Auction: December 9 at 1 PM CT

Our curators picked their favorite items from our upcoming December 9 Illustration Art Auction.
| Sarahjane's Picks Sarahjane Blum | Director of Illustration Art
Robert Maguire The Case of the Radioactive Redhead paperback cover, 1963
The Case of the Radioactive Redhead is the second in the series of Erik March mysteries written by the husband and wife team Gloria and Forest Fickling under the pseudonym G.G. Fickling. The hard-boiled character first appeared in This Girl For Hire, which introduced the groundbreaking female private detective Honey West to the world. You don’t need to know any of this to love Robert Maguire’s seductive cover art, but one of my favorite things about Illustration Art is often how a work becomes an invitation to look deeper into the world of its creation, much like a clue in a mystery. This sale showcases works from many decades of Maguire’s career, offering a vignette look at the evolution of paperback publishing in the second half of the 20th century. I hope you have as much fun as I have had sleuthing the stories behind them all.
Al Buell Tennis Anyone?
We don’t often talk about it in these terms, but one of the things that draws me to Pin-Up Art is its minimalism. The backgrounds are stripped back to color fields or simple suggestions of scenes, as in this image where a pair of deep brown eyes and a mischievous smile seem to say “Let’s Play, but I’m not going to let you win.”
Rolf Armstrong Greta Garbo, The Eyes Have It, 1931
Hands are hard, eyes are hard, and capturing the unique mystery that was silent film star Greta Garbo was near-impossible for most illustrators. But Rolf Armstrong was able to do it multiple times, for a Screenland cover and in this 1931 Brown& Bigelow calendar published under the title They Eyes Have It. My, how they do.
| Meagen's Picks Meagen McMillan | Senior Consignment Director, Illustration Art
Pauline Ellison The Earthsea Trilogy: #1 A Wizard of Earthsea wraparound paperback cover, 1975
Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy is a cornerstone of modern fantasy, celebrated for its profound exploration of identity, power, and balance within a richly imagined world. In this auction, we are offering all three wrap-around book covers for the 1975 Bantam edition of this iconic trilogy. These are the covers that convinced me to try Le Guin’s writing and I have read everything the author ever did since. My copies are now bruised and beaten around the edges but on my bookcase in easy reach. I hope that these three covers with their ornate designs and almost mural like composition catch your eye, just like they did mine.
Judy King-Rieniets Map, The Enchanted World: Dragons book interior, 1984
The Enchanted World: Dragons book delves into the rich mythology and folklore surrounding dragons, presenting them as symbols of power, mystery, and the boundary between the human and the fantastical. Its importance lies in its ability to weave diverse cultural tales into a cohesive narrative, offering readers both an educational and imaginative exploration of one of the world's most enduring mythical creatures. Judy King-Rieniets created an outstanding map filled including a timeline of Dragon myths/sightings surrounded by images of these stories. All of which suggests – as Enchanted World: Dragons book does – that perhaps myth and history are more intertwined than we think. Also, if you open a fantasy book and there is not a map – is it even a fantasy book?
Helen Dryden Spring, circa 1920
Helen Dryden was a prominent American artist and industrial designer, admired for her influential work in early 20th-century fashion illustration and automotive design. She gained acclaim through her 13-year collaboration with Vogue magazine, creating numerous covers and illustrations that showcased her romantic and imaginative style, contributing significantly to the magazine's visual identity. This outstanding example is from this Vogue period and effortlessly blends into the artist’s oeuvre. The outfits of these fashionable ladies suggest a more historical subject – mid to late 1800s. The artist’s ability to convey voluminous layers and competing patterns while maintaining elegant lines is testament to her unique talent with fashion illustration.
Virgil Finlay Your Missing Key To Success, Astrology magazine interior
Virgil Finlay has long been a favorite – his pen and ink work even more so. The familiar Astrology subject connects easily to his science fiction work. A beautiful female Specter plucks the key to success from the astrology clock and catches the imagination effortlessly. Careful and playful placement of stars, elaborate organic patterns, strong utilization of negative space, all the hallmarks of Finlay’s style are on beautiful display here. In this case, the key to success is to press the bid button!
| Ezriel's Picks Ezriel Wilson | Cataloguer, Decorative Arts
Charles Livingston Bull Bull Frogs
Charles Livingston Bull, a renowned natural history illustrator, often showcased his deep fascination with the natural world in his work. Bull’s skill in rendering nature comes from a strong background in taxidermy and his time working in natural history museums. His home also served as a sanctuary for animals, exotic plants, and other elements of nature, making the natural world an integral part of his life and art. In Bull Frogs, Bull demonstrates his talent for capturing the essence of animal life with both scientific precision and imaginative storytelling. The composition features a large bullfrog as its central focus, while smaller frogs observe—or disassociated—offering a charming and whimsical glimpse into their world. The layout, designed with a blocked format reminiscent of illuminated manuscripts, adds a timeless quality, with a small frog in the lower left peering upward. While the origins of this piece remain unconfirmed, it may have been created for one of the nature magazines Bull frequently illustrated or as part of a storybook celebrating the beauty of wildlife.
Wayne Anderson Working-Class Cows Visiting The British Museum, The Cow Book interior, 1983
Did you know that prehistoric cows, or aurochs, are making a comeback? Aurochs, an extinct species of bovine considered the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle, are currently being reintroduced through a scientific process called “back-breeding.” This involves using breeds of primitive domestic cattle from Italy, Portugal, and Spain to create animals resembling the original aurochs that once roamed across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. An Aurochs’s articulated skeleton is depicted in Wayne Anderson’s work Cows at the British Museum, published in 1983 The Cow Book "a cow's eye view on history." The work portrays a family of shaggy-haired, anthropomorphic cows enjoying a day at the museum, gazing at the skeleton of their prehistoric ancestor—a humorous nod to their shared lineage and relatable human experiences. With one calf humorously licking an ice cream cone (an ironic jab at cows consuming products of their own making), Anderson blends humor with thought-provoking commentary on the relationship between past and present, creating what could be a normal Saturday afternoon at the museum for both cows and humans alike.
Karel Thole Search The Sky- Frugate Il Cielo paperback cover, 1973
As we mark the 100th anniversary of André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, it’s hard to resist the otherworldly landscape featured on Karel Thole’s cover for Search the Sky (Frugate Il Cielo), created for the satirical science fiction novel by C. M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl published by Urania. This cover is a prime example of Thole’s imaginative contributions to the genre. As a frequent illustrator for Urania, Thole’s work helped shape the visual aesthetic of science fiction and fantasy during his time. In the 1970s, Surrealism had a strong presence in both science fiction and horror, with scenes that teetered between psychological thrill and madness. Search the Sky, like Thole’s other illustrations, features a surreal, otherworldly landscape and figures, and blends abstraction with realism in ways that captivate audiences. Thole captures the haunting, alien world to which an astronaut and his later companions navigate. Jumping from planet to planet and faced with 'The Joneses' and a spacecraft containing secret technology, the characters must contend with a series of tribulations as they navigate a mind-bending landscape that, similar to their own, is distant and otherworldly.
Sincerely,
|  | Sarahjane Blum Director of Illustration Art SarahjaneB@HA.com (214) 409-1549
|  | Meagen McMillan Senior Consignment Director, Illustration Art MeagenM@HA.com (214) 409-1546
|  | Ezriel Wilson Cataloguer, Decorative Arts EzrielW@HA.com (214) 409-1112