Seen and Noted: George Price's Signature

Autograph dealers have a way of framing signatures alongside photos or other images in an attempt to create something worth hanging on a wall. In an item from an auction scheduled for February 2, The New Yorker's George Price has his autograph mounted above one of his inimitable magazine cartoons.

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Ronald Searle: A 1936 Autograph Page

Ronald Searle's 1936 drawing from an autograph album that belonged to one Patricia M. Frost of Cambridge is not by a long shot "possibly the earliest work known by him," as claimed by Rainford & Parris Books of Bishop's Stortford, but still it may be the earliest drawing that an interested collector can expect to come across. By August of 1936, the sixteen year old's cartoons had been appearing weekly in the Cambridge Daily News since the previous year and it's stunning that he was well known enough locally to be sought after for the autograph at all. Searle's signature from this period has the middle initials W. F., for William Fordham. The accompanying cartoon reportedly represents a teacher, but more likely it is a graduating student, cigar and all. The cartoon looks reasonably accomplished for its day, but it doesn't in any way foretell the illustrator's future greatness.

Ronald Searle
AbeBooks listing accessed June 6, 2023

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31524317550&searchurl=kn%3DRonald%2BSearle%26sortby%3D1&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp2-_-title25

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Ronald Searle: A Christmas 1987 Signed First Day Cover

It's Magic, the 1987 Royal Mail Christmas issue, was canceled in London with a commercial Hamley's postmark promoting "the finest toy shop in the world" on the first day cover. Thirteen years later, one such cover was signed by illustrator Ronald Searle. The Christmas cover and the later autograph seem unrelated; they coexist on an envelope for no apparent reason. Still, the price realized on eBay indicates that at least someone out there appreciates this sort of dual collectible.

Ronald Searle
eBay Listing Ended June 8, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/St-Trinian-039-s-Ronald-Searle-Signed-FDC-/223544140339?ul_noapp=true&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Ronald Searle
eBay Item Description

03831

Ronald Searle: An Autographed Card

An autographed card with a drawing of a woman's head and neck was signed by Ronald Searle and dated January of 1960. Removed from its matte, it was sold over the summer on eBay by a seller who asserts it belonged to "a great friend of Ronald Searle." If so, it seems somewhat impersonal, bearing no dedication.

Ronald Searle's signature

Ronald Searle
eBay listing ended August 22, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324750584594?mkpid=0&emsid=e11010.m1951.l7494&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=344a9b6c644b432cb4b661339b8ddc24&bu=43186000575&ut=RU&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20210821205101&segname=11010&sojTags=ch%3Dch%2Cbu%3Dbu%2Cut%3Dut%2Cosub%3Dosub%2Ccrd%3Dcrd%2Csegname%3Dsegname%2Cchnl%3Dmkcid&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Ronald Searle
eBay item description

Ronald Searle
eBay bid history
Six bidders, eleven bids

The drawing is somewhat reminiscent of Searle's cover for Graphis 80 published in 1958. The seller's suggestion that the figure is "possibly in drag" seems unlikely to reflect Searle's intent.

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William Steig: Signed in 1945 by the Author of Shrek!

Dealers sometimes try to enhance the value of celebrity autographs by framing them alongside compelling visual images, generally photographs or printed matter. So in some way it makes perfect sense that a current AbeBooks listing features an autograph of cartoonist William Steig (1907-2003) that is framed right under the book cover to Shrek! The ogre of the title is, after all, his most widely-known creation.

But there's something misleading about the juxtaposition. Steig's framed signature originates from the collection of Jules Gilbert Moritz on a specially printed card that is hand-dated January of 1945. The children's book Shrek! wasn't published until 1990, some forty-five years after the signature was obtained. Over that time period, Steig's style had undergone a very significant transformation, and he had become a successful children's book author and illustrator in addition to his accomplishments as a cartoonist. Furthermore, the Shrek that fires up the public imagination today is really the animated Shrek of Hollywood, popularized in the series of films from DreamWorks derived from, but hardly synonymous with, Steig's own Shrek. His intimate book creation is charming, but that alone is not why its cover is framed with the author's signature. It is to remind us of the movie franchise which abandoned Steig's small-scale triumph for the sweep and outsize production values of the big screen.

William Steig
AbeBooks listing accessed November 4, 2021

https://www.abebooks.com/paper-collectibles/William-Steig-autograph-Signed-collector%60s-card/31041458437/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

Currency conversion
Reduced from CHF 90

03795

An Alexander Woollcott Signed Cover

There have been many creative attempts to combine postal covers with celebrity autographs. In 1933, decades before first day covers came into their own, collector H. M. Brehm persuaded noted New Yorker critic Alexander Woollcott to sign a postal cover with a 3-cent William Penn stamp and a Grand Central Annex postmark. Brehm then added an original illustration of Woollcott and a collaged photo over the address, quite possibly his own. At this point, one wonders why the postal cover was necessary in the first place.

Alexander Woollcott
eBay Listing Ended April 14, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Alexander-Woollcott-New-Yorker-Magazine-Critic-Signed-Postal-Cover-/392753595497?hash=item5b71f04469%3Ag%3A9cYAAOSwWEZejR2u&nma=true&si=0VRLNXcwB1AfKyLn9IovVbXUwvE%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

03693

Al Hirschfeld Slabbed

It happened to currency, coins, and comic books, so it should be little surprise that autographs nowadays are being authenticated and slabbed. They are not being graded for condition, apparently, as each is unique there is therefore no good basis for comparison. The signature of the great caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, for example, is preserved in plastic for all time, or at least for the foreseeable future. As long as the autograph is visible, though, it can still sustain damage from light.

eBay Listing Ended September 2, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AL-HIRSCHFELD-signed-autograph-PSA-DNA-2-5X3-5-Card-Auto-Original-The-New-Yorker-/112106966491?hash=item1a1a188ddb%3Ag%3ARNcAAOSwRoxXnJHH&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

eBay Item Description

eBay Bid History

03653

Seen and Noted: A Seth Index Card

Seen and noted on eBay:  an index card signed by Seth with a small but vibrant drawing of a female character in profile. Who is she? The collector, Glenn, has apparently filled the margins of the card with extensive notes about Seth's 1996 book It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken. This is far and away my favorite book of his, for reasons that will be clear to anyone familiar with it.

Seth
eBay listing accessed April 16, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Seth-Canadian-Comics-Artist-Creator-Its-A-Good-Autographed-Signed-Index-Card/372626668045?hash=item56c247ba0d:g:V1gAAOSwiuRciVnC

Seth
eBay item description

September 12, 2021 Update:  Nine percent price cut

Note:  Who, if anyone, is this character?

03598

Robert Day Procrastinates

In 1945, New Yorker cartoonist Robert Day responded to a request for an autograph... about thirteen months after receiving it. One hopes the recipient, James A. Bowman, thought it was worth the wait. He made the request at age 19 and received the signed card complete with a "rush" drawing at age 20. At that impatient age and while serving in the Army during the war, a year could seem an awfully long time.

Robert Day
AbeBooks listing accessed September 28, 2020

https://www.abebooks.com/ORIGINAL-CARTOON-CARD-SIGNED-AMERICAN-CARTOONIST/30750047166/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore

The recipient's obituary:

James A. Bowman's obituary

https://www.gendafuneralhome.com/obituary/James-Bowman

03396

Ronald Searle: An Autographed Cartoon from Down with Skool!

Down with Skool!: A Guide to School Life for Tiny Pupils and Their Parents was first published in 1953. Geoffrey Willans had originally created Nigel Molesworth, the Curse of St. Custard's, in the pages of Punch. Nigel's trenchant observations of prep school life and later of the world around him were written in schoolboy language with idiosyncratic schoolboy spelling. Willans and illustrator Ronald Searle collaborated on a total of four Molesworth books that were widely enjoyed in England and elsewhere. History For Sale offers a newsprint cartoon from Down with Skool!, the first of the Molesworth books, autographed by Searle in 1973. The cartoon in question is from Chapter 2, "Boo to Sir, or, Are Masters Nesessessary?" It is part of a Pythagorean proof by Nigel ("Proposition: Masters Are Sloppy and Like Gurls") that appears on page 29.

They hav got to hav something in their lives besides Caesar pythagoras and other weeds.
Ronald Searle
Down with Skool (1953) by Geoffrey Willans

Ronald Searle
History For Sale

https://www.historyforsale.com/ronald-searle-cartoon-signed-6-1973/dc80237 

Searle's actual dates are 1920 to 2011, as any fule kno.

Note:  We are in the midst of Ronald Searle's centenary.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ronald Searle

Molesworth

Attempted Bloggery's Weedy Index

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