Showing posts with label scarf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scarf. Show all posts

Saturday, July 18, 2026

Blog Post No. 5300: James Thurber's "The Masculine Approach" Scarf for Richard A. Farrar

"The Masculine Approach" is a scarf designed around a series of drawings by The New Yorker's James Thurber. It is currently listed on eBay.

"The Masculine Approach"
By
James Thurber


"The Masculine Approach"
By
James Thurber

The humorous drawings purport to inform us of various schemes and techniques men use for getting their way with women.
The Harpo Marx Attack

The Indifference Attitude
Does the indifference apply to spelling as well?

The Continental-Manners Technique

The Just-a-Little-Boy System

The Sudden Onslaught

The Let-'em-Wait-and-Wonder Plan

The Pawing System

The Sweep-'em-Off-Their-Feet Method

The Heroic, or Dangers I Have Known, Method



James Thurber
eBay listing accessed July 8, 2026

James Thurber
eBay item description



This tie on eBay may or may not have a label, but a similar tie in the same green and black color scheme currently listed on Etsy clearly bears the name Richard A. Farrar.




The Just-a-Little-Boy System


Thurber's series "The Masculine Approach" got its start in The New Yorker.
"The Masculine Approach"
The Sudden Onslaught
The Continental-Manners Technique
The I'm-Not-Good-Enough-for-You Announcement
James Thurber 
The New Yorker, February 12, 1938, p. 19

With cartoons by Helen E. Hokinson and James Thurber



The entire series may be found in Men, Women & Dogs (1943) beginning on page 187. Alternatively, if you don't like reading the pages sideways, it's available online in portrait PDF format here. Or you can just read the scarf.

* * *


Helen E. Hokinson's wonderful dog show drawing, on the page opposite the three Thurbers, balances out the magazine spread with darker tones and shading.
"I'm the one that should be lying down somewhere."
Helen E. Hokinson
The New Yorker, February 12, 1938, p. 18



Note:  I can't thank enough the multitalented Joel Jacobus for alerting me to this eBay listing. For our purposes, Joel is a specialist in Charles Addams collectibles but he still manages to get sidetracked at times, thank goodness.


Richard A. Farrar's tie designs by or based on the works of New Yorker artists—Charles Addams, Sam Cobean, Anatol Kovarsky, Mischa Richter, Otto Soglow, William Steig, and, of course, James Thurber—were often manufactured in a variety of colors. I would love to see examples of any other varieties that are out there. Below, for example, is an old New Yorker advertisement that provides evidence of one Thurber scarf manufactured in five colors and two sizes. It has yet to be located in any variation, but I am patient . . . 

Richard A. Farrar advertisement
The New Yorker, October 31, 1953, p. 72


The blog archives are now home to a number of scarves by Richard A. Farrar representing the work of a variety of New Yorker cartoon luminaries in various color schemes. All of these posts may be read, studied, pondered, and reread here. I am always at the ready to add new designs and color schemes. Joel reports there is a scarf out there by Helen E. Hokinson, whose cartoon is on the page opposite "The Masculine Approach" in The New Yorker, which has yet to be imaged. Who wants to be the first to send it to me?


I like to think that every hundred posts are extra special. Let me know if you agree:


The Attempted Bloggery Centennial Posts 💯
Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story





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Thursday, September 5, 2024

John Held, Jr.: Football Scarves

A silk scarf design by the great jazz-age illustrator John Held, Jr., depicts a football center giving a thumbs up just before the play. Executed in Held's signature style from the 1920's, it is apparently one of a series of scarves depicting uniformed football players on and off the gridiron. The rare item showed up on AbeBooks in July and was quickly sold. Atypically, this design omits Jr. from the artist's signature. There are some overall condition issues, but then consider that the scarf could very well be a century old.


John Held, Jr.
AbeBooks listing accessed July 4, 2024
Sold! Okay, so it's not a book.



There were other football scarves in the series. At least one of them covered some of the action off the field:


John Held, Jr.




And just like that the action is back on the field. Here's another player, a running back maybe:
John Held, Jr.






Note:  Perhaps someone can add to what I have posted here about these football scarves with designs by John Held, Jr. To wit, how many of them were issued, and when? What was the original sale price? Were they advertised? It was only about a century ago. Somebody should remember something. 




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Thursday, March 7, 2024

Blog Post No. 4600: Anatol Kovarsky's A Midsummer Night's Dream Scarf for Richard A. Farrar

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. 
As You Like It


These, of course, are the opening lines of a famous Shakespeare soliloquy spoken by the character Jacques. Those words run frieze-like around the border of today's subject, a Shakespeare-themed scarf that was designed by New Yorker cartoonist Anatol Kovarsky (1919-2016) and produced by Richard A. Farrar in the 1940s or, more likely, the 1950s. The scarf depicts scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream and so bears the play's title on the central pediment. Nevertheless, the "All the world's a stage" lines properly belong to As You Like It.
Photo by Wendy Powers

An entire line of Farrar's scarves were designed by New Yorker artists. Charles Addams, Sam Cobean, Helen E. Hokinson, Anatol Kovarsky, Mischa Richter, Otto Soglow, William Steig, and James Thurber were all recruited for the project. Kovarsky himself created no fewer than three scarf designs in this series. Here he evocatively captures the mood of Shakespear's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Kovarsky proves himself the perfect choice to illustrate the classical Athenian setting. We experience music, romance, and fairy magic. The play's three couples are shown framed by the atlantes columns. We also get a parade of energetic goings-on in the dark. Incidentally, Bottom can be seen wearing the donkey's head at center left. Snout the tinker is dressed as a wall at center right.

Photo by Wendy Powers

The scarf was printed in at least two color schemes. The first is blue and red (plus black and white). 
Photo by Wendy Powers

The reverse:
Photo by Wendy Powers

Strictly speaking, the yardstick belongs to Measure for Measure.
Photo by Wendy Powers

The other known color scheme for the A Midsummer Night's Dream scarf is green and brown, again on black and white.

The Richard A Farrar tag:




Note:  My thanks to Wendy Powers for sharing photos of her beautiful scarf, the one in red and blue. The photos of the Kovarsky scarf in green and brown come to us courtesy of the artist's daughter Gina, to whom I am also grateful.

There are now a great many scarves by Richard A. Farrar designed by a number of New Yorker artists in a variety of color schemes to be found in the blog archives here. I am always eager to add new designs and color schemes to these posts. The elusive scarf by the wonderful Helen E. Hokinson remains sadly undocumented. James Thurber's scarf depicting dogs with falling leaves has yet to be seen here in any of its five colors.



The Attempted Bloggery Centennial Posts 💯
Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story
 


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Friday, September 16, 2022

William Steig: Small Fry Scarf

William Steig's Small Fry scarf design may have been manufactured by Richard A. Farrar, who produced delightful scarves for more than half a dozen New Yorker cartoonists in the 1940s and 1950s. Small Fry were a popular series consisting of Steig's drawings of children. In this instance, he may simply have presented the scarf designers with six of these drawings and left it to them to arrange them into a square. This scarf is from the collection of modern day New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast.

Photograph by Roz Chast

Here's the same photograph flipped over for your viewing pleasure:
ʇsɐɥɔ zoɹ ʎq ɥdɐɹƃoʇoɥd




Note:  I am once again indebted to Roz Chast for taking the time to share this superb piece from her collection.


Thanks are also due to Gina Kovarsky and Joel Jacobus, who were so helpful in the early days of this exploration of the history of New Yorker scarves.


There are still more scarves to be found; new designs and color variants are almost certainly out there. Cartoonist Helen E. Hokinson is reputed to have created a Farrar scarf, and hers may not be the only one we haven't seen yet. I'd like to hear from anyone with a scarf with art by a New Yorker cartoonist.





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