Bloomsbury Auctions to offer Fine Illustrated Books Including The Archive of Tom Feelings

Written by Joanne Creveling Sunday, 29 November 2009 20:35

New York, NY - Bloomsbury Auctions, the world’s leading auction house for rare books and works on paper, announces their annual holiday sale of original illustrations and fine illustrated books on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 2:00pm. The sale will showcase important works from the Golden Age of Illustration to the present day. It will commence with the artistic estate of award winning African American artist Tom Feelings - a native of Brooklyn. The late Tom Feelings worked as a freelance illustrator of children’s books for over thirty years.

Throughout his career, Feelings received numerous awards and honors for his outstanding portrayals of Africans and African Americans. Among the highlights of the sale is the entire collection of Feelings’ seminal 1996 work The Middle Passage ($250,000-$350,000), Caldecott Honor Book Moja Means One (1972), Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987) and Soul Looks Back in Wonder (1994).The sale will also offer the artist’s personal collection of paintings, drawings, fine prints and sculptures by such prominent African American artists as Don Nelson, Paul Goodnight, Karen Johnson, Joel Gresham, Leroy Clarke and Brian Collier. The second session will include a drawing for a book cover by Aubrey Beardsley ($9,000-$10,000), John R. Neill’s painting of Cap’n Bill as a merman ($10,000-$15,000) from L. Frank Baum’s The Sea Fairies , Willy Pogány’s watercolor for A Midsummer's Nights Dream ($12,000-$15,000) and Gustaf Tenggren’s early illustration of Trolls ($10,000-$12,000).

Among the other important modern illustrators are Caldecott winners Arnold Lobel, Uri Shulevitz, Beni Montresor, Evaline Ness, Richard Egielski, Paul Zelinsky, Trina Schart Hyman and Leonard Weisgard. Some of the treasures that will be auctioned are Maurice Sendak’s original designs for the Wild Things Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon ($40,000-$50,000) and watercolors by William Steig for the original Shrek! ($15,000-$20,000) and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble ($15,000-$20,000). Two time Caldecott winners Leo and Diane Dillon are represented by works from Ashanti to Zulu ($15,000-$17,000), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice ($10,000-$12,000) and other award-winning titles. There will also be watercolors, drawings and other work by Edward Ardizonne, Edward Gorey, Tomi Ungerer, Al Hirschfeld, H. A. Rey, James Marshall, Barry Moser, Charles Santore, Charles M. Schultz and Walt Disney. Fine illustrated books include rare Oz titles, a Randolph Caldecott sketchbook, the works of A. A. Milne and a privately printed edition of The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter, limited edition Rackhams and numerous autographed picture books.

Bloomsbury Auctions is the world’s leading auction house for rare books and works on paper and is headquartered in London with salerooms in New York and Rome. Exhibition viewings are: / Saturday December 5, 10 am- 3 pm / Monday December 7, 10 am- 5 pm / Tuesday December 8, 10 am- 5 pm Wednesday December 9, 10 am- 1 pm / Or by private appointment

Bloomsbury Auctions
6 West 48th Street, New York, NY 10036
Tel +1 212 719 1000; Fax +1 212 719 1400
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