Edward Koren?—Italian Bike Race

Cartoonist Edward Koren (1935-2023) applied a loose, fluid line to his sketch titled Italian Bike Race. He quickly conveyed the kinetic energy of helmeted cyclists in a semi-abstract way. Just as quickly, we are told, he tore the drawing from his pad and gave it to someone he'd met at the race, who took it home and had it framed.

Edward Koren
eBay listing accessed August 9, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/116656520092?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20220405142716%26meid%3D1e66bf95bb114e7fa0c18f8f2298dfbe%26pid%3D101506%26rk%3D2%26rkt%

3D8%26sd%3D267180491061%26itm%3D116656520092%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4481478%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWebWithV11WebTrimmedV3VisualRankerWithKnnV3AndUltBRecallAndCassiniEmbRecall&_trksid=p4481478.c101506.m1851

Note:  At the time of posting, this framed sketch is available on eBay. 

August 13, 2025 Update:  Sasha Koren writes, "I came across your post of a few days ago about the Italian bike race sketch available on eBay. I thought you might want to know that it is almost certainly not a Koren drawing, despite the eBay seller’s description of its origin. The drawing isn’t in his inimitable style, and neither his lettering nor his signature looked like that—not in 1973 nor any time after. I’m his daughter, by the way, so can recognize certain variations in his very early work, but none looked like this!"

August 14, 2025:  Withdrawn, apparently.

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Joe Dator: E.T. Bikes

In January, cartoonist Joe Dator gave his fans a rare opportunity to purchase some of his original New Yorker cartoon art on eBay. The first piece to sell was a wordless cartoon the artist calls E.T. Bikes. As one would expect from the author of Inked: Cartoons, Confessions, Rejected Ideas and Secret Sketches from The New Yorker's Joe Dator, each cartoon is listed with an insightful description and reliable publication information. All that could leave a cartoon blogger with very little to do.

Joe Dator's signature

Joe Dator
eBay listing ended January 7, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284597744938?hash=item424358f52a:g:nLsAAOSwhxJh1109

Joe Dator
eBay item description

Note:  This sale of numerous New Yorker originals inspired Michael Maslin's Ink Spill to begin a new Auction Watch feature on January 11. Hear, hear!

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Edward Gorey: The Broken Spoke Dust Jacket Cover

The dust jacket illustration for Edward Gorey's The Broken Spoke—that's one catchy, alliterative title—plays with our expectations of perspective. This composition would ordinarily call for a simple one-point perspective, but the bricks on the ground fail to recede towards a vanishing point on the unseen horizon, instead making a vertical pattern that doesn't in any way establish a realistic foreground. The broken bicycle is possibly too small while the urn immediately behind the wall is way too large. The two urns create the illusion of receding into the distance, but the three figures violate the rules of perspective, getting a bit larger the farther they get from the viewer. The trees, however improbably, seem to reside in the same plane. The colors overall are muted, but the straw hat reveals a varied palette.

What is unseen is somewhat unsettling too. The two figures beyond the wall must be on bicycles obscured by it, while the cyclist on the right is giving all his attention to something behind him out of the frame. 

This is copy 56 of 250 numbered copies, plus 26 lettered copies:

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks listing accessed July 14, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Broken-Spoke-GOREY-Edward-Dodd-Mead/31165815400/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

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Ronald Searle: Bye Bye Blues

Francis Barraud's painting of his late brother Mark's terrier Nipper listening to a phonograph recording of "His Master's Voice" is rather touching. The image, which was to become a well-known commercial trademark, effectively illustrates how our technology at its best can forge an emotional connection.

Francis Barraud
"His Master's Voice"
Victor Gramophone

https://www.posterlounge.com/p/514107.html

Ronald Searle must have had this famous image in the back of his mind, or in the front of it, when he created one of his most memorable lithographs, Bye Bye Blues. It dates from 1974, the year he turned fifty-four. Bye Bye Blues features one of Searle's signature cats sitting enraptured, leaning in towards a gramophone, but it is not just about the cat or about the gramophone. Rather, it is about nothing less than the capacity of art to transport and transform us.

Ronald Searle

Bye Bye Blues

Épreuve d'Artiste aside from the edition of 99, 1974

https://www.art-of-illustration.co.uk/Ronald_Searle/Bye_Bye_Blues/2156/100/default.aspx

Searle, as is his wont, exuberantly defies one of the supposed rules of cartooning, that one should always keep it simple. He gives us a fully-realized interior space with not just a few choice records but with stacks of them, scattered record sleeves, a tiny teacup, a brass bed, and—why not?—even a bicycle. Both the ornate bed and the stark floorboards seem to be perpendicular to the wall, yet paradoxically they each recede to separate vanishing points.

The 1930 version of the song "Bye Bye Blues" recorded in London by Ambrose and His Orchestra may have been the one Searle knew best. Is it really any surprise that this recording was on the "His Master's Voice" label?

"Bye Bye Blues" (1925)

Song by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, and Chauncey Gray

Ambrose and His Orchestra at the May Fair Hotel, London

Recorded in Small Queen's Hall, London on October 13, 1930

Sam Browne—vocals

Note:  Today is the centenary of Ronald Searle's birth on March 3, 1920. 

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ronald Searle

Attempted Bloggery's Bluesy Index

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Ronald Searle: The Good Old Days

"Monica told us the bicycle in Searle's work is symbolic of happiness."

—Matt Jones 

"New Year with the Searles"

Ronald Searle's lithograph The Good Old Days was published in 1972. It was followed five years later by The Good Old Days II. Both featured animals on bicycles and both were published in editions of 99.

Ronald Searle
The Good Old Days
Edition of 99, 1972

https://www.art-of-illustration.co.uk/Ronald_Searle/The_Good_Old_Days/2027/100/default.aspx

The Good Old days II is in the collection of children's book author and illustrator Sandra Boynton, for one:

Ronald Searle

The Good Old Days II

Edition of 99, 1977

https://www.amherstbulletin.com/Sandra-Boynton-12960336

Unlike the lithograph, a roughly contemporaneous watercolor of the same subject (seen here published as a postcard) uses the lower left of the image to make an environmental statement. Maybe the good old days weren't quite so good.

Ronald Searle
The Good Old Days (1976)

Image updated December 9, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204095930791?...

Detail:

Ronald Searle

The Good Old Days (1976, detail)

https://theanimalarium.blogspot.com/2011/05/sunday-safari-animals-on-bikes.html

Searle sold a later (but undated) color drawing at Christie's in 2007 depicting a similar scene with a cat warmed by a scarf:

Ronald Searle
The Good Old Days
No date

Ronald Searle
Christie's South Kensington, 3 July 2007

Another print, 42/99, of The Good Old Days II was offered on eBay in 2015. The photos give an idea of the extraordinary detail Searle put into his lithographic works. It sold for just half the price it had retailed for at Brentano's circa the late 1970s—a steal!

Ronald Searle

The Good Old Days II

42/99, 1977

Ronald Searle
The Good Old Days II
42/99, 1977

Ronald Searle's signature and date in pencil

Ronald Searle

The Good Old Days II
42/99, 1977

Ronald Searle
eBay Listing Ended October 25, 2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-RONALD-SEARLE-LITHOGRAPH-42-99-PENCIL-SIGNED-NEW-YORKER-MAGAZINE-ART-CAT-/171970196117?hash=item280a38f295%3Ag%3ARFwAAOSwI-BWFc-h&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Ronald Searle
eBay Item Description

No Q&A

eBay Bid History
Just one bid four days into the ten day auction

Note:  Almost no casual cyclist wore a bicycle helmet in the 1970s.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ronald Searle

Cats

Bicycles

Attempted Bloggery's Index on Training Wheels

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