Herb Williams: From the Collection of Paul P. Goldberg

When cartoonist Herb Williams responded to collector Paul P. Goldberg in April of 1967, he did not return the self-addressed blank postcard that was presumably included. Instead he used his own envelope and obligingly sent a work of original art from San Francisco to Philadelphia. He wrote, "Dear Paul/ Instead of a small drawing I thought you'd rather have a rejected 'rough'.[sic]/ It's less work for me and I have  a ton of them./ Best regards/ Herb."

Envelope, drawing, note from Herb Williams

"Are you being waited on?"
Herb Williams
Original cartoon rough

Herb Williams's signature

Typed caption

Verso
Herb Williams's personal stamp is imprinted directly over the stamp of one Florence Alexander of 50 E. 42nd St., New York. This unusual marking suggests the drawing paper changed hands before it was put to use.

Herbert Williams
eBay listing ended December 14, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176084401379?hash=item28ff72bce3:g:VKoAAOSwWGVlcSGC

Herbert Williams
eBay item description

Herbert Williams
eBay bid history
There's just one bidder who placed two bids. You can't bid the price up against yourself, of course, so this was done just to be safe.

According to Michael Maslin's Ink Spill website, Williams is a member of the "One Club," a group of artists whose work appearing in The New Yorker is limited to one and only one cartoon. I decided to look up his single drawing for the magazine and show it here. I think it's very clever. Not too surprisingly, I believe it stands head and shoulders above the rejected rough cartoon.

"Well, at least I'm getting something out of
the taxes I did pay for years."
Herb Williams
The New Yorker, September 8, 1945, p. 44

A cartoon by Herb Williams and an ad for the Richard Hudnut Salon and DuBarry Success School

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1945-09-08/flipbook/044/

04567

Peter Arno: Romancing the Natives

On June 15, Swann Galleries sold two preliminary drawings by The New Yorker's Peter Arno. Neither is signed, but both are unmistakably the master's work. Swann's listing states, "He probably submitted them to the editors as initial ideas for cartoons, but apparently never followed through on them." Except that he did follow through, at least on one of them.

Arno's first sketch in the listing has an oval border and depicts a fully dressed white man in the embrace of two young Polynesian women wearing only grass skirts and flowers in their hair. They are reclining very publicly in an elevated hut, his pith helmet resting on the floor in front of the young women. Their arms are wrapped around him affectionately. A group of native men observe the scene in consternation. One, mostly out of the frame, is pointing out the objectionable behavior.

This sketch has no caption but was apparently meant to find humor in the jealousy of the men. The idea evolved, perhaps with editorial assistance, and went in a somewhat different direction when it was published in 1938 in The New Yorker. The man is now addressed by one of his fellow explorers with, "But, Professor, remember the thousands of little school children who gave their pennies to send us on this expedition." Visually, Arno's instincts did not serve him well here. He abandoned the depiction of tenderness that made the preliminary sketch so memorable and further objectified the women, who are now African and fully naked except for their neck rings.

"But, Professor, remember the thousands of little school children
who gave their pennies to send us on this expedition."
Peter Arno
The New Yorker, October 8, 1938, p. 16 

This sort of gag cartoon was a popular trope which today strikes us as sexist and racist, but was widely accepted in American print media in the 1930s. The drawing was collected in 1945 in The Peter Arno Pocket Book without an apparent second thought.

"But, Professor, remember the thousands of little school
children who gave their pennies to
send us on this expedition."
Peter Arno
The Peter Arno Pocket Book (1945)

https://flashbak.com/18-great-cartoons-peter-arno-pocket-book-1945-61156/

The second Arno rough shows three performers backstage at a vaudeville or variety show peeking through the curtains, probably with varying degrees of anxiety, at a laughing audience. It might have been a study for a New Yorker spot, or a cover, or perhaps a cartoon. It does not have, or seem to require, a caption. Arno may or may not have worked this idea up further. 

Both drawings together had a presale estimate of $600 to $900. They sold for a hammer price of $500, or for $625 with the buyer's premium.

Peter Arno
Swann Galleries, June 15, 2023

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/ARNO-PETER-(1904-1968)-Two-cartoons?saleno=2641&lotNo=236&refNo=807209

Incidentally, on the page opposite Arno's cartoon in The New Yorker is an outstanding short piece, "The Letters of James Thurber." You can read it in its entirety right here and, no doubt, guess the identity of the author who here goes by Anon.

A cartoon by Peter Arno and "The Letters of James Thurber" by "Anon"

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1938-10-08/flipbook/016/

July 12, 2024 Update:  Peter Arno's original art has come to light.

"But, Professor, remember the thousands of children who gave their pennies to send us on this expedition."
Peter Arno
Original art
The New Yorker, October 8, 1938, p. 16 

The typed caption is affixed to the art.

Note:  Unpublished work by Peter Arno isn't so easy to come by but for anyone who does, you're looking at a blog that can publicize it.

04366

Sam Gross: Water Jugs and a Pot of Gold

This past week the cartooning world has been remembering the legendary Sam Gross, who died May 6th at the age of 89. His comprehensive filing system catalogued more than 33,800 of his cartoons at the time of his death, according to his obituary in the Times which quoted his former intern Patrick Giles. To illustrate just how big this number is, if one were to post one of his cartoons a day every day, it would take more than 92 years to get through them all. Said another way, Gross left us a cartoon for more than every day of the his life. The Instagram account (@samgrosscartoons) has only 59 posts, all of them of classic cartoons, but representing only a tiny fraction of his output. My small contribution today is to post just one obscure cartoon, a rough, sold on eBay in 2015. This gives only a hint of the sort of work that must be present in his archive.

Sam Gross
eBay listing ended October 11, 2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Signed-Sam-Gross-Rough-Cartoon-New-Yorker-Cartoonist-/272002344219?hash=item3f549a651b%3

Ag%3ABYsAAOSw42JWDFjF&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Sam Gross
eBay item description

Note:  Was this cartoon, or a more finished version of it, ever published? If you know, let me know.

04319

Charles Addams: In the Psychologist's Waiting Room

An original, unsigned, rough drawing executed in Conté crayon and pencil by Charles Addams (1912–1988) is available from Argosy Books of Manhattan. It is set in the waiting room of a psychologist's office. The cartoon is apparently from 1959 according to the listing and was almost certainly submitted to The New Yorker. Today, the drawing will cost you $1750, although a more appropriate price might be $1812.

In the lower right corner, Addams considered setting this gag inside the psychologist's office with the requisite couch:

Charles Addams
Argosy Books listing accessed February 3, 2023

https://www.argosybooks.com/pages/books/312163/charles-addams/untitled-napoleon

On his Ink Spill blog today, New Yorker cartoonist and historian Michael Maslin identified the finished drawing in the issue of April 20, 1981. Argosy's 1959 date for the rough is almost certainly erroneous. The seated man in the waiting room has been reworked into the seated psychologist. The framed diploma is much more at home in the office than the waiting room. The coat rack, and hence the Napoleon delusion, has become the doctor's own.

Charles Addams
Preliminary cartoon art
The New Yorker, April 20, 1981, page 41
Addams, Charles. Creature Comforts, 1981

Spot drawing by J. S. Nelson and a cartoon by Charles Addams

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1981-04-20/flipbook/040/

Spot drawing of a bucket of tennis balls
by J. S. Nelson

04220

Thoughts of the Sportsman: Charles Addams and Lee Lorenz

An original Charles Addams bowling cartoon from 1962 was sold yesterday at Swann Auction Galleries in New York. The New Yorker drawing gives us an unusual insight into the thoughts of the bowler. Is the cartoon misogynistic? The humorously-depicted thought balloon might suggest that to many of us today. Overall, though, the cartoonist's oeuvre shows Addams to be more or less evenhanded in how he doles out fantasies of implied bodily harm between the sexes.

Just two years later, again in the pages of The New Yorker, another cartoonist, Lee Lorenz, addresses a very similar theme, this time on the golf course. We don't get to see the golfing man's thoughts here, but we do get to hear his wife's suspicion of what they might be. The New Yorker rough was also offered in the sale yesterday at Swann Galleries. It would have made a fine addition to just about any cartoon collection, but it went unsold.

More details:

Charles Addams
Swann Galleries Price Realized
January 28, 2021

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/CHARLES-ADDAMS-(1912-1988)-One-Pin-[CARTOONS--NEW-YORKER--BO?saleno=2556&lotNo=158&refNo=775955

Charles Addams
Swann Galleries Price Realized
January 28, 2021

Lee Lorenz
Swann Galleries Sale Result
January 28, 2021

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/LEE-LORENZ-(1933--)-The-ball-I-presume-is-me-[CARTOONS--NEW-?saleno=2556&lotNo=212&refNo=774428

• 

Poem by T. H. White, spot drawing by D. Spiegel [?], and cartoon by Charles Addams

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1962-06-16/flipbook/038/

World's Fair spot drawing by Alan Dunn and cartoon by Lee Lorenz

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1964-06-20/flipbook/028/

03520

Garrett Price: Out of Sight

An undated cartoon rough by Garrett Price was sold on eBay in August. The seller, Illustration House, dates it circa 1945 and specifically calls it a "New Yorker cartoon sketch," which seems reasonable enough. I don't believe it was ever published there, but it may have been worked into a finish and published in some other publication.

"Where are you? Get where Mummy can see you."
Garrett Price

Garrett Price
eBay listing ended August 31, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Garrett-Price-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Sketch-Signed-circa-1945-mother-amp-child-/143702026343?hash=item21754ee867%3Ag%3AdIoAAOSw5m9fRwbQ&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Garrett Price
eBay item description

Garrett Price
eBay bid history
Just one bid a day early

Note:  Was this rough eventually worked into a finish and published? Please drop a line if you know.

Original art by Garrett Price is always of interest here at Attempted Bloggery. Images are welcome.

03455