52
●
DEPRESSION-ERA CARTOONS and AUTOGRAPHS.
Group of 5 original pen and ink drawings and one printed note card, all Signed.Various
sizes. Circa 1930s.
[800/1,200]
Small archive of drawings by prominent cartoonists of the time, including Harold Knerr (Katzenjammer
Kids), Clifford McBride (Napolean drawing and Typed Letter Signed), J. Carver Pusey (Benny), C.D.
Small (Salesman Sam), Frank Owen (Philbert), and Frank King (Gasoline Alley Chicago Tribune
note card). Also with two mounted and framed clipped autograph groups including Winsor McCay,
Johnny Gruelle, Milt Gross, John Hix, Gus Edson,“Popeye” and C.D. Small.
53
●
EDWARD J. DETMOLD.
The Truth.
A suite of 19 drawings with typed text on verso
of 4. Comprising 11 watercolor and 8 wash
designs, 5 incorporating text or captions, 7
titled or captioned below (1 above) in pencil,
some of the sheets mounted on paper. Each
approximately 323x191 mm; 12
1
/
2
x7 inches.
Occasional scattered foxing and soiling. Circa
1933.
[5,000/7,500]
AN UNRECORDED
,
UNIQUE SUITE OF DRAWINGS
FOR A NEVER COMPLETED ILLUSTRATED BOOK
PROJECT
.
The work is alternatively titled The Truth
(indicated in manuscript on the accompanying card
portfolio), Indictment of the Nations, and The
Sword and Gold.
Included are single sheets of Detmold’s typescript
pasted to the back of four drawings that articulate his
concerns regarding the complicity of the State,
Corporatism and Religion in fomenting “The disrup-
tion which men are now experiencing, and will
continue to experience increasingly until this
civilisation lies in ruins, is the aftermath of the
inestimable force with which it has been enforced upon
the world.”
With the horrors of the “Great War” still fresh in
mind as well as the advent of Fascism, Detmold’s
analysis would prove all too prescient in the coming years.The works include images of war, triumphal
statehood and religious authorities but also a few less-charged portrait and nature studies more typical
of his usual style. For Detmold,“The Truth” is, as he puts it,“to realise that it is the teaching of peace
and love; and therefore that violence and war are opposed to it.” Provenance: from the Estate of Mrs.
Joy, sister of E.J. Detmold. Sold at Christies King Street, London. Lot 81, March 6th, 1979.
52
