Arthur Burdett (A.B.) Frost (1851-1928) was one of the greatest ink-slingers to ever pick up a pen. Burdett is widely known for his magazine and book illustrations, as well as his wonderful sporting paintings and drawings. But for me, it is all about the ink. Frost was one of the virtuoso ink-slingers, with a line that was always lively, even when laying down pattern and texture. His figure work was often copied, but rarely achieved. Frost just had a wonderful way of showing figure movement at its apex, capturing the height of that movement.
I’m very pleased to be able to offer a superb ink book illustration by Frost. The drawing is from 1928 and appeared in the book, "The Spicklefisherman and Others", by Frederick White. It was published by the Derrydale Press. Frost only illustrated the first story in the book, "The Spicklefisherman", and this one is the third of his four illustrations. The story originally ran in the pages of <b><i>Scribner's</b></i> magazine in 1923, but I don't believe that it was accompanied by Frost's illustrations.
The story itself is rather humorous, dealing with a European immigrant who now lives on the Lower East Side of New York City, a common settling point for Jewish immigrants. This fellow is vacationing in New York state, trying his hand at fishing for trout, which he calls "spicklefish" because of their speckles, but he runs into a couple of tried-and-true fly fisherman, who take umbrage at his fishing with worms. In this illustration, Mr. J. Smith, as the immigrant has renamed himself, tackles with one of the other two main characters in the story, breaking his fishing line to prevent him from catching the largest trout in the area. The piece is captioned, "Then, down came a dead branch across my line, and it was all off."
The ink work is about as good as it gets for Frost. I’ve added a detail shot so you can see the work close-up. If you’ve been looking for a stellar example of A.B. Frost’s work, look no further. The piece measures 14½”x 11½” and is in solid VG+ condition. You can see a hair of sunning from a previous matting and framing, but it is minor, and the art area looks great. The illustration is unsigned, as were all of Frost’s illustrations for the story. He was given credit at the very beginning of the book, so deemed signatures unnecessary. $750.00 + 15.00 first class shipping. Fee-free PayPal, Venmo, Zelle or a check only on this one.
