I have already stated here that I have complete confidence in the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation's forthcoming Charles Addams Catalogue Raisonné project. One very plain reason for this is the outstanding job done by H. Kevin Miserocchi, the Foundation's Executive Director, in cataloguing this drawing by
Charles Addams sold at Skinner earlier this year.
The publication history is evidently complete although it is also somewhat unusual. One might reasonably expect a drawing bearing a
New Yorker Editorial Department stamp and other notations to be published in that magazine, but this cartoon was first published in
McClure's and never appeared in
The New Yorker. It would not have occurred to me that the boy in this drawing is not the Addams Family's familiar Pugsley but rather some earlier prototype. Finally, I could not have come up with a better descriptive catalogue title for this drawing than Sidewalk Hearse. I know because I tried.
On February 1, this wordless drawing was sold at Skinner with a presale estimate of $3,000 to $5,000. Internet bidding started at $1,500 and hit the $4,000 mark before the live auction began. There the bids rose in $500 increments to $7,000, the selling price. The drawing had been a gift from the artist to Lou and Deems Taylor. Deems Taylor was a well-known music critic.
The listing:
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| Charles Addams'sSignature |
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Charles Addams, Sidewalk Hearse, Inscribed "For Lou & Deems Taylor from Chas Addams"
[End of Auction Listing] |
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Deems Taylor in Walt Disney's "Fantasia" (1940)
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Note: My newly-conceived Blogger label
NYerKilled, seen below, is used on this blog only for works purchased by
The New Yorker, apparently prepared for publication, and then not run in the magazine. This marks the third instance that I've used it in more than 750 blog posts. It's always interesting to speculate what prompted
The New Yorker's editors to make an about-face, but today I'm going to have to leave that to you.
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