Posted 14 years ago
distantven…
(2 items)
I bought this piece at an auction last night. It was described as a Genuine Tom and Jerry animation cel. I gambled a bit on this one, because I didn't do any research on this prior to the auction, and I honestly have never heard of an animation cel prior to this auction! This had a $125 reserve on it, and the owner of this item was sitting beside me, so I was able to pick her brain for a little bit of info. She said that she bought it a few years ago in an art gallery in Boca Raton for around $500. She said that it is the real thing, and I can say that every item she had up in this auction was high-dollar, quality stuff, and as far as I could tell, it was all legitimate stuff. I jumped online really fast right before it went up for bidding, and these things were all across the board-genuine Tom & Jerry animation cels were selling for as much as $9,800! The owner also said that she has the paperwork for this somewhere in her house, and that she would try to dig it up for me. I would appreciate any information on this item that you can offer, without me having the paperwork (in case she cannot locate it). An approximate value, age! Thanks! PS - I bought one more item last night that the same lady owned, and I am putting that in here for your expertise on as well. It is a huge, signed, numbered Alice Cooper framed Lithograph.
Cool cel. It's hard to tell from the pics if it is an original production cel or a publicity piece. Have you opened it up to see if there are punch holes or numbers on the cel?
I very much doubt that you have a genuine animation cel that was actually "under the camera". I think it's what's called a "sericel", a mass produced limited edition using a silkscreen process, and the $125 reserve is a bit high for top dollar. My reasoning: the poses are too perfect, not part of cartoon action. The characters are complete - unless there is another layer, it's most likely parts would be missing (Tom's eyebrows, or Jerry's tail, for example) as a function of animated movement.
For more information, type "sericel" into your favorite search engine. There's an excellent overview written by "wantn" for eBay.
Never say never, though. There's a very slim chance that posed scene was part of a title card, but I highly doubt it. As KULT pointed out, you'll have to unseal the back, open it. If it has no holes, it's a common sericel, not totally worthless but simply not the same as a frame from a classic cartoon.