Every now and then, we get involved with what we around here have taken to calling "Whatzit Day." Since Krause Publications in Iola, Wis., has a decades-long focus on collectibles, some of us occasionally sit at tables to which people with Weird Stuff can bring said Weird Stuff. And we try to identify it and (when we can) try to come up with some sort of valuation for it. It's not
Antiques Roadshow. But we do our best. However, this year, we were challenged by something we
thought we'd be able to identify right away. And we failed miserably. So here's a challenge - and my guess is that it will remain a challenge for months to come. What you see here is a portion of a cartoon pretty obviously done as a gift to the pictured gentleman. There are all sorts of inside jokes and identifying hints: A note reading, "Dear Harry Who [old?] is my son Geo. A. [?] Peck." Socks labeled "white socks." A drawing of him diving off a board and wearing a swimsuit label "IAC." [The Illinois Athletic Club was active in the teens of the 1900s and actually dominated competitive U.S. swimming then.] He's a Shriner. He's shown driving a new car "cheaper than having the old one fixed up" - of a model looking like vehicles from around 1915.
The signature seems to read "R Guerrieri" - and we can't find anything about him, though the drawing is excellent. And that's pretty much all we could tell.
Could he be U.S. Attorney George R. Peck from Chicago? We haven't been able to find a photo of him. And, when I say, "we," I include here "Mrs. D," who is the person who brought the art to us in the first place. It's large, it's framed, and among the details of the framing are a number of actual dollar bills, fanned in to cover the corner mountings. She is refurbishing a Victorian house, furnishing it appropriately, and she encountered the art in the course of her project. You'll find another shot of the art in her
blog entry for Oct. 15, 2010 - with more background on its origin (though our car experts, as I've already noted, place the probable date as closer to 1915 than 1925).
Are there any detectives out there? Who's the artist? Who's the subject? What was the reason for the drawing? Any ideas?
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