In 1975, Charles Addams sent this hand-colored birthday greeting featuring Granny Frump from the Addams Family. The artwork, approximately the size of a postcard, sold for between $400 and $500 on eBay back in 2005.
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Charles Addams, Souvenir Drawing of Granny Frump with a Birthday Cake
Inscribed "For Bassie Holmes /
Happy Birthday / from the Family / Chas Addams / 1975"
eBay image courtesy of David from Manhattan |
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April 24, 2023 Update: I am now identifying this character as Granny Frump, rather than Grandmama.
Note: More artist's birthday greetings can be enjoyed here.
I am grateful to reader
David from Manhattan for providing this eBay image and information about the sale from his personal archives. EBay, as you may know, does not maintain auction listings beyond approximately three months. Over the years many images of great cartoon artwork have come and gone, and once they're gone they are pretty much irretrievable. I've managed to preserve a few wonderful images over the years, and I use this blog to make many of these public and, I hope, permanent. It occurs to me that I am not the only one with such a personal virtual collection, and others who have similar obsessive tendencies might be willing to share some of their archival material here on
Attempted Bloggery. It is not easy to describe exactly what I am looking for, but if you've seen a few blog posts, you probably have a good idea. A good starting point would be original drawings, published or unpublished, by the artists typically featured on this blog, particularly but not exclusively those associated with
The New Yorker. I generally look for as much information as possible to go with each image, including the source of the image and the sale price, if known. So, if you have access to something as nourishing as Granny's birthday cake, please contact me at my email address.
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