1939 Inscribed "Pinocchio" Book
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GUEST:
This book was given to my husband, who was an animation artist at Walt Disney. He worked on Pinocchio, and Walt Disney signed it, along with a lot of animators that were there.
APPRAISER:
How long did he work for the Disney company?
GUEST:
I don't know, a few years. He worked on Pinocchio and he worked on Fantasia.
APPRAISER:
Wow, two of the Disney classics from that time period.
GUEST:
Pinocchio, he worked on Monstro the whale.
APPRAISER:
Monstro? He worked on Monstro the whale?
GUEST:
The whale, yes.
APPRAISER:
They made Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940. It was a legendary time at the Disney studios. It's astonishing to me to see this book. Here's the title page of the book showing the 1939 publication date. On the next page...here we have an inscription to your late husband from Walt Disney himself. It's personally inscribed. Pretty special, pretty amazing. But what makes this book even more special, it has wonderful plates throughout the book, but here, we'll leave it open to this page showing Monstro the whale. This is the part of the Pinocchio film that your husband animated.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And his fellow animators have signed the page. This book is chock full of autographs of Disney's animators from the golden age of Walt Disney animation. Walt Disney autographs are increasingly collectable in the market, particularly authentic autographs with excellent provenance, like yours is, in addition to some three dozen other animator autographs. It is a second printing, not a first edition, and the dust jacket is a bit tatty. But the book's worth, at retail, $10,000.
GUEST:
Oh, I'm surprised, yes.
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