1969 Dalí-illustrated "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
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GUEST:
It was part of my mother-in-law's estate. I looked at the illustrations and thought they were interesting and colorful, so I had them shipped home to my home. I really didn't know what they were at the time. I was very shocked when I found out that the illustrations were by Salvador Dalí. Um... (chuckles)
APPRAISER:
It's a portfolio with illustrations by Salvador Dalí, the preeminent Surrealist artist of the 20th century, illustrating the classic (chuckling) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, which was first published in 1865. And somebody at Random House, the publishing house in New York, had the brilliant idea to commission Dalí to illustrate Lewis Carroll's classic. It's an amazing marriage, the two of them together, as you can see in these illustrations. Dalí made 12 watercolors, one for each of the chapters in Alice in Wonderland. These are two of them. You have the complete set in the box here. And in addition to that, he made the frontispiece, which is an original etching. Now, the imagery on that etching, which is a girl skipping rope, dates back to a painting he had done in the mid-1930s for an English collector. He reused that here in this 1969 portfolio. And in each of the images, you have the girl skipping rope, and that is Alice. And down below is a seated figure representing the artist looking at his subject. And all of the sets are pencil-signed on the title page. It was an edition of 2,700, so there were quite a few of these made, and they sold out almost immediately, based on the popularity of, of not only Dalí at this point, in the late 1960s, but the Lewis Carroll novel, which, you have Carroll's text for each of the chapters. This one here, up top, is "Down the Rabbit-Hole." You have the rabbit, Alice there on top of the mushroom. And here, this is the Mad Tea-Party. I love this image because it has that bent clock, which so many know Dalí for.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Condition, both externally-- the portfolio, the box holding the contents-- and internally, is, is flawless. It's as good as I've ever seen a set like this. There is a lot of value in the complete set in pristine condition, as you have yours. And I would put a replacement value on your set at $15,000.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
It's beautiful.
GUEST:
Well, thank you, I'm... (chuckles)
APPRAISER:
You're welcome.
GUEST:
That's a pleasant surprise. (both chuckle)
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