CE -- A lifetime of collecting comic related material :: Disney Studio Pt. 7 - 1930s Publicity Drawings for Mickey and Donald Shorts *

Inked Publicity Drawing for Don Donald, January, 1937

Artists: Tom Wood (All) , Walt Disney Studio (All)

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Inked Publicity Drawing for Don Donald, January, 1937 Comic Art

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Additional Images:

Cartoon Poster for Don Donald, 1937

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Inked Publicity Drawing for Donald and Pluto [that's the title, really], September, 1936

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Inked Publicity Drawing for Lonesome Ghosts, Decemer, 1937

Artwork Details

Title:	Inked Publicity Drawing for Don Donald, January, 1937
Artist:	Tom Wood (All)
Artist:	Walt Disney Studio (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Animation
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	3,080
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	6/29/2006
Comic Art Archive:

Description

The Story of Inked Disney Publicity Drawings Pt.4.

The fifth auction at Christie's East in New York City dedicated to animation art (1 Nov 1986) contained two important, inked Disney publicity drawings. Neither was illustrated in the auction catalog and one was actually misdescribed. This one from Don Donald [the art for a publicity still photograph with an image which corresponds to the image for the one-sheet poster for the cartoon] was given a generic description, but the other, one of the most famous of all images of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, from The Brave Little Taylor, was described as showing a "swashbuckling" Mickey, mistaking Mickey's scissors for some sort of sword. Fortunately, I called Christie's and asked that the send images of both by fax to my office. I immediately recognized what they were and how both were more important than any inked publicity drawing that I had ever seen.

I really expected to be outbid on both when they came up for sale, but I greatly lucked out. First, attendance by many of the most prominant collectors and dealers in animation art had fallen off after two years of semi-annual animation actions, which, by 1986, included sales at both Sotheby's and Christie's. While the Basmajian sale had been standing room only and even though I had personally flown in for the first two auctions, many, including myself, began to rely on just the published auction catalogues rather than attending every sale. Therefore, almost everyone who would have recognized these drawings for what they were, never saw either the drawings or images of them. The one major exception, Alexander Acevedo of Alexander Gallery in NYC, a major dealer in Nineteenth century American paintings who was also dabbling in Disney animation art, not only would have recognized these as publicity images similar to the handful he had already added to his inventory, but also could and likely would have easily outbid me. But Acevedo became angry that the auctioneer, earlier in the sale, had failed to see his bid on the cover lot and did not re-open the bidding on the most expensive item in the sale. Acevedo apparently stormed out of the salesroom, never to personally appear at the venue again!!! Therefore, when the Donald drawing came up shortly thereafter, no one was left in the room to bid on it. I was bidding by telephone and could hardly believe that I got the Donald piece for the minimum bid of $600, the low estimate. The Mickey, which I had expected to sell for well above the estimated amount of $600-800, sold for the same, incredibly low amout. I understood how this had happened when, the week after the sale, I learned about the incident with Acevedo.

Perhaps the biggest lesson from all of this is that no seller should ever consign art to any auction without paying the realitively modest fee charged by auction houses for the art to be illustrated in a catalogue. Of course, this has largely changed with the advent of online sales with all items being shown on auction sites, but, as a buyer, I am extremely glad that someone failed to pay for images of two items 34 years ago.

Many years later I was able to buy the pencil drawing which corresponds with the final, inked publicity drawing which was photographed in making a publicity still. This is the only image for which I possess both the pencil and ink versions of the art.

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Last Login:	August 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
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