CE -- A lifetime of collecting comic related material :: Disney Studio Pt. 2 - Cels and Backgrounds *

Cel of the Title Character from The Robber Kitten, 1935

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Artwork Details

Title:	Cel of the Title Character from The Robber Kitten, 1935
Artist:	Walt Disney Studio (All)
Media Type:	Paint - Watercolor
Art Type:	Animation
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	767
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	4/7/2013
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Collecting Disney Cels, Part 2

For the first couple of years, I only bought cels through Collectors Book Store in Hollywood, Califonia, where I had seen and bouth my first Peter Pan cel. I noticed that Howard Lowery, who ran the art department at the store, would write an inventory number, consisting of a consigner's initials next to the number, on the back of each cel that he obtained for sale. There were four different sets of initials that I would commonly see. When the next edition of Overstreet's price guide came out, it just happened to have small classified ads for four local animation dealers -- and the initials matched the names in those ads. I went to Howard, who I had known for about 14 years by then, and told him that I was going to contact some of those dealers. He told me that HK consigned the best cels to Howard's store. I hadn't done anything before the 1980 San Diego Con, which Howard and I went to together. There I met all four of the dealers, as well as another prominent local dealer, Jerry Muller from Corona Del Mar. I bought two drawings from Harry and a Peter Pan cel from Muller (who depsited my check when he said that he would hold it for a few days!). Those two dealers were the next sellers who I dealt with, while still buying from Howard.

In those early days, most Disney cels were not on full size pieces of celluloid but were on cut down pieces. I later learned that this was no coincidence. When Disney sold cels at the Art Corner store in Tomorrowland at DIsneyland (until the early 1960s), they would cut down the cels, using the unpainted portions as cover pieces for the matted pieces of art. When the Art Corner shut down, the unsold inventory was returned to the studio, where the cels remained until they began to find their way out onto the Southern California animation art market.

Within a few months of the San Diego Con, I met an animation collector one day when both of us were at Collectors Book Store. He approached me and introduced himself. On the day I graduated from law school, I went to an Aaron Bros. art supply store to get a mat for the Mad Hatter cel which I had received as a graduation present (and which I still own). And the same collector was also at the store. We talked a while, and he asked me what I was still looking for -- I told him that I couldn't find a Tinker Bell with wings (which were animaterd on separate cels so that the wings could move more quickly and shot separately at different exposures to make them semi-transparent. Not much later, the collector obtained a Tinker Bell for me, which led to more cels and our soon becoming friends. He wasn't a dealer, although he had been consigning animation art for Collectors Book Store auctions before he met me. This may seem like TMI, but it is critical for understanding how I found the ultimate early source for Disney cels. Continued...

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	C E
Joined:	April 2006
Last Login:	August 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
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