Illustration Art | January 22

For the first time, our annual illustration auction features a large and varied offering of advertising art. There are mid-century examples by James Neil Boyle, Phil Hays and Bob Peak; and fashion, costume design, printing company and beverage ads, such as a recently discovered group of Royal Crown Cola mock-ups, among them a signed Frederick Sands Brunner canvas.

A selection of beloved children’s book illustrations includes works by Ludwig Bemelmans, Maginel Wright Enright Barney (sister of Frank Lloyd Wright), Garth Williams, Everett Shinn and popular contemporary illustrators such as Gennady Spirin. Appearing at auction for the first time are examples by Marilee Heyer, Jane Breskin Zalben and Daniel Andreasen of the wildly popular American Girl series.

There are amusing New Yorker cartoons by Whitney Darrow Jr., Mischa Richter, Saul Steinberg, Edward Sorel and Richard Taylor, and James McMullan’s striking posters for Lincoln Center Theater performances.

Pin-ups by Peter Driben, Fritz Willis and Ellen Barbara Segner spice up the sale. Among a-list illustrators are Aubrey Beardsley, Howard Chandler Christy, James Montgomery Flagg, Rockwell Kent, Joseph Leyendecker, Dale Nichols, Arthur Rackham and Arthur Szyk.