Walt Disney-signed "Snow White" Cel, ca. 1938
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GUEST:
My great-aunt Daisy Beck was Walt Disney's grade school teacher. And Daisy let him out of gym class so he could do more painting and drawing. And he simply revered her. And every time he was in Kansas City, he came by and visited, and several times at our home. What we have is a classic cel, it's a gouache on celluloid, and it's Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from 1938. And it's actually signed by Walt Disney.
APPRAISER:
Yes. Which is interesting because Disney did not really sign a lot of things. He was loath to sign even letters. He had his secretary sign them. He had... whenever he sent out cels he would have one of the artists do his signature. And every once in a while for special people, he would sit down and make quite a production of signing either a letter or an actual cel. Do you ever think of the name Daisy and the connection to Disney?
GUEST:
I don't know as there was any connection between Daisy and Disney.
APPRAISER:
Well, because I always think of... of Donald's friend Daisy. You know, I think that might have been an homage to her, and the inspiration she created for him. When it comes to value, this is a very clean cel. Now, it's interesting because animation cels were only designed to last for the life of the production of the movie. There was no idea of preserving these. They were saved more by accident than anything else. So that being a gouache on the celluloid, over a period of time they would crack. Extremes of heat and cold would affect them. This one is in extremely good condition, and it's a great shot of one of the Snow White characters. A cel like this, by itself, would sell for $3,000 to $4,000. There's a tremendous added value to having a real Walt Disney signature on a cel. And it usually adds about another $3,000 to $4,000. So you're looking at anywhere from $7,000 to $8,000 for this cel.
GUEST:
Well, that's great, yeah.
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