Cel of Miss Jello Mold from The Cookie Carnival, 1935

About Fake Disney Cels, Cont.


Depending on one's point of view, there are other considerations, short of outright forgery, which, for some, can impair the integrity of some cels. These arise from damage to subsequent restoration of cel paint. Cels are created with water-based oaubt which caneasily be damage. Older Disney cels paited on nitrate plastic have, more often than not, suffered some degree of paint damage. This is due to the instability of nitrate cels, which can spontaneously warp with time, causing the paint to crack and separate away from the underlying cel support. Cels from Bambi and, especially, Dumbo are frequently seen with seriously cracked paint. Many collectors would prefer to have damage cels repainted rather than having cels with cracked paint, so a group of artistic types who specialize in repainting cels has been engaged in performing restoration work over the past 40 years. The degree of intervention varies cosiderably, ranging from small retouches to complete washing and replacement of all paint. When there is damage to both the ink lines on the front of the cel and to the main paint from the back, restoration often results in nothing of the original image surviving he restoration, which constitutes a degree of repainting that virtually never occurs with restorations of other, more conventional types of art. Even those who wish to collect only unrestored cels often cannot tell if restoration has been done, and the existence of restoration is no longert commonly disclosed by most dealers and auction houses.

The impact of restoration was dramatically revealed when a friend of mine had two damaged cels of Tom from the same sequence of a 1940s Tom and Jerry cartoon. He decided to submit one of the cels to one of the first and most prominent restorer of cels, who actually advertised that he could scientifically match the exact, original colors in performing restoratios, When he got the cel back and compared the restored cel with the still damaged one, the colors of Tom's body were completely different, one being gray and the other a shade of tan. When a repaint results in obvious color changes, it is hard to see that the "restored" cel is the equivalent of a forged cel. One of the major reasons why I stopped buying Disney cels was the widespread corruption of the animation market through cel restoration.

It is also important to be aware of the long-term risk presented through the lamination of animation cels. Many cels which are officially sold by studios (e.g. from the Simpsons, Spong Bob, Batman the Animated Series, etc.) are liminated and embossed with an official seal. This is an outgrowth of the many attempts to preserve the paint on cels from damage. One of the stated purposes motivating John Basmajian to take cels home from Disney in the 30s and 40s was to preserve the art. He sprayed the backs of some, applied clear fingernail polish to the painted areas of others. Even when I began to collect in the late 1970s, many cels had fingernail polish permanently affixed to their paint to prevent chipping of paint. As far as I know, the fingernail polish and sprayed sealants actually worked, although the sprays didn't do much for the overall appearance of the art. But, in general, lamination has resulted in a lot of damage to cels. Stacks of untrimmed Sleeping Beauty cels were found at the studio in the mid-1980s. Before sending them off to be sold at Disneyland for high prices, someone had the brilliant idea of laminating each cel. Within a few years the lamination which encased several of the pieces began to pull apart, ripping the cel paint film in the process and totally defeating the purpose of laminating art in the first place. Maybe techniques have improved in more recent years, but buyers of laminated cels should at least cosider the potential of eventual damage to laminated cels.