All the blood must have rushed to my head this week over the CartoonStock Caption Contest #127. I came up with, oh, seven captions. The drawing is by Joe Dator.
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| "You and I are never going to see eye to eye." "Our hobby is orienteering." "We never use GPS." "We've cured our acid reflux." "Sorry about the scuff marks." "We got off at the wrong floor." "Thank you for not serving garlic." |
June 2, 2021 Update: The Winner
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Sins of omission may be found on occasion in the listings of any auction house. The James Cox Gallery of Willow, New York, for example, sold these two images by Ronald Searle, Coins of the Realm, on Sunday without providing bidders with all the relevant information:
The caricatures of Bill Clinton and Al Gore date from 1993, and must have been created just prior to the Inauguration.
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| Ronald Searle James Cox Gallery May 23, 2021 |
The gallery's other major omission was the failure to note that these drawings were originally published in The New Yorker:
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| "Artist's Notebook" by Ronald Searle https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1993-01-25/flipbook/078/ |
What cannot be divined is whether a more complete auction listing would have brought the price of this lot up into a range that better reflects the market value of Searle originals.
Also unknowable, at least for now, are the whereabouts of the two drawings of the reverse of the medals? Why was the set broken up heads and tails? It just doesn't seem right.
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I don't think there's meant to be a speaker in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #756 from the issue of May 24, 2021, but there certainly is a writer. My caption for him is below. The therapeutic drawing is by Jason Chatfield.
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| "I wish I could detect a pattern." |
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| "He lacks presence of mind—and of body." "Isn't it curious that he chose a doctor named Zelig?" "I said I couldn't see him this week." |
May 31, 2021 Update: The Finalists
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I spotted this car two weeks ago parked in a shopping mall, possibly not too far from the Hundred Acre Wood:
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| "HUNNY JAR" New York State license plate |
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Stephen Kroninger has sent a photograph of his copy of Rowland Emett's High Tea (1950) featuring the cartoonist's work from Punch. Emett specialized in fanciful trains, but he was skilled at depicting all manner of vehicle including, as the cover shows, an automobile adapted for camping in the wild.
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Edna Eicke's New Yorker cover of April 2, 1949 marks the rise of a new postwar leisure class, one that can afford a second home by the beach. We see the real estate agent, his woodie parked out front, showing a windswept property to a young couple. The coming storm adds atmosphere without diminishing the appeal of the landscape or of the house.
Celebrity gossip columnist Lloyd Shearer, who wrote for Parade magazine under the name Walter Scott, and his wife Marva, also a writer, acquired the original art directly from the artist. Lloyd passed away in 2001 and Marva died in 2019. Over the years, to judge by the published cover, some of the greens and browns have faded but otherwise the artwork remains vibrant and compelling. It was sold yesterday, at Bonhams, at a hammer price of $8,500, or more than the cost of a beach house in 1949.
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| Edna Eicke Bonhams sale of May 20, 2021, accessed May 2, 2021 |
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| https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1949-04-02/flipbook/CV1/ |
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The autograph market is rife with postal covers bearing patently unrelated signatures. The thinking is that if one takes something collectible such as, say, a first day cover, and has some celebrity sign it, a unique rarity has been created. If the signature bears no relation to the cover, though, there's not much point to it. On the other hand, if an astronaut should perhaps sign a cover with a space stamp, the signature and the stamp might have a perceived synergy that could very well make it a sought-after item.
The same might be said for an item sold yesterday by Chaucer Covers and Auctions, a first day cover with four Edward Lear (1812-1888) stamps issued in the UK on the centenary of his death and signed by Ronald Searle (1920-2011). Lear, of course, is known for his nonsense verse and fanciful illustrations, while Searle, who followed him a century later, was a master of humorous illustration. Clearly the combination works and the selling price, 28 GBP ($39.50 US), while not extravagant, is at least a proof of concept.
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| Edward Lear/Ronald Searle Invaluable auction accessed May 2, 2021 |
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My head was spinning this week over the CartoonStock Caption Contest #126. My three entries are shown below. The drawing is by Teresa Burns Parkhurst.
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| "I never quite feel I've arrived." "I want an office with less of a carnival atmosphere." "Yes, we ALL have rotating positions." |
May 26, 2021 Update: The Winner
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Society is much changed since Barney Tobey (1906-1989) published his cartoon featuring a well-dressed, well-to-do couple in The New Yorker issue of March 26, 1960. While there are no hard and fast rules, today's New Yorker cartoons about twosomes have changed as well, tending to depict them as younger, more middle class, and of course more diverse. What hasn't changed is that the best of these cartoons often bring out something that is true—and funny—about human foibles.
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| Barney Tobey's signature |
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| Barney Tobey Capsule Gallery Auction May 13, 2021 https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/barney-tobey-untitled-new-yorker-illustration-nam-7-c-4b74651b64# |
 Cartoons by Barney Tobey and Ed Fisher |
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I wore my best loincloth while working through The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #755 from the issue of May 17, 2021. I'm not sure it helped. The drawing is by Amy Hwang.
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| "Before I have my coffee I'm an absolute Neanderthal." |
These captions were a little too primitive:
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| "Maybe you could bring me up to date." "Well, look who's been busy inventing!" "Mind if I pull up a rock and join you?" "There's no F. The sign distinctly says CAVE." "What's wrong with living in the past?" |
May 25, 2021 Update: The Finalists
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