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Originally published in Historic Nantucket, vol. 53, no. 4 (Fall 2004)

"Letter of Apology to Bert from This Wretch"
Tony Sarg Writes from London
By George Korn

In doing research for a forthcoming Tony Sarg exhibition, I uncovered in the Sarg Collection of the NHA Research Library a charming letter written in 1906 from Sarg to his future wife, Bertha McGowan. In it he apologizes for being out of touch and updates his friend "Bert" on his life in London. [Mary Sarg Murphy, in an interview with the Inquirer and Mirror, said her mother hated her name. -Ed.] The following background information will help make this letter more interesting.

Tony Sarg was born to an artistic family on a sugar plantation in Guatemala in 1880. He was one of four children. His father, a German consul, elected to send him to school in Germany, and at the age of fourteen Sarg entered the German military academy at Darmstadt. Despite his education and military training, he dreamed of becoming an artist.

It was in Germany, before he resigned from the military and went to England in 1905, that Sarg met McGowan, an American tourist from Cincinnati, Ohio. However, as the letter reveals, he remained a reserve officer in the Germany military and had to serve periodic tours of duty. This letter dated 1906 (and surely others) worked to win her favor, because Sarg and McGowan were married on January 20, 1909, in Cincinnati. Shortly thereafter, the Sargs moved to England where their daughter, Mary, was born.

With the advent of World War I, Tony moved his family to New York, where he did illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post and other magazines, which bolstered his reputation in the New York art community. He had a studio in Times Square and his career soon soared. He first came to Nantucket in 1920 with some of his New York friends and in 1921 he bought a house at 1 North Liberty Street.

Shortly after his move to Nantucket. he opened the Tony Sarg Shop at 38 Centre Street, which featured relocated to Easy Street near Steamboat Wharf; he also had one on Federal Street called The Green Umbrella.

As well as being a well-known illustrator, he revived the marionette theater in America and wrote wonderful children's books. Sarg specialized in devising animal characters to educate and entertain young readers. Some of his storybooks were created with moveable parts; others explored history with a comic twist, offering illustrations for making toys or how to save money.

Sarg's creative output was limitless: he explored animation in movies before Disney did; he designed jigsaw puzzles, musical blocks, and contemporarily styled pantry-storage boxes. In 1935, Sarg designed the animated window displays for the R. H. Macy department store. He created new designs for Macy's holiday windows annually and conceived the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, including the balloons that we know today.

He died in New York, following surgery for a ruptured appendix, in 1942.

Letter of Apology to Bert from This Wretch

Envelope addressed to Miss Bert McGowan, Pleasant Ridge, Ohio, and postmarked London, December 28, 1906.
9 Hart Street, Bloomsbury, London WC Dec. ? 06

My dear good Bert,

I have often been in a tight fix, and what one might name an all-round muddle, but never have I felt so uncomfortable and so small as I feel this very minute. I wrote a long letter to you some few weeks ago but when I read it over I was perfectly ashamed of myself for it contained a long story of little troubles which I have been wading through but now have fortunately done with. I feel quite my old self again, except that I can never forgive myself for having treated you so meanly with letters. My long silence I will soon explain, but I want to say beforehand that not for a moment have I ever forgotten you, for that is quite impossible. I always felt mean for not writing during this long period and yet I somehow could not manage to do so, and my other friends, the Elliots, Miss Gilson and some others have all been treated in the same neglectful way. Your last kind letter was a real treat and I so appreciated getting it, and as you are such a dear and true old friend to me, I trust that you will once more forgive me.

One of the chief causes of my long silence was the consequence of being very upset about a very foolish step my youngest sister Lotty took. She chose to elope from her lovely dear home in [illegible] to marry an absolutely good-for-nothing young musician who is but a boy with no means whatever and not at all the sort I would ever be able to recognize as a brother-in-law. She is living in Holland now and at the time I had to do a lot of travelling and have many awkward interviews which however did not do much good. My father is so upset that he has declared never to want to set eyes on Lotty again and declares her lost to us for ever. However I and my sisters and mother think differently and are helping her with means as she lives in absolute poverty and feels sorry for the offence she has given us. You will understand that this rather upset me as I was very devoted to my sister. Of course this is quite a confidential communication and we tell our friends only that she married against my parents' will.

The next trouble I got into was a very silly one. I backed up a young chap who is an artist and was very hard up for some money he had borrowed, as I considered him quite square. However he proved quite a failure and I had to pay up almost all my savings with little or no security of ever getting them back. I was so ashamed at my foolishness that I never told anybody not even my sister Florry for she would have at once insisted on taking some money from her, but I got through all right and am only still paying for my folly by not being able to afford to go home for Xmas this winter. A further constant worry is my sister Florry's health she is not the least little bit better than a year ago and cannot even walk more than 10 minutes without feeling quite exhausted. However, she always is very cheerful and happy. Fortunately I have been more than extremely busy these last 2 months. I have illustrated a little fairy tale (24 coloured drawings) which will be the best set of drawings I have yet done, besides a few drawings for periodicals and magazine covers. So when the New Year comes in I will get quite a little sum coming in.

I don't want you to listen to anymore of my now forgotten troubles only thought you had better be told exactly so that you could understand that I could not get into a writing mood. I feel quite my old self again and if you could meet me anywhere unexpectedly you would find a never fading smile on face.

I have so much to write about that I am sure I will forget to tell you just those things which might interest you most. At the present moment the most interesting officer and as such am requested to do some soldiering occasionally. The usual term is 2 months every 2 years. However with me they make an exception and are willing to pay my travelling expenses if I come for a fortnight. The date is not yet fixed but think it may be sometime in spring. I am looking forward to it so much, oh, if you only could be at Wiesbaden or Frankfurt for the time being how I would enjoy myself. Of course I shall see Walther and you bet we will both long for you and Ida. I am rather nervous when I think of my uniforms for it is possible I have grown too fat since I had them on last, which is now 2 years ago.

If they don't fit the other chaps will have to help me out. My parents are of course delighted at the prospect of my coming.

The other evening I went to a smoking concert at the London Sketch lub. This club has amongst its members those celebrated artists who are probably as well known to you as they are to me. John Hassall, Cecil Aldin, Tom Brown (the late Phil May) and many others. I met the whole lot there and awfully nice chaps they are.... I hope I shall be a member of that club one day. I am at present quite excited about a prospect of joining a Russian paper as a regular contributor. It is a German paper really which is to be published in Russia for the Germans and is going to appear weekly. The final drawing I did for them was an early Victorian subject illustrating one of Heine's poems. Of course this paper is more on the lines of the "Studio" and the drawings have to be of a serious nature.

I must tell you how this all came about. On my holidays I sketched a few small sketches into an English ladies [sic] album. This English lady lives in Russia where an important person (at least to me) the art editor of this paper saw my little sketches and then wrote to me asking me to do a drawing for his paper. As he liked one of the sketches particularly, I made something on the same lines.

The editor is very pleased with the drawings and is now making terms and arrangements with me to contribute regularly, that is to say about once a month....

What kind of a Xmas did you spend Bert? My Xmas was very nice but quiet. No guilty kissing under misseltoe [sic]. I would simply give anything if I had you here in London. Bert, I don't think I would let a day ever pass without coming round to have a chat with you.

I have some hope that possibly my fortnight in Germany might fall in with the Carnevals time. By jove! Wouldn't I enjoy that. I shall buy tons of confetti and send you some in a letter just to remind you of the Andreas Markt which we all spent together.

I have just received another book to illustrate. This new book suits me better than any I have yet done. It is a children's book and is to be illustrated in colour. The costumes and period is early Victorian, the very period I enjoy more than any other, and the whole story more or less fairy tale. It is called "The True Tale of Little Tommy."

If I can get to Frankfurt during Jan. or February I shall try and stir up the whole of Wiesbaden.... I shall tell you how I find all my old officer friends and in fact how much I will enjoy the short return to a jolly life. Of course a fortnight is just as much as I will thoroughly enjoy for after that I will be pining to get back to my work. Of course I will do my best to fill the officers' messrooms with carricatures of officers. Poor Walther has been frequently carricatured, but he does not mind....

How do you feel about coming to Germany this coming summer? My people are going to a charming seaside place in Belgium (Heyst) and if I knew you and Ida were going, too, I would make it a certainty to meet you there. Now that is a fine proposal, can you make a better one? Uncle Sam will surely feel like a trip abroad, don't you think so? Tell him of all the charms of Wiesbaden and he will come....

I had some very delightful parcels from home this Xmas and such a supply of eatables that I can keep myself going for some weeks.

Old Martha, who does my rooms, is a dear old soul and looks after my rooms and belongings much better than ever any of my [illegible] did. This dear old Martha presented me with a pine appel on Xmas morning, bought out of her own little pocket money.

I gave her several Xmas presents of course and this evening sent her with a friend to the big "Drury Lane Pantomime" which is just the kind of performance this class enjoys most. Have you ever had a chance to see "Peter Pan" in America, I hear they are performing it there. Do see it if you can. It is the most delightful and clever play I have ever seen....

Fred Taylor is cheerful and well and just as busy as I am, although he cannot work as much as I can. At least if he does he feels a wreck the following day. It is sometimes strange in our profession for it frequently occurs that we must work at nighttime, sometimes all night. I never feel any the worse after a long spell of work the next day and think it is due to the few years of healthy life which I led in the army. Most of my artist friends are all thin and pale and none of them do anything to keep themselves physically in good condition. I belong to an Italian fencing club which I thoroughly enjoy and which does me a lot of good physically....

The most wonderful artist I know of here in England is a chap called "Arthur Rackham." He is simply wonderful. I have met him frequently and find him a most refined interesting man. He is a thorough gentleman also in his drawings. The only people I do not like amongst the artist folk in England are the woman artists. They generally dress in a fantastic way and smoke cigarettes and live in a very free unwomanly manner. The really clever woman artists are like all other women and I always think that if an artist, whether painter, musician or poet or something similar has to tell the world by his appearance that he is an artist, his work cannot be any good or he could do without this advertisement, for that it is, isn't it so?

I meet quite a number of artists in the musical world by knowing some very well to do music lovers and I am sometimes glad I am quite out of that musical atmosphere as it seems to me that the success of musicians depends more on their social than their artistic abilities. In my work, society fortunately has not got much influence on a man's career, but I do not want to loose [sic] track of it altogether as many of my artist fellowmen do.

It is getting so late that I think I will finish this letter although I could go on writing for hours. But another delay with this letter will still increase your anger towards me and I am anxious to be forgiven. I will post this without delay.

Give my love to Ida and your dear parents and receive yourself dear Bert my fondest love and write soon to your,

Your true and most devoted
"Lazy Tony"