AUCTIONS – A Tale of Three Lows and One High and a VERY High!

I found out about some of pieces of original PAN artwork coming up for sale at couple of auction houses and thought I would give them a punt. One I had known about for quite a while as Mark at Sworders had asked me if I could identify the artist which I could as it was Hans Helweg. It was for the later edition of ‘Sweet Thursday’ by John Steinbeck. I thought I had bid a reasonable amount but in the end it went well above that at £380. The second low was for Eric Tenney’s artwork for ‘The Stone Leopard’ by Colin Forbes at Tooveys. I wasn’t that bothered about it so I didn’t bid that high but what I hadn’t noticed was that it also included the artwork for ‘Path Into the Unknown: The Best of Soviet S. F.’ with a cover by W F Phillips. This went for £110 and Stuart Webb was the successful bidder. The third lot was something I really regret missing as I didn’t read all the details. It appeared to be a collection of artwork for children’s books but also included paintings by Roger Hall for three covers in the ‘PAN Romance Series’. It went for £130 and again Stuart was the lucky bidder. So we come to the one high which was for ‘Find A Victim’ by John Ross Macdonald with a cover by Stephen Richard Boldero. I probably got carried away and bid too high to win it at £300. On the plus side it also came with several other artworks including two paintings for a couple of covers for published hardbacks and some roughs. Thanks to Stuart for the photographs of his winning lots and permission for me to include them on the appropriate pages.