Illustration House Art Auction Catalogues
(1999/2008 - Illustration House)

The Illustration House catalogues tend to run a bit smaller than Heritage's, but without the larger volume of works to be displayed for each periodic auction, there is no need for the many pages to display the B-level items at near thumbnail size. The reviews here are ordered with the most recent released first. (If you are keeping score, the highest ranking above-the-line presention is 2005-May followed by 1999-November.)

2008 June [-BELOW THE LINE-] I'm going to say that this issue is calmer than most. Out of 99 images only 31 are a little more active and hewing to our desire for adventure, while the rest reside in a gentler, posed, slice-of-life or even slightly amusing, realm. Having only 72 pages apparently means no real spine, but rather sheets bent in half and stapled on the fold. So, there are 64 pages devoted to the art rather than photos, sequential comics and information. Of those, 35 have featured large reproductions, but the remaining multiple-image pages also have a roomy, uncrowded feel. Overall, a pleasant collection, but needed that square-bound spine. The 'well-presented' artists here are: Edwin Austin Abbey, Rolf Armstrong, James Bama**, McClelland Barclay, Frederick Blakeslee, Maurice Bower, Charles Livingston Bull, Harrison Cady, Howard Chandler Christy, Benton Clark, Rafael DeSoto**, Stevan Dohanos, Jack Dumas, Enrich, Will Foster, Bernard Fuchs, Charles Dana Gibson, Elizabeth Shippen Greene, Arthur I. Keller, Rockwell Kent, J.C. Leyendecker, Harold W. McCauley, Jack Potter, Garrett Price, Norman M. Price, Howard Pyle, Henry Raleigh, Russell Sambrook, Charles N. Sarka, Mead Schaeffer (2)*, Walter Seaton, Alice Barber Stephens, Richard Stone, Herbert Morton Stoops, Howard Terpning, and UNKNOWN.

* - Note that the 'well-presented' piece here by Schaffer, can additionally be found so in his own collection on The List.

** - Note that the 'well-presented' piece here by Bama, and DeSoto, cannot additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

2005 May Nice diversity in this one - while most, but still less than half, of the 157 images are magazine illustration & advertising art, other areas also show up: adventure-36, cartoon-27, western-11, nudes-6 and science-fiction-4. 96 pages total, with 89 featuring non-sequential art. Of those art pages, 37 have large reproductions featured. 'Well-presented' artists are: McClelland Barclay, George Randolph Barse Jr., Walter M. Baumhofer, Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, Howard V. Brown, Pruett Carter, René Clarke, Dean Cornwell, Bradshaw Crandell, Felix O.C. Darley, Edward Detmold, Stevan Dohanos, Robert Fawcett, Arthur Fitzpatrick, Bernie Fuchs, Jessie Gillespie, Robert A. Graef, Van Kaufman, David Levine, Francis Xavier Leyendecker, Tom Lovell**, Robert McGinnis**, Harley DeWitt Nichols, Will Pogany, Arthur Rackham, Henry Raleigh, Morton Roberts, Norman Rockwell (2)**, Mead Schaeffer**, Robert C. Sherry, Jessie Willcox Smith, Peter Stevens, Saul Tepper, Bobby Toombs, Harold VonSchmidt, Mortimer Wilson Jr., and UNKNOWN.

** - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Lovell, McGinnis, Schaeffer, and Rockwell-(an ad & a color preliminary), cannot additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

1999 November Really nothing displayed smaller here than what's required to have four items to a page. There's 96 pages here with 91 of them primarily displaying the art. 20 of those, plus the back cover, give you a featured large reproduction. (Among all those images are around 50 adventure illustrations, 25 SF/Fantasy ones and 15 pin-ups). The 'well-presented' artists are: Rolf Armstrong, Walter M. Baumhofer, Stevan Dohanos, Gil Elvgren**, John Falter, Charles Dana Gibson, Bernard Stafford Good, Jules Guérin, John Held, Jr., Maud Humphrey, Robert Gibson Jones, John LaGatta, Winsor McCay, Kay Nielsen, Arthur Rackham, Norman Rockwell**, Jessie Willcox Smith, Thornton Utz, Anton Alexander vonWerner, N.C. Wyeth, and UNKNOWN.

** - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Elvgren, and Rockwell-(a color preliminary), cannot additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

other auction catalogues

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