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Date: Fri 27-Nov-1998

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Date: Fri 27-Nov-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Lucky

Full Text:

Lucky 13, Broken Elevator, Broken Records

W/4 CUTS

By Rita Easton

NEW YORK CITY -- "When the elevator broke down, there were already over 150 in

the gallery," said Jim Pratzon of Illustration House "so who knows how many

eventually might have shown up?"

Pratzon was referring to the gallery's November 7 auction of 180 lots of

illustration art, an event which grossed $727,145.

Lot number 13 proved to be the luckiest of the day, garnering over four times

its high estimate to reach $99,000, a record for the artist. The charcoal and

watercolor on board by Jessie Willcox Smith, "Practicing Scales," depicted a

young girl wearing a large hair bow, sitting at the piano. The work was

executed as a story illustration for Helen Hay Whitney's The Bed Time Book,

published in 1907, and measured 17.75 by 15 inches (est $18/24,000).

Scoring another record, a 23 by 14« inch watercolor and charcoal by Elizabeth

Shippen Green, depicting a young girl with scrapbooks, realized $66,000. The

story illustration was done for the Edward S. Martin book The Mind of a Child

in 1906 (est $10/15,000). Both Smith and Green were students of Howard Pyle

and had a studio together. Their insightful and definitive images of childhood

was the quality that set their work apart.

Two works by J.C. Leyendecker followed: His intricate oil on canvas

composition of the "Three Kings," for a Success magazine cover early in his

career, brought $30,000 for the 22 by 15 inch work, and a 1950 advertising

image for Amoco, a 17 by 32 inch oil on canvas, featuring one of his trademark

infants, made $18,000.

John Clymer's April 1960 Saturday Evening Post cover in oil on gessoed

masonite, picturing a schoolyard baseball game in the Montana Rockies, 30 by

27« inches, was purchased at $34,000.

Cheesecake inspired competition, with an Enoch Bolles oil on canvas painting

of a woman riding a buoy scoring $18,000; Peter Driben's Whisper magazine

cover from the '50s selling at $11,000; and a portrait of former porn star and

television personality Traci Lords, in watercolor, pencil and gouache, by

Hajime Sorayama, achieving $12,000.

Paperback artist Robert McGuire was represented by a cover for Black Opium

which succeeded in bringing a record price for the genre at $5,500 for the 24

by 16 inch oil on board; and a surprise oil on board by Connecticut artist

Victor Olsen, depicting a postman descending a flight of stairs on which were

seated boys reading comic books, measuring approximately 24 by 40 inches,

reached $14,300, well over estimate.

"He was a real discovery in this auction," Pratzon said of Olsen, "I think

very few people are familiar with his work."

"Madeleine," an oil portrait by Ludwig Bemelmans of his famous creation,

crossed the block at $13,000, setting another of the many records at the

auction.

Prices quoted reflect a ten percent buyers premium.

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