William Steig: A Woman in the Time of Pericles

On Monday evening, an original book illustration by cartoonist William Steig was sold by Kensington Estate Auctions. It appears in Will Cuppy's humorous 1950 book The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. The illustration is the second to accompany the chapter "Pericles."

We see a Greek woman reclining contentedly on a divan. Above her, a boyish angelic face hovers, with wings but no body. The woman might be Aspasia, the companion of Pericles discussed in the chapter. She is certainly not Cleopatra, whatever the writing on the back of the art, as the drawing does not appear in her chapter. Steig seems to be following his own muse rather than Cuppy's text.

Eighteen days before the sale, there was already a bid of $100.

William Steig
Kensington Estate Auctions listing accessed June 5, 2025

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/William-Steig-1907-2003-Original-Published-Dra-118-c-24F4A74B0E?utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=artistalerts&utm_content=327823&utm_term=327823

William Steig
Kensington Estate Auctions item description

Sold!

The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950, 2002)
Will Cuppy
Part II:  Ancient Greeks and Worse
"Pericles"
Pages 34-35

https://archive.org/details/declinefallofpra0000cupp_x5v1/page/34/mode/2up

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William Steig: Reptiles I'm Always Meeting

Four original pen-and-ink book illustrations by New Yorker cartoonist William Steig were sold at auction yesterday in Clintondale, New York. They were originally published in Will Cuppy's book How to Become Extinct (1941), appearing in the chapter "Reptiles I'm Always Meeting." The drawings depict four snakes: The Garter Snake, The Rattlesnake, Own Your Own Snake, and The Glass Snake. The drawings have a lot of charm, especially given their reptilian subject matter. The Garter Snake image may easily be described as romantic. Pencil lines are visible throughout the set. Correction fluid was used judiciously in the bow of Own Your Own Snake.

Bidding opened at $300 online and the lot of four drawings sold at Kensington Estate Auctions for $625, well within the broad $400 to $800 estimate. These illustrations were just offered in the June 9 Illustration Art sale at Swann Galleries, where they failed to sell with a presale estimate of $1,200 to $1,800. That estimate wasn't necessarily too high; the final Kensington sale price suggests that with a reserve set reasonably at half the low estimate, the Swann sale might have been successful.

William Steig
Kensington Estate Auctions listing accessed August 7, 2022

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/william-steig-1907-2003-original-book-illustratio-50-c-00f4a3e815

Sold:

Unsold:

William Steig
Swann Galleries Illustration Art, June 9, 2022, lot 132

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/WILLIAM-STEIG-(1907-2003)-Reptiles-Im-Always-Meeting?saleno=2608&lotNo=132&refNo=796222

August 10, 2022 Update:  Thanks to David from Manhattan for pointing out that the first edition of How to Become Extinct dates from 1941, not 1983.

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