A Smashing Success With $2.6 Million Realized For 311 Paintings In Two Auctions

In its debut as part of our Signature July Illustration Art Auction, the first portion of the Charles Martignette Collection — some 285 works selected for this auction from the collection's 4300 pieces — realized a very strong $2.1 million, with an unheard of 99% through rate, leading the auction house to its most successful Illustration Art auction yet topping out at $3.1 million total, including Buyer's Premium.

"By any reckoning we blew the top off the pin-up market," said Ed Jaster, Vice President of Heritage. "It's safe to say that it soundly exceeded not only our expectations, but also those of the collectibles and fine arts communities. There was so much interest, in fact, that the auction took more than seven hours to complete; the average for an illustration art auction is about four hours."

While Charles Martignette is rightly known as the king of the pin-ups, his fantastic eye for the entire history of Illustration art was more than evident in the top two offerings in the auction from his epic collection and impeccable taste in artists shown through in much more than glamour art. In fact, it was J. C. Leyendecker's 1917 Kuppenheimer as diptych, A Proud WW I Sailor's New Uniform, which led the offerings attached to his name with a $155,350 price tag. Martignette's other high profile Leyendecker in the auction, The Hero's War Story — the cover from the May 10, 1919 Saturday Evening Post — showed its enduring appeal at $101,575.

"One of the great surprises of the afternoon was an astonishing record price paid for a work by James Avati, widely considered the greatest paperback book cover artist," said Hignite. "His masterpiece for the 1959 Signet Classics edition of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye To Berlin shattered the previous record set for the artist, $6,600, when it soared to a final total of $26,290."

With all that said, however, it was indeed the pin-ups — especially the work of the greatest pin-up artist to ever pick up a brush, Gil Elvgren — which provided the greatest fireworks of the afternoon. The top Elvgren offering from Martignette, 1964's A Near Miss (Right on Target), was certainly a bulls eye with a final price of $143,400. It provided a direct compliment to the top two lots of the entire auction, both Elvgrens, as well — It's a Snap (Pretty Snappy; Snap Judgment) from 1958 realized $215,100 and Cover Up, 1955 finished at $191,200 — though not from the Martignette Collection. Upsetting Upset, a 1969 Elvgren from Martignette performed very well for a later period piece from the master, finishing the afternoon at $80,660.

"Beyond the staggering prices for Elvgren — one collector in the gallery pointed out that the top prices were equal to those collectors pay for sketches from Rembrandt — pin-ups were notably strong across the board with Enoch Bolles leading the way," said Jaster. "Ideal for a Hunting Lodge Film Fun Magazine cover from December 1936 brought $38,840, a record which stood for about two minutes before his February 1935 Film Fun Magazine cover, Slipping Beauty, almost doubled that at $65,725.

Robust prices were also seen for works from Earl Moran and George Petty, while Alberto Vargas, and his beautiful Vargas Girls continued to show the stature of legendary gatefold artist for both Esquire and Playboy. Among the strong prices realized for the variety of his work in the Martignette Collection, is was his delicate December 1946 Esquire Calendar Girl and Reclining Nude, Preliminary Drawing for the Very First Varga Girl, from October 1940, that realized the most healthy prices, bringing $53,775 and $50,790, respectively.