(June 29) -- Eight cartoons drawn by Jacqueline Kennedy during her husband's 1961 bid for president were auctioned off in early June -- pulling in less than expected.
The simple ink-on-card stock drawings depict then-presidential nominee John F. Kennedy in various campaign situations: being interviewed while still wrapped in a towel, fresh from a shower; missing out on a banquet dinner while shaking hands with guests; coddling a baby for the cameras while racing to catch a plane.
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According to a June 2 post on Monkdogz artblog, the drawings were completed while Jackie Kennedy waited to be interviewed for the July 4, 1961 issue of Look magazine. After the interview, she gave the cartoons as a gift to the president of Look magazine. They remained in his family until June 2, when they were sold at the Wright auction house in Chicago.
The "naive illustrations", as Daily Beast blogger Paul Laster called them, were expected to sell for between $3,000 and $5,000. Surprisingly, only one cartoon sold in that range: A drawing of John F. Kennedy resting in then-Connecticut Governor Abraham Ribicoff's bed went for $3,125.
The low bids are particularly surprising considering auction interest in Camelot memorabilia in the past. In 2005, a photograph by an anonymous photographer of President Kennedy and his son, John F. Kennedy, Jr., sold for $12,000, according to Sotheby's auction house. Paintings by established artists that hung in the Kennedy family homes have sold for upwards of $30,000.
Laster speculated that the drawings drew low bids compared to other Kennedy items because there is not an established market price for Jackie Kennedy's artwork. He also ventured that the presence of a "new Camelot couple in the White House" might have lessened the Kennedy appeal.
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