Animation art designed by New Yorker cartoonist Edward Koren for an unknown production was sold on eBay in September. The lot consists of four backgrounds, three with cel set-ups. The backgrounds, according to the eBay seller, are original ink drawings by Koren and not, say, reproductions. Three include cel overlays with foreground characters used, apparently, in production. The setting is an ornate bar. Offered for sale at $550, the four sheets sold for an undisclosed Best Offer.
Scene 5 Scene 1 Scene [?]; Scene 2, Background 2
Unnumbered Scene
Unnumbered scene background with overlay lowered
Edward Koren's signature
Scene 5
Scene 5 background with cel overlay lowered
Scene 1
Scene 1 cel close-up over background
Scene 1 background with cel overlay lowered
Scene 2, Background 2
Edward Koren eBay listing ended September 25, 2022
Note: If anybody recognizes this animated production using art by Edward Koren, I would like to hear about it. Also, is this a specific bar? Its details seem very plausible.
Among the treasures auctioned last month at Swann Galleries' sale of Illustration Art was a cel from "Yellow Submarine" (1968) featuring the Chief Blue Meanie. Note how well the intense color has been preserved.
I don't know precisely where this image appears in the film, but I do know my favorite quotation, written by Erich Segal and spoken not by a Blue Meanie but by Jeremy. "Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo: so little time, so much to know!" That sums it all up.
A production cel from the animated short "Squatter's Rights" (1946) signed by Walt Disney depicts a wintry scene that did not actually appear on screen, at least not in this manner. The characters Mickey Mouse and Chip did not appear together in the actual shot. The non-production background is meant to show off the two character cels to best advantage, but it has nothing to do with the action of the movie.
Signed production cel from "Squatter's Rights" (1946) on a non-production background
Walt Disney Productions
Walt Disney AbeBooks Listing Accessed January 17, 2020
Note: I am unable to locate the movie still that corresponds to the cel of Chip—or is it Dale?—in this animated short. Does it indeed come from "Squatter's Rights" or is it possibly from some other production?
The production cel is still available for sale at the time of this posting.
An animation cel featuring two Blue Meanies from "Yellow Submarine" (1968) was sold at Swann Galleries this week. It sold for more than the high estimate. When will the Blue Meanies realize that all you need is love?
An animation cel with two Blue Meanies from "Yellow Submarine" (1968)
An animation cel with two Blue Meanies from "Yellow Submarine" (1968)
Hammer Price: $950
An animation cel with two Blue Meanies from "Yellow Submarine" (1968)
Note: There is a lot more animation art on this blog, but none from Pepperland.
Try this on for size! Cinderella sure is lucky none of her evil stepsisters had tiny feet! This celluloid with original painted background was used in the creation of a lobby card promoting Walt Disney's "Cinderella" (1950). I'm not sure why you would reveal the ending to a movie in this way, but perhaps the audience was already familiar with the tale and needed to be reassured that Walt could provide a happy ending for poor Cinderelly. Now I had always believed that the famous glass slipper (pantoufle de verre in French) resulted from a mistranslation of fur slipper (pantoufle de vair) when Charles Perrault's version of the fairy tale was published in English. I have now been set straight bysnopes.com,a remarkably knowledgeable website which over the years has debunked every cherished urban legend I've ever sworn by. The glass slipper is indeed Perrault's own invention.
Walt Disney Studios, Cel and painted background of Cinderella and the Grand Duke, lobby card promotion for"Cinderella" (1950) Sotheby's Paris July 4, 2012
It's summertime and the season for band concerts. As a special treat, today's outdoor concert will be conducted by Mickey Mouse. We ask that all cell phones be turned off and that no one interrupt by playing extraneous tunes.
Speaking of extraneous toons, there is no Donald Duck cel here. Rather, Donald is painted directly on the custom-prepared background. This is an unusual enhancement, to say the least.
1935, the gouache on celluloid depicts Mickey Mouse as the conductor who gets very irate when Donald Duck continually interrupts the William Tell concert by playing "Turkey in the Straw" with his fife. Each time Mickey Mouse takes Donald’s fife, he takes another fife from his sleeve, the full celluloid is applied to a hand-prepared background of Donald Duck and the band’s platform, there is a 1/2 inch slit in cel just above Mickey's head, matted and framed. 8 1/2 x 10 1/2in
The Band Concert was Mickey Mouse’s first color short film. This scene is illustrated in “The Fifty Greatest Cartoons” on page 42.
Sold for US$ 2,350 inc. premium
A Walt Disney Studioscelluloid from “The Band Concert” (1935) on hand-prepared background
January 6, 2014 Update: The celluloid of Mickey from Bonhams is suspiciously close to the left side of a limited edition cel issued in 1978 for his 50th anniversary. In its favor, the Bonhams Mickey has a longer frown line and a crease under the eye which match the movie still, not the limited edition portfolio cel. The Bonhams cel also gives Mickey flesh tones which were not present in this animated short and do not appear in the limited edition either.
Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck from "The Band Concert" (1935) Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse 50th Anniversary Commemorative Cel Portfolio, no. 100/275, 1978
Note: My last Disney post appeared here.My previous post on "The Band Concert" can be found here.
I am always partial to images of Mickey Mouse at the piano, and judging from the price realized in this 1999 sale, I'm not the only one who feels this way. This classic character cel is from "Delivery Boy" (1931), but the background is recent:
WALT DISNEY STUDIOS
DELIVERY BOY, 1931
Mickey, plays the piano, a rare black and white full celluloid applied to Toby Bluth contemporary background. This black and white cel of Mickey is extremely rare due to the size and excellent condition of the cel.
Image: 6 in.
Sight: 9 x 11 in.
DELIVERY BOY, 1931:
Literature
Animation Art, The Early Years, 1911-1953, Jeff Lotman, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. 1995, page 13.
Animation Art, The Later Years, 1954-1993, Jeff Lotman, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd, page 11.
MICKEY, Pierre Lambert, Hyperion, to be published November 1998
I've previously shown a quintessential flag paintingby Jasper Johns from the collection of the late author Michael Crichton. Crichton also owned some animation art of superlative quality. Here is a great cel from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" sequence of Walt Disney's "Fantasia (1940) mounted on a Courvoisier Gallery background. Crichton could collect both high-concept Pop Art and outstanding Disney animation art—my kind of guy.
Walt Disney Studios Fantasia, 1940 Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice greeting a broom carrying two buckets of water, gouache on celluloid applied to a watercolour production background, framed, accompanied by an originalWalt Disney Productions certificate Image: Mickey: 5½x5¾in. (14x14.5cm.) Broom: 5x2in. (13x5cm.)
Overall: 18½x16½in. (47x42cm.)
Special Notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.
Saleroom Notice
Please note this cel is applied to a Courvoisier airbrush background and not a production background as stated in the catalogue
