pin up

This very rare illustration is possibly the only surviving pin-up girl, non-menace themed spicy pulp cover painting ever offered for sale by H.J. Ward. This was created for the spicy pulp title “Tattle Tales” and was published as either the March 1937 or June 1937 edition. Hugh J. Ward was a prolific pulp cover artist who has enjoyed much recent acclaim. At a recent 2010 auction, one of Ward’s damsel in distress cover paintings (August 1936 Spicy Mystery Stories) fetched $143,400.

The Tattle Tale

Artist: H. J. Ward

A spectacular surviving pulp cover painting by Norman Saunders for the Popular Publications August 1952 issue of New Detective Magazine, Volume #18 Issue #1. Saunders masterfully employs an extreme perspective and palette to give the scene an intense sense of danger, tension and drama. During the 1950s heyday of pulp magazines, literally hundreds of titles would be competing for customers any given month and publishers used Saunders dramatic, erotic, and intense covers to give their magazines the edge they needed to attract potential buyers at the newsstand.

New Detective Aerial Crime Scene

Artist: Norman Saunders

A gritty Western pulp cover painting by Walter Baumhofer- “The King of Pulps”-created for the May 1933 issue of Dime Western magazine. The image is a humorous wink at the spicy pulp world featuring a tied-up bondage-posed beauty looking askance at the stereotypical cowboy card game scene she finds herself trapped in. 1933 marked the peak in popularity of the short-lived spicy pulp genre, which gleaned much of its success from eye-catching, drama-filled, damsel-in distress covers similar to this.

Blind Man’s Bluff

Artist: Walter Baumhofer

This impactful and eye-catching original pin up oil-on-board by Gil Elvgren was created for a roadside billboard. A pretty blond Elvgren girl who has just stepped out of a swimming pool enjoys a long tall cool one in this classic good-girl example of breweriana advertising art. Painting comes with the original posed double weight photograph of the model taken by Elvgren, and is pictured on page 237 of the monograph “Gil Elvgren All His Glamorous American Pin-ups” (plate 582), written by Charles Martignette and Louis K. Meisel.

A Cool One

Artist: Gil Elvgren

Art Frahm pushes the boundaries of cheesecake pin-up in this scandalous and daring oil on canvas. Titled “Oooh, Is There a Man in the House?” this late 1940s Goes Litho calendar commissioned pin-up painting features a brunette in shockingly sheer negligee peeking around the corner in a brazen mix of apprehension and curiosity. This winsome brunette exhudes a level of erotic sophistication not always seen in the post-World War II pin up world.

Oooh, Is There a Man In the House?

Artist: Art Frahm

Simply stated, Thanks for the Orchid, is the finest Joyce Ballantyne artwork to come on the market. Commissioned by Brown & Bigelow in 1955, the luminous quality of the image and the detail and texture of the brush strokes display the impact of Elvgren’s teachings and collaboration on Ballantyne, if they do not indeed betray the hand of Gil Elvgren. Ballantyne worked closely with Elvgren for the better part of a decade, and it has often been suggested that he ghost painted some of her best work.

Thanks for the Orchid

Artist: Joyce Ballantyne

An original 1962 oil on canvas by Gilette Elvgren commissioned by the Brown & Bigelow Calendar Company and published under the titles “Just Right”,”Hat’s Nice” and “The Eyeds of March”. This sexy pin-up masterwork explores the silk stockings & garters scenario for which the artist is best known. A brunette Elvgren girl admires her wiles in an aptly named vanity mirror in this provocative over the shoulder derriere exposed creation. For those of you not keeping track, recent auctions have seen Elvgren’s pin-up works for Brown & Bigelow topping $200,000.00 on three recent occasions. The high water mark of $262,900.00 was seen at Heritage Auctions June 5th, 2008 sale in Dallas Texas (Lot #66097).

Just Right

Artist: Gil Elvgren

A bizarre and other-wordly rare surviving pulp cover painting by Harold W. McCauley for the October 1949 edition of “Amazing Stories”. A lurid and menacing, yet strangely beautiful illustration for the story “Tiger Women of Shadow Valley” by Berkeley Livingston. Story caption reads “There Was Death In Her Embrace”. This inspired work perfectly captures the luminous commercial technique and painterly elements of a successful Haddon Sundblom “Sundblom Shop” graduate and disciple in collision with pin-up girl, erotic science fiction pulp culture.

Tiger Woman of Shadow Valley

Artist: Harold McCauley

A searingly seductively blonde takes the stand in this hard boiled, pulp fiction inspired 1949 pin-up painting by Al Buell. Working for the Louis F. Dow calendar company under the pseudonym Al Leslie (Leslie was the artist’s middle name), Buell created this leggy, impish bad girl, a scandalous vixen reminiscent of the defiant film noir heroines who graced the screen in this post-war period.

Case Dis-missed

Artist: Al Buell

D’Ancona brings a lighthearted sense of whimsy to this 1950s situational cheesecake pin-up oil on board, which he created for the Goes Lithographic Company, Cincinnati Ohio.

A talented and prolific illustrator, D’Ancona excelled at creating curvaceous imaginings of the Girl Next Door, often presented at her most adorably vulnerable. In this artwork, a pouting brunette reaches for “A Lost Oar” (the title seen on verso of illustration board) only to find herself up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

Up A Creek

Artist: Edward D'Ancona

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