NEW YORK, NY -- Rube Goldberg - inventor, artist, adjective - was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist best known for his zany invention cartoons that accomplish a simple task in the most overly complex way. He is also the only person in the Merriam Webster Dictionary to be listed as an adjective.
As a young man he made his way from San Francisco to New York City, where he became a syndicated cartoonist, met and married Irma Seeman (heiress to the White Rose Food fortune), and raised two children. During his lifetime, his work was the subject of an exhibition at the Smithsonian and appeared on many magazine covers. He would live the rest of his life in NYC, the city he called the Front Row, entertaining many famous friends including the Gershwin "boys", Charlie Chaplin, and the Marx Brothers. Today the term "Rube Goldberg" is invoked daily across all media and is a searchable hash-tag for millions of YouTube and Google entries.
Fine Jewelry / September 23, 2020
Property from the Estates of Irma and Rube Goldberg comprises lots 28-32 in the September 23 sale. View Lots
Important Jewelry / October 1, 2020
Property from the Estates of Irma and Rube Goldberg comprises lots 109 and 123 in the October 1 sale. View Lots
Image: Irma and Rube Goldberg on their 15th wedding anniversary, with George Gershwin, Groucho Marx and other notable New Yorkers. October 17, 1931. (Irma is wearing a bracelet, lot 123 from the October 1, 2020 auction)
