Full sheet of 80 Chinese Year of the Monkey stamps brings $135,600 at auction A full sheet of 80 mint condition Chinese Year of the Monkey stamps, purchased in 1980 by the consignor at a post office in the People’s Republic of China, sold for $135,600 at Philip Weiss Auctions.
News-Antique.com - May 07,2012 - (OCEANSIDE, N.Y.) – A full sheet of 80 post office-fresh Chinese Year of the Monkey stamps, purchased in 1980 by the consignor at a post office inside the People’s Republic of China, sold for $135,600 at a multi-estate sale held April 19-21 by Philip Weiss Auctions. The event was held at the Philip Weiss Auctions gallery, located at #1 Neil Court in Oceanside, N.Y.
The sheet of stamps was by far the top lot of the nearly 2,000 mostly fresh-to-the-market lots that came up for bid. Offered were stamps and coins, postcards, toys (to include trains and soldiers), dolls, Disney items, animation and animation art, figurines, Hollywood memorabilia, rock ‘n’ roll collectibles and more. Internet bidding for the sale was facilitated by Proxibid.com.
Following are additional highlights from the auction. All prices quoted include a 13 percent buyer’s premium.
Animation cels from Disney classic films proved especially popular with bidders. A production cel with production background from the 1953 movie Peter Pan, with an image depicting Tinker Bell, climbed to $19,775. The background showed books and a cup with quill pens. The matte was inscribed “To Amy Greene with best wishes” and signed “Walt Disney.”
A 10 ½ inch by 14 inch publicity cel from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) hammered for $11,865. The large publicity set-up featured all seven dwarfs. It was gouache on trimmed celluloid, applied to an air-brushed Courvoisier background. Like the Peter Pan cel, this one’s cache was enhanced by the “WDP” stamp, to go with the coveted Walt Disney signature.
A great production cel from the movie Dumbo, measuring about 5 inches by 5 inches square and showing the plucky pachyderm blowing bubbles from his trunk, went to a determined bidder for $5,650. Also included was the master watercolor background -- 8 inches by 10 inches.
Vintage concert posters also did particularly well. A poster for the Grateful Dead show at the Las Vegas Ice Palace from March 29, 1969 (featuring Santana on the undercard) hammered for $2,599. The first printing poster, measuring 14 inches by 22 inches, featured great cartoon and comic book art by Laurie and Janusz Gottwald of Ampersand Designs in Providence, R.I.
Also sold was a poster for Howlin’ Wolf and Big Brother & the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin), for a Sept. 23-24, 1966 set of shows at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. Art was done by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley of The Blindwood Press in San Francisco. The first printing concert poster, measuring 14 ¼ inches by 20 inches, was in near mint condition.
Philip Weiss Auctions’ next auction is nearly upon us: an estate sale planned for Friday, May 11, at 12 noon. It will feature a pair of fresh-to-the-market sculptures by John Chamberlain, two also-fresh Boris Anisfeld paintings, more than 75 Royal Doulton figurines, an original Andy Warhol “Cow” color screenprint, an Augustus St. Gaudens bronze and a 1915 engagement ring.
Another one-day estate sale will be held on Thursday, May 24, also
