Art to Capture the Imagination
Michael Patrick Hearn and the New York Times have both brought the news that Bloomsbury Auctions is preparing a 9 December sale on the theme of “Capture the Imagination: Original Illustration & Fine Illustrated Books.”
Among the lots are original John R. Neill artwork of Cap’n Bill smoking his pipe underwater in Sea Fairies and young Ervic meeting Reera the Red in Glinda of Oz, and page proofs from Neill’s three Oz novels, including an unused illustration of the Wizard.
Other Ozzy items include a 1969 letter from Margaret Hamilton to Ray Bolger and illustrations for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Michael Hague, by Barry Moser, by Charles Santore, and by Thea Kliros, whose edition appeared this year. The picture above is one of Moser’s sketches of the Wizard as a giant head.
Much of this auction consists of Tom Feelings’s artwork, including the stunning images for his Middle Passage, with an estimated price of over a quarter million dollars for the lot. I had the honor of meeting Feelings once, driving him to an SCBWI conference and showing him how a history book I was reading referred to his work. At the hotel we found a photocopier so he could add that to his files.
Among the other items that caught my eye in the online catalog:
- The first, limited edition of The Tailor of Gloucester, by Beatrix Potter.
- W. W. Denslow’s “Books to Burn!” poster.
- Walt Kelly’s Pogo and Albert returning [!] to college.
- Leo and Diane Dillon’s picture of Doc Rabbit and the Tar Baby for The People Who Could Fly.
- Barry Moser’s watercolor of Huck and Jim.
- A portrait Edward Gorey sketched for James Marshall.
- Anniversary reissue of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are signed for Marshall.
- A Paul O. Zelinsky “alternative illustration” for E. Nesbit’s Enchanted Castle.
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