A Tortoise and the Hare Italian

Despite popular belief, Courvoisier was not the first retailer of Disney animation art. That distinction goes to the Stix, Baer & Fuller department store in St. Louis Missouri, where Kay Kamen arranged to market test cels. When gallery owner Guthrie Courvoisier of San Francisco learned of this arrangement, he wrote a letter to Walt, Roy, and Kamen arguing that a fine art establishment was more appropriate for selling animation art, explaining “I believe a larger business can be built on the basis of art than by merely selling the celluloids as pictures which are amusing or suitable for children’s rooms.” He convinced Roy Disney, the business mind between the Disney brothers, and essentially invented the collection of animation art. Courvoisier was granted exclusive license to market Disney’s original animation art, and many of the surviving cels from that era were originally sold by Courvoisier.

83. Production Cel from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

(Disney, 1937) An Original Production Cel of Snow White, from Walt Disney’s “Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.” Snow White’s image size is 6.25”x2.75” on a slightly trimmed 7”x5” cel. The cel is in good condition with all paint intact, however there is cracking and lifting in the paint throughout. $1,000 - $2,000

84. Production Cel from “Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.”

(Disney, 1937) An original production cel of Dopey and Grumpy from Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” The cel was trimmed to 6”X 7.25” and placed on a woodgrain background in preparation for sale through Courvoisier Galleries. The total image size of the characters is 5.25”x6.25”. The cel is in very good condition with expected wear from age. $700 - $1,000

85. Production Cel from “Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.”

(Disney, 1937) An original production cel of Doc and Sneezy from Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” The characters have an image size of 4.25”x4.25” and have been trimmed close to image and applied to a new 4.5”x6.5”cel and placed on a woodgrain background for presentation. The cel is in very good condition with expected wear and all paint intact. $700 - $1,000