Jan 28, 2021 - Sale 2556
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Sale 2556 - Lot 258

Price Realized: $ 219
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
CLARE A. BRIGGS (1875-1930)
"The nine-and-a-half tee." Cartoon published with added color in Golf: The Book of a Thousand Chuckles, the Famous Golf Cartoons by Briggs (Chicago: P. F. Volland & Co., copyright 1916). Pen and ink on thick paper mounted to board. 392x360 mm; 11 1/2x14 1/4 inches, mounted to 14 1/2x17-inch board. Signed "Briggs" in lower left image and titled below, on board. Taped to mount with matte and nicely framed.

Provenance: The Illustrated Gallery, November 2012; thence to Dick McDonough.

Briggs' 1916 book of golf cartoons generally focuses on the humorous blunders and embarrassments of the 'duffer,' but also gives a fascinating glimpse into daily life on the course in the early days of the nascent sport. Though he dedicated the book 'to the Scoffers, the Duffers, and the Golfer,' he speaks of his fondness for the 'duffer' in his introduction: 'I prefer the thoughts of a duffer, because I believe in my cartoons of him I can reach the majority who make up the golf world. I do not have to exaggerate, I do not have to imagine. One need only to observe and draw only the real happenings, repeat the actual sayings, and depict true expressions.'

Though he claimed to be a 'duffer,' Briggs was an avid golfer and often played at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, the first public course in the United States. He was also a founding member of the Wykagyl Country Club in Westchester County, New York.
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