CARTOON ANIMATION CEL’S
I would like to think that, for most people, the idea of collecting is about acquiring items that mean a lot more in terms of nostalgia than in terms of monetary value.
Whether it's an antique toy that takes you back to your youth, or an advertising poster that represents to you an era long past, it's much more fun to collect items that you appreciate aesthetically than just items that appreciate in value.
Everybody remembers their favourite cartoon from when they were children. From the well-known Warner Brothers cartoon like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to the more obscure cartoon like Hanna-Barbera's Jabber Jaw Snaggle Puss, we all have our favourites. Well, who wouldn't want to own a piece of one of these shows.
An animation cell is basically one frame of a cartoon. Anything in the frame that is in motion when animated is first outlined in black on a clear sheet of acrylic. The colours are then hand-painted on the back side of the acrylic sheet. Cels are drawn, frame by frame, and photographed at high speed to animate the figures drawn on the cels. Clear acrylic is used so the animated figures can move in front of a static background drawing that can be used in other scenes. When cels are put in frames and sold as collectables, the acrylic sheet is usually offset from the background about an inch, to give the artwork a sense of separation and depth. Animation cels have been available for years in a small market that caters to collectors of animation memorabilia. Stores like Animation Connection have displayed and sold cels for quite a while, and the recent arrival of Disney and Warner Bros.
Stores in major U.S. cities has made animation cels more accessible to the general public.
Studios release four basic kinds of animation cels for sale. The value and cost vary according to the number of prints that are reproduced as well as the popularity of the piece. The four types of cels,
in increasing order of value, are as follows: Serigraph (or sericel), lithograph, limited edition cel, and production cel.
Serigraphs, also called sericels, are the most plentiful and least valu-able. They are usually available in edition numbers anywhere from 1000 to 5000 and are not usually signed. They are produced using computer-aided printing of the col ours on the back of the acrylic sheets.
Lithographs are created with the colours being hand-painted on the acrylic. However, the edition numbers are fairly high, usually over 1000.
A lithograph is more likely to be numbered and signed by the artist(s) than a serigraph.
A limited edition cel usually has no more than 750 prints reproduced.
They are hand-drawn and hand-painted, and are numbered and signed by the artist(s).
A limited edition cel usually has no more than 750 prints reproduced.
They are hand-drawn and hand-painted, and are numbered and signed by the artist(s).
A production cel is not a reproduc-tion, but is an actual cel that was used in the original cartoon. These are obviously the most valuable and are sought-after types of animation collectables. They are usually authenticated and signed by the artist(s) as well.
Low edition numbers and artists' signatures are vital for prints to accrue value in the future. For ex-ample, Warner Brothers' cels which were signed by Mel Blanc, who provided the voices for a multitude of their cartoon characters, have been almost impossible to find since his death a few years ago.
All cels, of course, come with certificates of authentication. It is also recommended that owners register their pieces with a data base which keep the serial numbers and edition numbers on file in case of loss or theft.
Homer and Barney argue $980
Sally and Snoopy Valentine $1200
