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William Henry Hunt, A Black Boy Holding a Casket, c. 1833 & My Thoughts on Auctions, Pt. 6

Artist: William Henry Hunt (All)

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William Henry Hunt, A Black Boy Holding a Casket, c. 1833 & My Thoughts on Auctions, Pt. 6 Comic Art

Additional Images:

Wally Wood, Shock Suspense Stories No. 6, $840,000. June 2021

Joachim Wtewael, The Flight into Egypt, 1601, $741,610 in 2015

Previous Item:
William Henry Hunt, Girl in a Wood House, 1837 & My Thoughts on Auctions, Pt. 4

Next Item:
William Henry Hunt, Grapes and a Basket, 1835, & My Thoughts on Auctions, Pt. 7

Artwork Details

Title:	William Henry Hunt, A Black Boy Holding a Casket, c. 1833 & My Thoughts on Auctions, Pt. 6
Artist:	William Henry Hunt (All)
Media Type:	Paint - Watercolor
Art Type:	Other
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	200
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	6/20/2021
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Traditionally, the only advantage that dealers had in competing with auctions for new material was the ability to give potential sellers immediate cash, while the same sellers, if they consigned their art to auctions, would have to wait, often a substantial amount of time for the next auction and then additional time after the sale before the auction house collected payment and issued a check for the consignors net proceeds. But, when an auction house advertises that they give cash advances against future sales, the positions of dealers are almost completely undermined. What owner of art who wishes to sell would put aside dreams of big bucks from an auction in a hot market with some immediate cash to take care of pressing needs to sell to a dealer for an amount that provides room for the dealer to still make a profit? No dealer should be happy with the current bull market, since the prospect of being driven out of business is a real one, even if it may take a few years for popular actions to totally dominate the comic art market for less valuable goods. Dealers are already complaining that they can't get new art to replace what they sell -- it's only going to get worse.

I don't know how many collectors remember that Heritage auctions in the early 2000s would hold live auctions as well as using eBay as an alternate forum for buyers to place their bids. I used to always bid by phone, which allowed at least some access to the live bidding, which could be heard in the background of the telephone call. But it disturbed me that the amounts shown on eBay, both for the individual bids and the final price for the lots, frequently, if not usually, did not match the amounts heard via telephone. On more than one occasion, the amounts of my final, winning bids did not match the final winning amounts shown on eBay. I never did understand these discrepancies, and needless to say, the amounts I always had to actually pay were the higher amounts based on the telephone bidding, regardless of what eBay reported.

I attended in person the auction held by Heritage at the 2003 San Diego ComiCon. Since I only wanted one lot, a 1931 Barney Google daily original, I had plenty of time to observe what was happening with the sale of other lots. There were very few people in the conference room, perhaps 7 to10 live bodies. I don't recall seeing anyone other than myself bidding on anything. One or two computers were set up for online bidding, but there was hardly any activity by those manning the computer(s). In fact, only one young man seated in the middle of the room, with a cell phone in hand, was bidding and buying virtually every lot other than the two I ended up buying. He was the winning bidder for the least expensive to most expensive lots, which would be very unusual if he were somehow bidding for himself. I assumed he was executing commission bids and telepone bids, but I would think that, with just one phone, he could only bid on behalf of one bidder on each lot, which would mean that the only way for bidding to advance would be if the single bidder was bidding solely against reserves.

I don't think it is helpful for persons on CAF broadcasts to consistently express their opinions and predictions that the comic art market will continue to rise, even if they actually believe such and think it is a positive sign for the future of the hobby. Contrary to a lot of wishful thinking I hear on these broadcasts, the comic art market has not achieved some level of respectability, such that pieces of comic art will be hanging on the walls of traditional art museums any time soon. To date there are only a couple of institutions which have shown any interest in comic art -- the Billy Ireland Museum at Ohio State and the Library of Congress, and both of these keep the vast bulk of their collections in storage. From my own contacts in the world of fine art, it seems unlikely that the attitudes of those involved with that world will ever take comic art seriously. I think comic art is great and that a number of first rate artists have worked and are working in the genre, but I'm hardly an objective observer. If anyone has heard reviews of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, they will know how movie critics are almost uniformly critical of the films. Moreover, the prices now being achieved at auction for comic book art have risen to a level that old master paintings, which are actually respected by the art world in general, can be bought, in many instances, for less than a piece of comic art. The additional images (below) show the recently sold Wally Wood cover and (one of many possible examples) a painting by one of the major Mannerist painters of the early Utrecht (Holland) School, which is painted in oil on copper, a medium which results in incredibly images which almost glow. This audience may prefer the Wood, but, trust me, those in the real world almost certainly would not.

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	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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