RUBE GOLDBERG 1922 DAILY STRIP ORIGINAL ART FEATURING EARLY RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE.
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Winning Bid:
$15,251.50
(Includes 18% Buyer's Premium)
Bidding Ended:
Thursday, February 25, 2021 9:00:00 PM (20 Minute Clock Begins At Thursday, February 25, 2021 9:00:00 PM)
Item Description
While many are familiar w/Rube Goldberg Machines, many are unaware of the man who created them and were in fact, named after - cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1883-1970). Goldberg's complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways have immortalized the artist. The character most closely associated w/Rube Goldberg Machines is Goldberg's Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, A.K., who was credited as the inventor of these outlandish devices. Professor Butts first appeared in a prose piece published Nov. 3, 1928 in Collier's story It's The Little Things That Matter. But the Rube Goldberg Machine pre-dates the good Professor, as seen in Goldberg's pen and ink original art for a Feb. 20, 1922 daily strip offered here. Approx. 6.5x20.25" artboard features three panels, first featuring text explaining the 16 step Rube Goldberg Machine that presents an "Easy Way To Open Garage Door Without Leaving Car" as noted in Goldberg's handwritten script below art. Steps include hooked driver's hat catching loop, dumping nitric acid to cause explosion, which dislodges rock on windowsill, opening mousetrap, releasing mouse, which is chased by cat, whose tail pulls open garage door. Of note, text mentions "Door Can't Go Past End Of Track Because Mouse And Cat Dash Their Brains Against Protruding End of Roof. Get New Cat And Mouse For Next Trip." Goldberg has signed at bottom right corner of panel. Third panel features Foolish Questions "No. 60,240" companion gag panel, showing man dumping water in car's radiator, only to be asked obvious question by observer, to which he sassily replies in part "I'm Giving It A Bronx Cocktail." Artboard has inked dated crossed out at bottom right w/corrected date written above it. Pin holes at corners w/uneven left margin as cut and trimmed top margin. Lower left has some noticeable edge wear and artboard has scattered moisture staining, most prominent at right, covering three-quarters of Foolish Questions panel and top right corner of second panel. Second panel has a few scattered spots of staining and bottom margin also has some staining. VG/Fine overall. Pre-1950 examples of original art featuring Rube Goldberg Machines rarely come to market, let alone a piece that pre-dates the gag's "official" introduction in The Inventions of Professor Lucifer G. Butts, A.K. (see following items).
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