Help with buying a genuine animation cel

[Kumbo]

Hello,

My girlfriend is a huge Disney fan, her favourite being The Little Mermaid. I would dearly love to buy her something that was used in the original making of The Little Mermaid. A Production Cel that was used in the making of the film will likely be out of my budget, but I could maybe stretch to a Pre-Production piece.

Can anyone advise me on reputable dealers? I've never purchased an Animation Cel before and I'm really worried about ending up with a fake, given my lack of knowledge. I'm in the U.K and I'm presuming I'll most likely need to import from the U.S. Given the extra import duties. My budget is around £200 ($280).

Also, if you have any other suggestions on what I could buy her outside of Pre-Production cels (is that the correct term?), with the caveat that it was used someway in the making of The Little Mermaid, then I'd be happy to hear them.

Thank you.

 

[Ceilidhscot]

Howard Lowery is a US based auction house that sells a lot of animation art and ship to the UK (if you win!). They buy from estate sales I think and normally include a certificate of authenticity so might be worth a look?

If she likes more recent films (and books), can recommend Nucleus Gallery and Stuart NG books as both sometimes have signing events with authors and animators (I've bought loads of books from Nucleus including the art of Moana / Zootopia and most recently, Star Wars - The Last Jedi). As its a book, you don't get charged import duty either so it's just the shipping. They sometimes have special shows with art produced only for that show. It's maybe not signed but is usually limited (I have a a Zootopia print from that show). You'll pay import duty on prints though..

In the UK there is magic of Disney art that sells artwork (limited edition canvas and prints) from artists such as Rob Kaz. Their silver series come already framed and cost £250. They offer layaway for orders over £200 if I remember correctly and have quite a few Little Mermaid pieces by different artists. Benefit being there is NO import duty. Ordered from them without any issues and canvas was well packaged. Definitely worth a look at there is bound to be something she'd like there!

Good luck

 

[Ceilidhscot]

There's also The Little Mermaid sketchbook that contains reproduced concept art. It's out of print and difficult to find but sometimes appears on Ebay. Expect to pay a fair amount though! (there is a series of books in the Sketchbook series and some are harder to track down than others). I can't remember how much I paid for my copy but it wasn't cheap (Amazon has it for just under £500 - though found it for cheaper price on EBay a few years ago)

There's also a small The Art of the Little Mermaid book (again out of print) which will set you back between £40 and £100 now.

 

[Timothy02359]

Check Van Eaton galleries. They sell all kinds of Disney original sketches, cels, etc...

 

[Kumbo]

Howard Lowery is a US based auction house that sells a lot of animation art and ship to the UK (if you win!). They buy from estate sales I think and normally include a certificate of authenticity so might be worth a look?

In the UK there is magic of Disney art that sells artwork (limited edition canvas and prints) from artists such as Rob Kaz. Their silver series come already framed and cost £250. They offer layaway for orders over £200 if I remember correctly and have quite a few Little Mermaid pieces by different artists. Benefit being there is NO import duty. Ordered from them without any issues and canvas was well packaged. Definitely worth a look at there is bound to be something she'd like there!

Good luck

Thank you for the suggestions. I messaged Howard Lowery regarding an item in the auction to see if they had any information regarding the artist or any provenance but they didn't reply. That's made me a bit uneasy about buying from them I must admit. The Magic of Disney Art website will definitely be a good second choice if I can't get an original cel of some kind.

 

[Kumbo]

Check Van Eaton galleries. They sell all kinds of Disney original sketches, cels, etc...

Thank you, they have some affordable options for me.

 

[Ceilidhscot]

Thank you for the suggestions. I messaged Howard Lowery regarding an item in the auction to see if they had any information regarding the artist or any provenance but they didn't reply. That's made me a bit uneasy about buying from them I must admit. The Magic of Disney Art website will definitely be a good second choice if I can't get an original cel of some kind.

No worries, I hadn't bought from Howard Lowery myself but had heard their name cited a few times with Disney art.

Hope you manage to find that special piece.

 

[Timothy02359]

Profiles in history usually has a Disney auction every year with lots of original sketches, Cels, props...etc. I`ve bought a few drawings from the early 1930`s from them before.