CE -- A lifetime of collecting comic related material :: My Origin Story Illustrated

William Henry Hunt, My Father's Boots, 1834 & My Thoughts on Auctions, Pt. 2

1 Comment - 253 Views - 1 Like

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Artwork Details

Title:	William Henry Hunt, My Father's Boots, 1834 & My Thoughts on Auctions, Pt. 2
Artist:	William Henry Hunt (All)
Media Type:	Paint - Watercolor
Art Type:	Other
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	253
Likes on CAF:	1 2
Comments:	1
Added to Site:	6/18/2021
Comic Art Archive:

Description

The animation art market from 1984 until about 1995 was remarkably analogous to what we have been seeing with comic book art. After the Basmajian sale at Christie's East in Nov. 1984, there was a tremendous amount of publicity, and every Yuppie seemed to want to collect animation art. Some very wealthy people jumped in and prices began to rise dramatically. Among these were Herbert Black, a Canadian Billionaire, a Century City attorney who was a big player for a few years, Jeff Lotman, who paid a lot of money for the Disney art that had been donated to Syracuse University, and several others. Prices rose from a couple of thousand dollars to one hundred thousand dollars for high end pieces, and they rose to these new heights within just a couple of years. The supply of great pieces, even as new example emerged due to increasing prices, were far fewer in number than the incredible number of surviving pieces of comic book art, yet the run up of animation prices could not be sustained.

Those most responsible for the escalation of prices, as is almost always the case with those who make a big splash into any art field, began to drop out, especially when they found that they were unable to recoup the sky-high amounts which they had spent on their "investments." Hardly anyone had the resources to buy animation art for the amounts they had spent, even if they were inclined to do so. The first to go was Herbert Black, who had spent a couple of million dollars over a two year period. He attempted to sell his art in a single-owner sale at Sotheby's. There were stories about him going up to potential bidders at the start of the sale and telling them that he would accept time payments if they bought his pieces. Black still lost about half of his outlays. I bought for $3,100 a Disney Publicity drawing that Black had outbid me on, paying $13,500, just two years before.

The Century City attorney, who had paid $99,000 for a Lady and the Tramp set up, $65,000 for a Peter Pan vertical background with unmatched cels, and about $40,000 for the cover piece of the Beauty and the Beast sale's catalogue, sold everything at big losses after less than 2 years, telling me that animation art was a foolish investment. Jeff Lotman also sold his art, through one of Sotheby's early online auctions.

Without the few high rollers who had driven up prices so high and so quickly, the animation market dropped precipitously. Without ever-increasing prices, the enthusiasm of most of those who had jumped on the bandwagon in the 1980s wained, and it was no longer chic to collect animation art. The prices of such art greatly fell, and the market has not recovered over the past 25+ years. The only Disney art which still consistently sells for high prices, between about $10,000 and $85,000, are "concept paintings" said to be by Eyvind Earle and Mary Blair, which are the very pieces that several knowledgeable collectors of animation art have questioned regarding its authenticity.

I was lucky in my timing and location when it came to collecting animation art. I began buying well before the hysteria began, about 5 years earlier, and I lived in the region where most animation art resided, near the Disney Studio. Even before I found the person who was the first big source for animation art, I had become a friend of the most important dealers in animation art. Therefore, I already had a large collection for which I had paid relatively low prices by the time of the Basmajian sale and subsequent rapid escalation of prices. If I had become interested in animation art after Basmajian, I would never have been able to form even a moderately large collection. When a collector can only afford to buy the lowest end pieces of art, most will give up collecting that art altogether.

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About the Owner

	C E
Joined:	April 2006
Last Login:	August 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
On CAF:	C's Want List Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Brian Norton
Member Since 2006

Posted on 6/18/2021

this is a great pice. beautiful

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