Patrick Nagel, Gil Elvgren Top Sellers in $1.7-Million Illustration Art Auction at Heritage
DALLAS, Texas (May 15, 2017) - Four pieces by two famed illustration artists, Patrick Nagel and Gil Elvgren, set the pace for Heritage Auctions’ $1.7 million May 12 Illustration Art Auction as nearly 900 bidders vied for original and concept artwork. The auction exceeded its estimate by 61 percent with a sell-through rate of 99 percent by value and 96 percent by lot. Nagel’s Seductive Female in Profile sold for $125,000 and while his original Joan Collins, #411, 1982 sold for $100,000, each more than doubled their respective pre-auction estimate.
Recognized by many as one of the best pin-up artists in history, Gil Elvgren’s Fire Belle (Always Ready), 1956 sold for $112,500 and his eye-catching Cover, Girl!, 1965 sold for $100,000, doubling its pre-auction estimate. There was also sizeable interest in the pin-up art of Alberto Vargas whose Portrait of Carol Ohmart, 1956 sold for $40,000, double its estimate and the illustration story-telling artwork of Hy (Henry) Hintermeister whose Rocket Pad Keep Out sold for $37,500, triple its pre-auction estimate and a record for the artist at auction..
"Once again the interest and demand for Pre-War Illustration art is very high from the likes of Nagel and Elvgren. Calendar, book cover and interior illustration artwork exceeded our expectation realizing double, triple or more above pre-auction estimates," said Ed Jaster, Senior Vice President at Heritage Auctions. “Overall the interest in illustration art continues to remain high across the board.”
A New Yorker magazine cartoon by Charles Samuel Addams Skier, New Yorker magazine cartoon, January 15, 1949, sold for $27,500, well over its $6,000-8,000 estimate; while the Brown & Bigelow calendar illustration Bait for Trapping a Man, Brown & Bigelow calendar illustration, June 1957 by Earl Moran captured $23,750 over its $3,000-5,000 estimate.
Book cover artwork was also of high interest as Roger Hane’s The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, book cover, 1970 sold for $26,250, five times its low estimate and Robert McGinnis The Corpse that Came Calling, paperback cover, 1964 sold for $21,250 nearly seven times its estimate. A landmark illustration by artist Barbara Remington which was used for a trio of Ballantine Book covers for J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Lord of the Rings, paperback cover study, 1965 sold for $17,500.
Magazine cover artwork from the 1940s saw interest as Peter Driben’s Pin-Up in a Bikini, Beauty Parade magazine cover, October 1947 sold for $21,250 setting a record for the artist at auction and early pin-up artist Enoch Bolles’ Steady Work, Judge magazine cover, October 31, 1914 which also realized $21,250. Interior illustration pieces were popular with bidders as Vargas’ Please Don't Peek Until I Finish Dressing, Playboy interior illustration, September 1962 sold for $27,500 and Garth Williams’ He Let Go of the Wheel for a Second and Did a Little Dance on the Slopping Deck, Stuart Little interior illustration, 1945 sold for $18,750.
Additional highlights include, but are not limited to:
- All Smiles (Glamorous; Glamorous and Witchcraft), 1962 by Gil Elvgren, Realized $36,250
- Surprised?, 1952 by Gil Elvgren, Realized $28,750
- Haddon Hubbard Sundblom’s Reflections of Me, Colson Calendar illustration, circa 1940s, Realized $27,500
- John Conrad Berkey’s The Towering Inferno, movie concept art, 1974, Realized $17,500
Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Chicago, Palm Beach, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.
The Internet’s most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has over one million registered bidder-members, and searchable free archives of four million past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos.
