It’s always surprising when an ancient New Yorker promotional book shows up online that I’ve never seen before. Such was the case when the below recently turned up on Ebay. Until last week I’d never heard of The Costume That Was A Sensation At Auteuil…But Was Never Seen On Fifth Avenue.
An online search produced this Worldcat.org entry:
And that’s about it. No mention of the book anywhere else online.
A surprise when the book arrived: the cover looks as if it was covered in pressed aluminum foil, much like Cream’s Wheels Of Fire lp. The reflective quality is almost completely gone now, but for a book almost a hundred years old it still has its moments.
Looking up Ashley Havinden, I was immediately reminded of his book, Line Drawing For Reproduction, which luckily is in the Spill library (bought back in the Peter Arno research days. The book contains a short essay on Arno). Ever hopeful, I looked through the book hoping for a mention of The Costume That Was a Sensation, as we don’t have an exact pub date…but alas.
But what we do have is the name of the artist who provided drawings throughout the book, and on its cover. The distinctive “M” found on page three and eleven (shown directly below) could only belong to the New Yorker artist Julian de Miskey (see his A-Z entry below).
Among the drawings in the book is this lovely sketch of the statue just out front of The Plaza hotel. The Spill wrote about this statue some years back — it has a connection to both E.B. White and the New Yorker artist, E.F. Hubbard.
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From The A-Z:Julian de Miskey Born 1898, died 1976. New Yorker work: 1925 – 1962. The New Yorker’s database indicates he contributed 82 cartoons and 62 covers. His first published New Yorker piece was a cover for the issue of May 23, 1925. The following information from de Miskey’s bio on the Papillion Gallery site: born in Hungry, came to the United States in 1914. After attending the NYC’s Art Students League, he began contributing to various publications, eventually contributing to the New Yorker in its first year of publication.
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Video Of Interest…With Maddie Dai
From newyorker.com, June 1, 2021, “The Comedian Karen Chee Tries To Keep Up With A New Yorker Cartoonist”
The cartoonist is Maddie Dai, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 2017.
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Daily Cartoonists
Yesterday’s: Brooke Bourgeois (1st New Yorker cartoon: 2019)
Today’s: J.A.K.. (1st New Yorker cartoon: 2014)
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Yesterday’s Daily Shouts Cartoonist
From Will McPhail (1st New Yorker cartoon: 2014) : “A Small Sampling Of Cafes”