If you ever wondered what original Christmas card art by Mad legend Jack Davis looks like, today is your lucky day.
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| Jack Davis AbeBooks listing accessed November 15, 2025 |
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| Jack Davis AbeBooks item description |
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Showing posts with label original Christmas card art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label original Christmas card art. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Merry Christmas from Jack Davis
Monday, December 15, 2025
Chuck Jones: Deck the Halls With Boston Charlie
The original artwork for Chuck Jones's 1976 Warner Brothers Christmas card was sold on October 20 by Heritage Auctions.
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| Chuck Jones's signature |
"Deck The Halls With Boston Charlie" is a decidedly lame take on Walt Kelly's brilliant "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie" carol from his Pogo comic strip, as it reverts back in part to the correct lyrics we all know. Nevertheless, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are in fine form at the piano, or at least Bugs is, in their musical roles from "Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals," a 1976 TV special featuring the music of Camille Saint-Saëns..jpeg)
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Songs of the Pogo is a songbook and album (1956) which includes the number "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie." The classic Christmas carol amended with wildly inventive lyrics returned to the strip in different versions over the years.
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| Chuck Jones Heritage Auctions listing of October 20, 2025 |
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| Chuck Jones Heritage Auctions item description |
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| Hammer price |
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| https://www.musicfestnews.com/2024/12/walt-kelly-pogo-deck-us-all-with-boston-charlie/ |
"Deck Us All With Boston Charley"
"Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals" (1976)
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Friday, December 2, 2022
A Garrett Price Christmas Card Drawing
Cartoonist Garrett Price (1896-1979) started working for the Chicago Tribune in 1916 and for The New Yorker in 1925. He drew the comic strip White Boy from 1933 to 1936. In 1940, he moved east to Westport, Connecticut.
A hand-drawn Christmas card of his currently listed on eBay features caricatures of fellow cartoonists at the Tribune. The biggest names of the era—John McCutcheon, Carey Orr, and Gaar Williams—are not to be found here. Those cartoonists labeled with only one name, or with a nickname, aren't easily identified. Gary Sheahan (1893-1978) is helpfully indicated by both first and last name. Today he has his work archived in the Chicago History Museum here. In 1942, he was to do a wraparound cover for The Line Book, published by the Tribune, fifteen years after The New Yorker's Peter Arno had that very honor.
The eBay seller of the Price drawing notes that it had been given to a fellow Tribune cartoonist, and that it bears evidence of having been kept in a scrapbook. It is dated by the seller to circa 1927, plausibly enough.
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| Garrett Price eBay listing accessed February 12, 2022 |
Note: I would appreciate hearing from anyone who can identify Walt, Gross, Lundy, Cagh, Cy, Milt, or Wag of the Chicago Tribune.
Additional art by Garrett Price, just Price to his fellow Chicago cartoonists, is welcome for future blog posts.
Here's that Line Book cover I mentioned by Gary Sheahan:
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| Gary Sheahan The Line Book, 1942 |
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Thursday, December 24, 2015
Christmas Eve with Ronald Searle
Christmas Eve depicts two loving cats decorating their Christmas tree the last minute. Ronald Searle's original Christmas card illustration from 1982 is exceedingly colorful and charming.
Note: Further blog reading:
Cats
Ronald Searle
Christmas
Original Christmas card art
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| Ronald Searle, Christmas Eve, 1982 |
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| Christie's South Kensington, Sale 9314, Lot 196, December 4, 2002 |
Note: Further blog reading:
Cats
Ronald Searle
Christmas
Original Christmas card art
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Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Ronald Searle: Christmas Presents!
Christmas Presents! That's a big part of this gift-giving season and it's also the title of Ronald Searle's 1993 Christmas card design for Married Women magazine. The original artwork features two rather comfortable-looking cats and was sold at Christie's South Kensington in 2002. It is now in the collection of Robert L. and Lydia Forbes, who know a good present for themselves when they see it.
Note: More blogfare topics:
Ronald Searle
Christmas
Cats
Winter
Has anyone actually heard of Married Women magazine?
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| Christie's South Kensington, Sale 9314, Lot 197, December 4, 2002 |
Note: More blogfare topics:
Ronald Searle
Christmas
Cats
Winter
Has anyone actually heard of Married Women magazine?
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Thursday, December 3, 2015
Arthur Getz Holiday Greetings
Original holiday card art by Arthur Getz depicts a beautiful winter scene. The location is clearly identified as the West Cornwall, Connecticut post office. This piece was offered last month on eBay.
Note: If anyone has a copy of the printed card based on this artwork, please get in touch.
Arthur Getz's website is getzart.com.
Arthur Getz created more New Yorker covers than any other artist. Some of his work may be seen in the archives of this blog. You can also find a few holiday cards here and there.
Thanks go to Sarah Getz for her insights on this piece.
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| Arthur Getz, Holiday Greetings Original greeting card art |
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| Arthur Getz's signature |
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| eBay Listing Ended November 13, 2015 |
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| eBay Item Description |
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| Arthur Getz, Holiday Greetings Original greeting card art
[End of eBay Listing]
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| The West Cornwall, CT post office Wikipedia photo by Joe Mabel |
Note: If anyone has a copy of the printed card based on this artwork, please get in touch.
Arthur Getz's website is getzart.com.
Arthur Getz created more New Yorker covers than any other artist. Some of his work may be seen in the archives of this blog. You can also find a few holiday cards here and there.
Thanks go to Sarah Getz for her insights on this piece.
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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Searle at Sworders
It's just like England to have a venerable auction house established in 1782 that I never heard of. I turn to Sworders today because they have just sold two drawings by Ronald Searle from the early 1950's. By this time, Searle had changed all the rules for what constituted an acceptable humorous gag, and in the process catapulted to the top of his field.
There will always be those who see girlhood in terms of its innocence and the Christmas tradition in terms of sentiment. Searle will have none of that. I can't even begin to explain what's funny about the first drawing of three St. Trinian's schoolgirls, but something has gone horribly wrong in the upbringing of these children. Searle, a former prisoner-of-war, revels in his depiction of remorseless childhood cruelty, and we, his co-conspirators, go along with it.
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Lot 832 Description:
*Ronald Searle (b.1920) THREE ST. TRINIAN`S SCHOOLGIRLS. Signed l.r. with initials and inscribed l.l. `for Oscar Pollak from the artist Sept 1950`, pen and ink, 11 x 8cm. *Artist`s resale rights may apply to this lot.
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Lot 833 Description:
*Ronald Searle (b.1920) CAROL SINGING. Signed and dated 1952 l.r., inscribed verso `design for a Christmas card`, pen and ink and watercolour, 26 x 33cm. Exhibited: Chris Beetles, London, `The Illustrators, The British Art of Illustration 1800-1991`, no. 542. *Artist`s resale rights may apply to this lot.
Estimate:
£1,000
The drawing Carol Singing is just wonderful in how it upends our notions of Christmas revelry. Three children and a dog regale an elderly, deaf woman with Christmas carols, and there's not a smile in the bunch. Even the dog is unhappy.
As the lot description notes, these unhappy carolers appeared in Chris Beetles's 1991 sale catalogue as no. 542. 'Tis the season to note that the next item in that catalogue, no. 543, turns the tables on Santa:
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Sale Date
- 28 Nov 2011 1pm
- 29 Nov 2011 10am
Venue Address
- Stansted Mountfitchet Salerooms
- Cambridge Road
- Stansted Mountfitchet
- Essex
- CM24 8GE
- United Kingdom
May 12, 2012 Update: Both drawings from this auction are currently offered for sale by London art dealer Chris Beetles in his exhibition Ronald Searle Remembered, May 22 - June 9, 2012. The drawing of the three St. Trinian's Schoolgirls is available at 4,500 GBP. Sworders lots carry a 20% buyer's premium, so the dealer markup is 127% above cost.
Carol Singing sold at auction at Sworders for 3,100 GBP, or 3,720 GBP with the buyer's premium. The current selling price of 7,500 GBP therefore represents a markup of 102%.
May 28, 2012 Update: The original drawing entitled St. Trinian's Schoolgirls which was offered for sale by Chris Beetles at 4,500 GBP is now listed by the gallery as sold. In addition, the drawing Carol Singing which was offered for sale by the gallery at 7,500 GBP is now listed as sold.
Carol Singing sold at auction at Sworders for 3,100 GBP, or 3,720 GBP with the buyer's premium. The current selling price of 7,500 GBP therefore represents a markup of 102%.
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| Item 47, Ronald Searle Remembered exhibition sale price, Chris Beetles Gallery, May 22 - June 9, 2012 |
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| Item 153, Ronald Searle Remembered catalogue, Chris Beetles Gallery, May 22 - June 9, 2012 |
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| Item 153, Ronald Searle Remembered exhibition sale price, Chris Beetles Gallery, May 11 - June 9, 2012 |
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| Ronald Searle, Three St. Trinian's Schoolgirls, Chris Beetles Gallery |
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| Ronald Searle, Carol Singing, Chris Beetles Gallery |
May 28, 2012 Update: The original drawing entitled St. Trinian's Schoolgirls which was offered for sale by Chris Beetles at 4,500 GBP is now listed by the gallery as sold. In addition, the drawing Carol Singing which was offered for sale by the gallery at 7,500 GBP is now listed as sold.
Note: It seems I'm adding posts about Ronald Searle all the time, and you can see my most recent one here with a cat drawing never before seen in cyberspace.
Of course, there's no reason for me to write about Searle at all! Matt Jones has already done all the legwork. Check this out for a treasure trove of Searle Christmas cards, including the one made from Carol Singing, above!
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