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A sensational, action packed, original oil painting by Allen Anderson. Commissioned as a cover for the pulp title Spicy Detective this work illustrates “The Corpse is Yours” by Robert A. Garron in the May 1941 issue. The artist created a number of these spicy covers for Culture Publications in the 1930s and 1940s. Anderson had some fun with this painting, presenting his signature on the canvas of the oil painting pictured within the scene, he also employs a very thick impasto technique on the paint colors that appears on the artist’s palette at the bottom of the field to appear as fresh paint used on the canvas being created within.

The Corpse Is Yours

Artist: Allen Anderson

A luminous and glowing, glamour girl painting by the well-listed, prolific pin-up illustrator and Hollywood portrait artist Edward Runci. This fine oil on canvas features a Haddon Sundblom / Gil Elvgren inspired color palette and painterly technique. A formally posed beauty queen with a little bit of mischief in her eyes, in white gloves and fur wrap with a purple orchid from an admirer.

The Purple Orchid

Artist: Edward Runci

A rare and fabulous surviving commissioned calendar art pin-up painting by Al Buell titled on verso A Perfect Pair. From a series of paintings Buell did for Brown & Bigelow, The Playmate Series. This was for the month of October and dates to the late 1940s. Buell worked with Gil Elvgren in the Sundblom studios in Chicago and his accounts included Coca-Cola. His oils are among the best in the genre, they capture the pretty girl next door (albeit generally under-dressed) and have a wholesomeness rare in the pin-up form.

A Perfect Pair

Artist: Al Buell

A striking in technique light and shadow in composition rare surviving original pastel on illustration board by Earl MacPherson created in the 1940s for a Patriotic pin-up brochure with text on how to survive an enemy military air raid and subsequent blackout. We will be selling all of the pastels from this important commissioned homeland wartime “Blackout Brochure”. This was a cheeky, lighthearted morale boosting effort making great use of double entendre and the talents of MacPherson to fight fear during World War II.

Incendiary Bombs

Artist: Earl MacPherson

An electric in composition rare surviving original pastel on illustration board by Earl MacPherson created in the 1940s for a Patriotic pin-up brochure with text on how to survive an enemy military air raid and subsequent blackout. We will be selling all of the pastels from this important commissioned homeland wartime “Blackout Brochure”. This was a cheeky, lighthearted morale boosting effort making great use of double entendre and the talents of MacPherson to fight fear during World War II.

Comfort Beside You

Artist: Earl MacPherson

A large and radiant calendar girl pin-up pastel by Billy Devorss created for The Thomas D. Murphy Calendar Company of Red Oak Iowa. Devorss had a studio in New York City in the Beaux Arts Building and worked for many Calendar Companies of the day creating large format pastel illustrations of modernist fashionable attired heart-breakers in an inventive art deco manner.

A Bathing Beauty in Yellow

Artist: Billy DeVorss

An original graphite preliminary pin-up sketch by Rolf Armstrong of his favorite pin-up model Jewel Flowers. Nicely framed and matted with an original color snapshot of Jewel as posed by Armstrong in a wide brimmed straw sun hat from this specific setting, (likely taken by Rolf Armstrong himself). From the Jewel Flowers estate, gifted to Mike Wooldridge the co-author of Pin-up Dreams.

Jewel Flowers in a Sun Hat

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

This is a unique and intriguing pair of original illustrations by Rolf Armstrong, created over the July 4th weekend in 1941, at the Brown & Bigelow holiday company retreat at Breezy Point Lodge in Northern Minnesota. Armstrong, and his favorite model, Jewel Flowers, were celebrities at the event, and Armstrong was called upon to create this impromptu view of Jewel in all-American sporting poses, as an instructional event. Jewel sat lakeside modeling, as Rolf depicted her first beneath a tent, then with a dog, then finally, holding a newly caught fish, similar to the prized walleye she caught at Breezy Point that weekend. These two pieces provide a rare look at the process Armstrong used to develop his iconic pin up creations, and come from the estate of Mike Wooldridge the co-author of “Pin-up Dreams” the well regarded and thoughtfully compiled monograph on the artist.

Jewel Flowers at Breezy Point

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

From the estate of Mike Wooldridge, our friend sadly departed and deeply missed author, historian and advanced pin-up collector comes this new to the the market original pastel illustration by Rolf Armstrong. Pictured is Jewel Flowers, the artist’s favorite model and dear friend for decades. This beautiful pin up portrait dates to the war years of the 1940s and Jewel is depicted in a star spangled red, white and blue patriotic scarf as she readies herself to embark in an afternoon of sailing. Armstrong for several years in the early 1940s had a summer studio in Marblehead Mass, where he was able to combine his love of women, sailing and art and absorb the beautiful seaside imagery and bright vibrant colors associated with this historic beach town.

Embarking On a Sail

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

A framed presentation grouping including a thumbnail pastel preliminary sketch by Rolf Armstrong and large format promotional gelatin silver photograph of Jewel Flowers as posed by Rolf Armstrong. These were created for a Brown & Bigelow Cowgirl themed Pin-up calendar titled “Try This” which first appeared in either 1949 or 1950. From the estate of Mike Wooldridge, the noted Armstrong scholar and collector. Mike befriended Jewel Flowers in the course of his research into Rolf Armstrong, and he acquired this directly from Jewel. This is charmingly framed in a rope adorned Western Americana wood frame behind glass and comes with the published B & B calendar of the finished pastel illustration. A unique and effective presentation of the work process of modeling, staging and creating a calendar commissioned pin-up pastel.

Jewel Flowers as a Cowgirl

Artist: Rolf Armstrong

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