This six-part panorama of Athens featuring the Acropolis dates from the 1870's. It strikes me as a unique and interesting image, yet it failed to find a buyer at Swann Galleries in 2002.
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Saturday, March 24, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Mayan Seth
I could be wrong, but it seems to me the Mayan torchbearer has met his match. This original illustration by Seth (Gregory Gallant) was sold on eBay last year for $275. I suspect this is a very good price for an artist of Seth's stature.
Note: My last post about Seth can be found here.
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Thursday, March 22, 2012
Denny Dimwit
Cartoonist Martin Branner created this undated color greeting for the Johnson children featuring the popular character Denny Dimwit from his comic strip Winnie Winkle. It has water stains but still looks pretty decent. It was sold on eBay on December 21 for a paltry $57.78.
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| Martin Branner, Denny Dimwit |
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Roz Chast: The Reassurer
Taraba Illustration Art, LLC added this original artwork for The Reassurer by cartoonist Roz Chast to it's inventory on October 21. It is now sold. It was published as a full page drawing in The New Yorker in March of 2001. There can be a lot to read in many of Ms. Chast's compositions, allowing for a cumulative piling-on of hilarious gags in one cartoon. Read this one and you're guaranteed to feel relieved about something.
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Artist: Roz Chast (20th/21st cent.)
Description: Special interest magazine cover design.
Caption: “The Reassurer”
Publication information: Appeared in The New Yorker magazine of March 5th, 20[0]1
Medium: Pen and ink, wash
Size: 8.75 x 7”
Signature: Signed lower right.
Condition: Excellent, framed.
Comment: Chast follows in the long and distinguished line of the most popular cartoonists to grace the pages of The New Yorker. Her personal take on the foibles of humanity is consistently deadpan.
Price: $2,800 Sold
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| Roz Chast, The Reassurer, The New Yorker, March 5, 2001, p. 80 |
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Roz Chast, The Reassurer
Original artwork published in The New Yorker, March 5, 2001, p. 80
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Idyllic Calvin and Hobbes
This original watercolor is, I think, the best Calvin and Hobbes illustration ever to come onto the market. It is also one of the only Calvin and Hobbes illustrations ever to come onto the market. Bill Watterson just doesn't sell his art, but he does, on occasion, give it away. This beautiful piece served as the cover for the Calvin and Hobbes 1989-90 16-Month Calendar. It is idyllic and serene. Watterson presented it to comics historian or more accurately "komic connoisseur" Rick Marschall, according to the artist's inscription. The very high selling price is a result of the piece's extreme rarity and obvious desirability.
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Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes 1989-90 16-Month Calendar Cover watercolor illustration original art (c. 1988)
http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7054&lotIdNo=69001#Photo
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Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes 1989-90 16-Month Calendar cover as published
http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7054&lotIdNo=69001#Photo
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Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes 1989-90 Calendar Cover Watercolor Illustration Original Art (c. 1988). Calvin and Hobbes fans, feast your eyes on this --it's the real deal! As all comic art fans know, few pieces of original art are as scarce and sought after as a Calvin and Hobbesoriginal by the characters' creator Bill Watterson. Since Watterson is one of the few cartoonists to shun the merchandising bonanza of a popular character and is a very private person, his artwork is in incredibly high-demand. Only a very small handful of originals have ever come onto the market, so don't miss out on your chance to win this gem, only the second such piece we've offered -- an incredible, published beauty featuring the two main characters from the most popular and fondly remembered newspaper strip since Peanuts. The image area of this ink and watercolor masterwork is 13" x 10", and the art is in Excellent condition. This piece has a special provenance as it was in the collection of one of the American comic strips' most important historians and feature writers, Rick Marschall. Inscribed and signed at the lower right, "For Rick Marschall, 'komic konnoisseur' Bill Watterson."
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Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes 1989-90 Calendar cover watercolor illustration original art (c. 1988)
http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7054&lotIdNo=69001#Photo
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Monday, March 19, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Edward Lear's The Temple of Olympian Zeus
Edward Lear, known today largely for his nonsense verse and drawings, also did serious plain air painting during his travels. Here is his view of the Temple of Olympian Zeus with the Acropolis in the background.
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Edward Lear (1812-1888)
The Temple of Olympian Zeus with the Acropolis beyond, Athens
inscribed and dated 'Athens./14 June. 1848.' and numbered '30' (lower right) and further inscribed 'The Acropolis at least/1/2 a mile further off/I .../put blue smoke from the city/& more ochre on pillar bases' (lower left)
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour, heightened with touches of bodycolour 10½ x 19½ in. (26.7 x 49.5 cm.) Price Realized
£26,290
Estimate
£15,000 - £20,000
Provenance
Canon Charles M. Church.
H.M.N. Hollis and by descent until 1985.
Literature
Vivian Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, 1985, illustrated p. 49.
Susan Hyman, Edward Lear in the Levant, 1988, illustrated p. 44.
Exhibited
Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, Edward Lear, 1964, catalogue untraced.
London, Royal Academy, Edward Lear 1812-1888, 1985, no. 20b, reproduced p. 49. Sale Information
Sale 6578 Lot 113
London, King Street
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Saturday, March 17, 2012
For St. Patrick's Day
Happy St. Patrick's Day to all! This New Yorker cover by Charles E. Martin shows the sidewalk along Fifth Avenue, looking south. Central Park is behind the wall on the right. St. Patrick's Cathedral is a number of blocks ahead and on the other side of the avenue.
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| Charles E. Martin, The New Yorker, March 13, 1965 |
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Friday, March 16, 2012
Duckworth Makes a Sale
This ink and watercolor drawing by Ronald Searle shows prisoner of war Padre Noel Duckworth selling a Parker Pen to his Japanese prison guard. It is remarkable that Duckworth single-handedly could run a black market in Pudu Jail and use the proceeds to buy food for his fellow prisoners of war. Searle has done a fine job recollecting the event.
Sale B290212 Lot 247
Ronald SEARLE (1920-2011) Noel Duckworth selling a Parker pen to a Japanese guard in Pudu Jail
watercolour
signed lower right and with signatures of other former prisoners
44 x 23cm; together with
BRADDON (Russell) The Naked Island, 1960 reprint, signed and inscribed by Noel Duckworth "Don't Believe It, Its All True! His X Mark" and "I Agree With The Above", Ronald Searle 25th April 1967 Cambridge
Note: Padre Noel Duckworth coxed the Cambridge rowing eight before the war and at the Battle of Batu Pahat was captured with the wounded whom he was tending. Duckworth was described as fearlessly outspoken yet could be very kind. He created a black market with the Japanese in the gaol selling them all sorts of things. He would use the proceeds to buy food for the inmates. The author Russell Braddon talks about Duckworth in his book The Naked Island (1952). This watercolour was sketched by Ronald Searle and presented to Duckworth when he appeared on "This is your life" for the BBC.
Estimate £2,000-3,000
Sold for 4,600 GBP on February 29, 2012.
May 12, 2012 Update: This piece is currently offered for sale by London art dealer Chris Beetles in his exhibition Ronald Searle Remembered, May 22 - June 9, 2012 for 12,500 GBP. The full cost of the work purchased from Cheffins on Leap Day was 4,600 GBP plus a 23.4% buyer's premium for a total of 5,676 GBP. I'm going to arbitrarily estimate that the cost of the book at auction was 100 GBP of the hammer price (123 GBP with the buyer's premium) and the artwork the remaining 4,500 GBP (5,553 GBP with the premium, assuming a dealer would be exempted from any VAT on the buyer's premium). The dealer's markup on the artwork is then an estimated 125% above cost. By that same reckoning, the markup on the signed and inscribed book would be 184%. And that, my friend, is how you pay for gallery space in St. James's.
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| Item 15, Ronald Searle Remembered catalogue, Chris Beetles Gallery, May 22 - June 9, 2012, page 17 |
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| Item 15, Ronald Searle Remembered exhibition sale price, Chris Beetles Gallery, May 22 - June 9, 2012 |
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| Item 14, Ronald Searle Remembered catalogue, Chris Beetles Gallery, May 22 - June 9, 2012, page 16 |
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| Item 14, Ronald Searle Remembered exhibition sale price, Chris Beetles Gallery, May 22 - June 9, 2012 |
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| Ronald Searle, Canon Noel Duckworth Selling a Parker Pen to a Japanese Guard in Pudu Gaol, Chris Beetles Gallery |
May 28, 2012 Update: The original artwork of Canon Noel Duckworth Selling a Parker Pen to a Japanese Guard in Pudu Gaol which was offered for sale by Chris Beetles at 12,500 GBP is now listed by the gallery as sold. The book, priced at 350 GBP, has disappeared from the website altogether.
Note: This blog's own most recent post on Ronald Searle's artwork can be found here.
0265
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Rare First Edition
Once upon a time in the year 1997 there were only 500 copies to the first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This book now being offered on the auction block is one of those rare first editions, signed by author J. K. Rowling on a loosely inserted publisher's slip. Who could have guessed what great things the young wizard would have been able to bring about? Besides Albus Dumbledore, I mean.
By the way, we Americans apparently don't philosophize, so our first book in the series was called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It sounds less intellectual and less introspective, but it has some fine alliteration.
Note: My last Harry Potter post is a brief but favorable review of Tales of Beedle the Bard. You can read it here.
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By the way, we Americans apparently don't philosophize, so our first book in the series was called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It sounds less intellectual and less introspective, but it has some fine alliteration.
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| J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, First edition |
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ROWLING, J. K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. London: Bloomsbury, 1997. 8° (197 x 130mm). (Very few spots and some yellow stains to first leaves, ex-library copy with library label on verso of title and barcode sellotaped onto front endpaper.) Original coloured pictorial boards by Thomas Taylor (spine repaired, some creasing and rubbing to joints and corners).FIRST EDITION. EXCEPTIONALLY RARE, ONE OF ABOUT 500 COPIES ONLY. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR on a loosely-inserted publisher's slip. According to the publishers, some 300 of these copies were distributed to school libraries.
Estimate
£3,000 - £5,000
21 March 2012
London, South Kensington |
Note: My last Harry Potter post is a brief but favorable review of Tales of Beedle the Bard. You can read it here.
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