Fresh-to-Market Pin-ups Highlight Illustration Art at Heritage Auctions

DALLAS - A bevy of fresh-to-market pin-up discoveries - including the 1961 classic Charming (Charming Trick), a Brown & Bigelow calendar illustration by the legendary Gil Elvgren (est. $50,000-$70,000) highlights Heritage Auctions’ Illustration Art Auction April 26. The nearly 450-lot auction in Dallas offers a stunning collection of newly-discovered artworks from the Golden Period of American Illustration art.

“This is the auction collectors need to watch for debut pieces by important illustrators,” said Todd Hignite, Vice President of Heritage Auctions. “It’s increasingly rare that never-before-seen artworks by established artists appear at auction, and these are the discoveries that are most exciting for us and ideal for specialists.”

In addition to the stunning Elvgren, examples include a stunning group of single-owner, never before offered artworks by Patrick Nagel, led by Female in Profile (est. $70,000-$90,000) and a newly discovered trove of pulp magazine covers by the great Norman Saunders will make its auction debut April 26, including the pulse-pounding The Corpse that Murdered, the original cover art for the June 1938 edition of Secret Agent X ($12,000-$18,000).

More great pin-up includes an original interior illustration for Playboy titled Please Don't Peek Until I Finish Dressing by Alberto Vargas, the king of pin-up art, was first published in September 1962 (est. $30,000-$40,000), and a Figured to Win, a 1941 Brown & Bigelow calendar illustration by master Rolf Armstrong is accompanied by a rare, framed collage of twenty-one photographs of the artist and model, Jewel Flowers, creating this work at the artist's studio in Marblehead, Massachusetts (est. $30,000-$50,000).

An array of science-fiction art spanning the 20th century includes Howard V. Brown’s Lost City of Mars, form the February 1934 edition of Amazing Stories (est. $20,000-$30,000) and Straight Wall and Birt Crater,  1961 illustration by Chesley Bonestell, originally published in the future-forward hardcover book “Man and the Moon” (est. $8,000-$12,000).

A newly discovered trove of pulp magazine covers by the great Norman Saunders will make its auction debut April 26, including the pulse-pounding The Corpse that Murdered, the original cover art for the June 1938 edition of Secret Agent X ($12,000-$18,000). 

An emotion-packed paperback cover illustration titled Love Trap by James Avati (est. $6,000-$8,000) highlights a group of original paperback cover art.

Additional highlights include but are not limited to:

·         The Sommelier, 1965, a classic painting by LeRoy Neiman (est. $50,000-$70,000) is one of four artworks on offer by the mid-century master.

 ·         An rare political cartoon by Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) titled I Don't Like to Brag, Boys, was first published in PM Magazine on August 17, 1942 ($10,000-$15,000).

·         An original, 1980 paperback cover painting by Boris Vallejo of Flash Gordon (est. $3,000-$5,000).

Heritage Auctions is the largest auction house founded in the United States and the world’s third largest, with annual sales of approximately $900 million, and over 950,000+ online bidder members. For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and receive access to a complete record of prices realized, with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HA.com.

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