Heritage Auctions' Illustration art in Beverly Hills? Ready, set, Go!

May 3, 2010
Posted by Noah

Before I get into today's post - and letting you know that Coin Monday with JDB will be Coin Tuesday this week - I implore you to take a look at these gorgeous images of the set-up this Thursday's (May 6) Illustration Art Auction in our Beverly Hills Office.

So many amazing paintings, and me so far away here in Dallas. I don't mind telling you that I wish I was there...

Done? Good. Now that you've had a little taste of what awaits you in Beverly Hills - and if you are in L.A., and you can get to our showroom at 3478 West. Olympic Boulevard in the next couple of days, then I do indeed implore you to go check it out! - I want those of you who tuned in for John Dale's regular Coin Monday post to read on today and to check back tomorrow for JDB's weekly insight into the mind of the coin cataloger...




This Thursday's Illustration Art auction, which I wrote about here a week or two ago, is indeed going to be stellar, and is our first bit of Martignette to happen outside the elegant confines of our Slocum Street Annex here in Dallas.

I feel a little like a parent separated from their child for the first time when their kid heads to Summer Camp - okay, so I tend to personalize things a bit too much. That's a good thing, right? - so closely have I followed Martignette, and so much do I love this art.

The good thing is, though, with this art there is very little worry in my heart. Unlike with my own kid (and so it must be with most parents) I don't worry that no one will take as good a care of the artwork as I would. In fact, I would daresay - and pray - that those good Heritage folks overseeing the auction in Beverly Hills would take ten times the care that I could. For that, I am grateful.





Check out the Illustration Art catalog online, mark your favorites, and check back with Heritage Live! on Thursday, starting around 1 p.m. Central, to see where these paintings end up. The prices up until this point have been nothing short of spectacular. There seems to be no reason to believe it will slow.

We're at about the halfway point of Martignette, give or take a few hundred paintings, and as everyone thought when this amazing journey started, the world of Illustration Art collecting will never be the same again.

To leave a comment, click on the title of this post.

-Noah Fleisher

Elvgren's 'Bear Facts,' Martignette's favorite, on the block in about two weeks at Heritage Beverly Hills

April 21, 2010

Posted by Noah

The smile on the bear says it all...

Gil Elvgren's essential , magnificent 1962 pin-up, Bear Facts (A Modest Look; Bearback Rider), is going to find a new home in about two weeks when it occupies the centerpiece position of the May 7 Pin-Up & Glamour Art Auction taking place at Heritage Auctions Beverly Hills. It is estimated (quite conservatively, in my humble opinion) at $50,000-$75,000. It's already at $65,000, and we have a ways to go. 'Nuff said.

Perhaps of equal importance to the awesomeness of the piece itself is its enduring fame and its place in Charles Martignette's personal pantheon of Elvgren masterworks. In fact, Bear Facts was Martignette's favorite Elvgren of all. Period. It appeared as the dust jacket cover, and figure 414 of Martignette and Lou Meisel's book Gil Elvgren All His Glamorous American Pin-Ups and also as Figure 82 of The Great American Pin-up, again by the same pair.

I'll sum it up again: The single greatest Illustration Art Collector of all time, Charles Martignette, who assembled the single greatest collection of Illustration Art ever assembled, had a single favorite painting by Gil Elvgren, himself the greatest pin-up artist to ever live, and it was the one you see here, offered for the first time at public auction on May 7.

This painting is going to go big, obviously, and only the very most advanced collectors are going to be vying for this, though every single collector of the form, at every level, is going to be watching and wishing. If I had half a chance I'd buy it myself. I don't, however, have even a quarter of a chance, or an eighth. Or a sixteenth... I would, however, be more than willing to mow your lawn for a year if you buy this for me...

The truth is that, like every Illustration Art Auction here at Heritage in the last year that has featured Martignette's amazing (did I say amazing? I meant AMAZING!) collection, there is much to love and classics of the form all over the sale. There are many that I love, and many I would love to own, none of which I will be able to afford for a long time - but I will someday, and on that day the world will be mine!

Do yourself a favor and take a look through the Illustration Art catalog. Linger a little longer over the Elvgrens, the Vargas, the Armstrongs and the Morans, among the many. Choose one for yourself, one for your best friend, and one for your favorite regular Heritage Blogger whose initials are not JDB (Whoever that may be...).

To leave a comment, click on the title of this post.

-Noah Fleisher

It's still going! - Original Energizer Bunny readies for auction Saturday at Heritage Beverly Hills

April 8, 2010
Posted by Noah

While I don't have a ton of time for writing today, I thought it might be fun to post this little video I took this morning at Heritage Auctions Beverly Hills.

The consignor of the original Energizer Bunny readying for auction here on Saturday has the thing up and running and had enough hands - in the way of friends, not actually on him - to get the running.

Now, it's a cool thing in the first place, an amazing piece of pop culture, to be sure, but it's actually even cooler when you see it working and running live.

The video is not too long, but you get the point, and that is indeed the bunny. His nickname is Clint, and his business associates refer to him as EB, but that's Mr. EB to you...

To leave a comment click on the title of this post.

-Noah Fleisher

Knock knock knockin' on Heritage's Door: Original Energizer Bunny to finally come to rest in Beverly Hills

March 25,2010

Posted By Noah

Talk about an advertising icon with legs – or, in this case, tracks. One of the original four Energizer Bunnies – and one of the two that was in the majority of Energizer commercials prior to retirement around 2000 – will be sold at Heritage in Beverly Hills in the April 9-11 Signature® Music & Entertainment Auction. It comes with the original custom made cases for both the Bunny and the three controllers. The price for this famous lapin? Somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000+. But, hey, it's more than two feet tall, right? And talk about aconversation starter at parties, or a way to meet chicks at bars...

The pink bunny with sunglasses – 25 inches from feet to ears and almost a foot-and-a-half across – a drum and blue and black flip-flops became instantly recognizable to consumers since the minute it was introduced in 1989, and has since been named by AdAge.com as #5 on the list of the Top 10 Advertising Icons of the 20th Century. To occupy the same space as other advertising symbols like The Marlboro Man, Ronald McDonald, the Pillsbury Dough-boy and The Michelin Man, among the few, is rarified company indeed.

The bunny still runs as it did in its heyday, which means that you would need three people to operate it in its full glory: the head is on a gimbal, allowing for full range of the motion for the head; the arms bang the drum and move up over its head; drumsticks spin in its hands; his ears move backwards and forwards, the feet march and it moves in all directions, and spins on its axis, on tracks.

For the original ad campaign Energizer had Eric Allard and his company, All Effects, create four original animatronic bunnies. Each one was given a letter of the alphabet as identification – A, B, C and D – and a nickname to go with it. The present example is the "C" specimen, oh-so cleverly nicknamed “Clint.”

A and B, made with wheels instead of tracks, were impractical for use and scrapped for parts. C and D were made with tracks and the rest is advertising history, yes?

There were indeed two other Energizer Bunnies created – one with a deep sea diving suit and one with an astronaut suit, both of which were directly sewn onto a mechanical bunny body – but neither possesses, or needs, the range and detail of motion that the two principle bunnies needed.

When this thing hits the block in two weeks in Beverly Hills, Pop Culture watchers the world over will be anxiously waiting to see what it brings. There are only two bunnies that can claim the original spot and the top glory of starring in more than 100 commercials... For collectors, this may well be the only shot they're going to get for many years to come.

The ad campaign may keep going and going, but for this Energizer Bunny – one of the originals – it’s about to get a long deserved rest and a brand new home.

To leave a response click on the title of this post.

-Noah Fleisher