Freshly-discovered artworks from the Golden Period of American Illustration will grace the auction block at Heritage later this month.
The company’s forthcoming Illustration Art sale in Dallas will offer close to 450 lots from masters of the field such as Gil Elvgren, Patrick Nagel, Alberto Vargas, Norman Saunders, LeRoy Neiman and Howard V. Brown.
"This is the auction collectors need to watch for debut pieces by important illustrators," said Todd Hignite, Vice President of Heritage Auctions. "It’s increasingly rare that never-before-seen artworks by established artists appear at auction, and these are the discoveries that are most exciting for us and ideal for specialists."
Leading the auction are important works by Elvgren, regarded as perhaps the most important pin-up artist of the 20th century. These include the 1960 canvas Roxanne, valued at $100,000-$150,000, Ticklish Situation, painted in 1957 and estimated at $60,000-$80,000, and Charming Trick, created for the 1961 Brown & Bigelow calendar, priced at $50,000-$70,000.
Further pin-up treasures will include a fresh-to-the-market private collection of works by Patrick Nagel, led by Female in Profile, estimated at $70,000-$90,000; and Alberto Vargas’ Please Don’t Peek Until I Finish Dressing, published in Playboy Magazine in September 1962, valued at $30,000-$40,000.
The sale also offers a wealth or original artwork from the worlds of pulp crime and sci-fi magazines. Amongst these Norman Saunders’ The Corpse that Murdered, the original cover art for the June 1938 edition of Secret Agent X, valued at $12,000-$18,000, and Howard V. Brown’s Lost City of Mars, from the February 1934 edition of Amazing Stories, estimated at $20,000-$30,000.
Further notable names on the roster include Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Al Hirschfeld, Earl Moran and Charles Addams.
Heritage Auctions’ Illustration Art Auction takes place in Dallas on Tuesday April 26.
