Selections from Animation & Comic Art

This month one of the sales Rare Book Hub is covering deals in a more contemporary and focused light. The name of the sale is Animation & Comic Art, and the auction house is Auctionata, an online auction-only company established in Berlin in 2012. In their relatively short tenure as a player in the auction scene, they have had striking success in the world of art, highlighted by their auction of a then newly discovered watercolor by Egon Schiele that sold for $2.4M and set the record for the highest grossing lot of fine art sold at online auction. They have proven themselves capable and worthy of handling extraordinary material, and this month, on October 14, they bring to public sale eighty-nine lots of varying significance, all with a place in the right collector’s possession. This is Auctionata’s first sale of animation and comic art, and they have begun by acquiring excellent material for consignment.

Featuring material from the 1930s to the present, no conversation on the topic of animation and comic art can be had without Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, being brought up. Five of his pen and ink drawings, three of which are in color, are on offer in the sale, with starting prices running between $3,000 and $7,500 (lots 16 through 20). Also for sale is a seven-foot tall bronze Cat in the Hat monument with a starting price of $50,000 (lot 21).

Another titan in modern comic art is Charles Schulz, and some of his works included in Animation & Comic Art are among the most important and famous of the entire sale. Lot 50 is an original Peanuts Daily Strip from 1966 featuring a story board of Charlie Brown being diagnosed with a baseball induced stomach ache by Lucy at her psychiatrist’s booth. This item has a starting bid of $10,000. Lot 52 is another Peanuts strip, but it commands a premium because of the star featured—none other than Snoopy. With the bidding starting at $16,000, Snoopy doesn’t come cheaply, but this piece is a classic worthy of its appraisal.

More big names appear in the sale too. Maurice Sendak has several items in the sale, including drawings of Where the Wild Things Are. Chuck Jones, of Looney Tunes fame, is also represented in five items. The list goes on: Walt Disney Studios, Matt Groening, and Tim Burton are all here. For a sale of not enormous scale, some enormous names certainly make it worthwhile.

Animation & Comic Art will be conducted at Auctionata’s New York office, and the sale, like all of Auctionata’s, is online only. However, the auction is broadcast live on the web and therefore a form of live bidding is available. Telephone and absentee bidding are also available. Should you be interested in any of the material, please visit Auctionata’s site and the auction page here. The catalog may be browsed from that link, but a downloadable PDF is also up for download here.