Dear Dr. Seuss Dealers and Collectors,
Incidental Music for a New Year’s Eve Party was published as a black and white center- spread in Judge Magazine on January 2, 1932 and again in color for the Danish magazine, Illustreret Familie-Journal circa 1932. This melodious artwork embodies all the best of Dr. Seuss’s musically exaggerated imagination and is an early hallmark which set the stage for an elaborate history of made-up vehicles, machines and instruments.
Look closely and you’ll see a quartet of xylophone players, whose wooden bars are replaced by a crescendo of pots; quadruplets sharing a lone clarinet; a concertina requiring both “buttons and bellows” pushers; percussionists keeping the orchestra’s beat with feathers; a fish masquerading as a saxophone, or vice versa; a brass section with no horn bearing any resemblance to another, except for a recurring “tip of the hat” to bagpipes; as well as harpists and double bass players all in wide-eyed bemusement at the number of their respective strings. Our sideways conductor happily soldiers on, eyes shut.
Thirty-four years later, the beloved 1966 adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas came onto our televisions and into our lives to stay. Its visual images are absolutely reminiscent of the virtuoso instrumental creativity in Incidental Music, with the exception that Ted’s creations now bear equally inspired names, e.g., Jing Tinglers, Flu Floopers, Tar Tinkers, Who Hoovers, Gar Ginkers, Trum Tupers, Slu Slumkers, Blum Bloopers, Who Wompers, Zu Zitter Carzay and Who Carnio Flunx.
Incidental Music for a New Year’s Eye Party, Ted Geisel’s symphonic masterpiece, is offered as a hand-pulled serigraph on canvas, in an edition of 850. We look forward to speaking with you about this exceptional collecting opportunity.
Best regards,
Bill Dreyer
Curator, Art of Dr. Seuss Collection

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