Geppi’s Entertainment Unveils Impressive New Slate of Offerings in Next Hake’s Americana Auction Geppi’s Entertainment Auctions’ Hake’s Americana & Collectibles unit has announced an impressive slate of offerings for their next auction, which closes January 29-31, 2008.
News-Antique.com - Dec 11,2007 - Geppi’s Entertainment Auctions’ Hake’s Americana & Collectibles unit has announced an impressive slate of offerings for their next auction, which closes January 29-31, 2008.
Even before the company’s recent move to new facilities in York, Pennsylvania, they had stated their desire to build on the steady upswing in their recent sales; Alex Winter, General Manager of Hake’s, told Antique Toy World. Now they are doing so.
“This auction will feature many rare and one-of-a-kind character collectibles. The event will also feature literally hundreds of items of Disneyana, many of them not only rare but historically significant. Hake’s will also be spotlighting their usual sterling specimens of political collectibles,” Winter said.
Among the many Disney-themed items are movie posters, original comic strip art, key character designs and Good Housekeeping pages.
Serious Disney enthusiasts will immediately spot the historic, only known copy of the 1927 theatrical poster from the cartoon short Great Guns featuring Walt Disney’s early creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The character Oswald and this poster are both pre-Mickey. Looking carefully, one will notice the pre-Mickey 'Mice' displayed in the poster artwork and even in the actual cartoon. There are only a handful of Disney-era Oswald movie posters in private hands, and this one-sheet is one of the rarest. It is a full-size, full-color poster featuring the character, and it promotes the specific cartoon, Great Guns, rather than the character or cartoon series.
After Disney had to unfortunately leave Oswald behind, he went on to create his most famous character, Mickey Mouse. Hake’s Americana Auction #193 also spotlights one of the rarest Mickey movie posters, the full-color one-sheet for Mickey’s Mellerdrammer (1933). Featuring a blackface minstrel show of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with Mickey as Uncle Tom and Horace Horsecollar as Simon Legree, the racially insensitive cartoon itself has long been restricted. This poster is the only privately owned copy Hake’s has seen in the company’s 40 year history.
Two master illustrators are represented in the auction’s original comic strip art offerings. Drawn by seminal Mickey Mouse artist Floyd Gottfredson (the Mickey half-page) and famed Duck man Al Taliaferro (Silly Symphony), the original art to the March 7, 1937 Sunday strips of those two features is one of only three 1930s match sets known, and one of only two in which the Silly half-page stars Donald Duck.
Donald Duck’s very origins are also up for bid in this event in the form of the original Donald model sheet art for The Wise Little Hen (1934), Donald’s first appearance. This stunning piece includes seven Donald headshots and eight full-body shots, comprising the first-ever finished drawings of Donald Duck. Furthermore, these drawings are the first approved of Donald Duck by the Disney Studio.
Long considered the Holy Grail for the Good Housekeeping magazine series of promotional Disney pages that ran from 1934-1944, "The Grasshopper and the Ants" was the first page produced and is an all-time favorite of many enthusiasts. Illustrated by noted Disney artist Tom Wood, it is accompanied in Auction #193
