full published caption, which reads, "Sandra, my whole life's happiness is in your hands." That's much better, or at least more earnest, and it may reveal the guiding editorial hand of The New Yorker. The original can be yours, or your Valentine's, for a grand.
"Sandra, my happiness is in your hands." William Steig Original art Published as "Sandra, my whole life's happiness is in your hands." The New Yorker, December 6, 1958, page 45
William Steig James Cummins, Bookseller listing accessed February 13, 2021
"Sandra, my happiness is in your hands." William Steig Original art Published as "Sandra, my whole life's happiness is in your hands." The New Yorker, December 6, 1958, page 45
"Sandra, my whole life's happiness is in your hands." William Steig The New Yorker, December 6, 1958, page 45
Cartoons by Dana Fradon and William Steig There's also the tail-end of a Talk piece on caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.
Note: Original art by William Steig often goes beyond the traditional bounds of gag cartoon humor to say something meaningful about life itself. Images of his original art are something I'm happy to post here on Attempted Bloggery. Reader submissions of scans or photos are welcome.
In 2001, the Cartoon Bank sold Jack Ziegler'sNew Yorker original published in the issue of April 30, 1979. Bob Mankoff, the founder and president of the Cartoon Bank, asserted the drawing's value at the time to be $1200 and provided a certificate of authenticity. An unexpected bonus was a hand-written letter from Mr. Ziegler to the purchaser explaining how the cartoon came about. He wrote:
This drawing was done while I was in my thirties & had a great fear of being humiliated should I happen into a jewelry store & ask to take a closer look at something. I was always certain the price would be $200 more than I could afford. It usually was.
I'm in my fifties now and still have the same problem...
That's probably a fairly common feeling. Anyone venturing into a jewelry store this time of year in search of an impressive Valentine's Day gift has probably experienced something similar.
"This one might be a bit out of your price range, sir. It costs eighteen zillion dollars." Jack Ziegler Original art The New Yorker, April 30, 1979 Filthy Little Things, 1981
Jack Ziegler's signature
Jack Ziegler eBay listing retrieved January 7, 2019
Note: I lost track of this eBay sale two years ago and therefore cannot report the outcome. I would like to hear from anyone who knows whether this artwork was sold or what its current whereabouts are.
Original art by Jack Ziegler is often brilliant, funny, and less intimidating than a trip to the jewelry shop. If you'd like to show off some Ziegler art here on the blog, I'm your man.
I like the idea of artists writing notes that provide insights into their published cartoons. Was this a common practice with art sales at the Cartoon Bank? Does it continue? If anyone would like to share a cartoonist's note about a specific cartoon, well, I'm still your man.
Founded in 1826, Lord & Taylor is the nation's oldest department store. It is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and undergoing liquidation of its remaining stores. Its prestigious name will remain as on online business operated by Saadia Group.
For Valentine's Day 1993, Lord & Taylor ran an Adopt-a-Pet event to support the Humane Society of New York. New Yorker cartoonist George Booth created a poster to mark the occasion with the title Isn't love irresistible? The poster celebrates love, both the human and the pet variety. A signed poster seems the ideal romantic gift for a sweet Valentine with a bit of available wall space.
Isn't love irresistible? George Booth
George Booth's signature
Verso
George Booth eBay listing accessed February 4, 2021
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