The earliest known Mickey Mouse poster has provided a stunning result in Heritage Auctions' November 29-30 Vintage Movie Poster sale in Texas.
The poster, which dates to 1928, brought an impressive 407.8% increase on its $20,000 estimate, selling for $101,525.
 Beech's daughter hopes the poster will be made available for the world to see |
Heritage Auctions' Grey Smith commented: "It's the earliest known surviving movie poster of the world's most famous mouse and an important piece of pop culture treasure.
"Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse in 1928, and the first 12 Mickey cartoons were distributed in 1928 and 1929 by Celebrity Pictures, a very low budget distributor.
"This is very likely the only Mickey Mouse poster created until 1930 when Disney cartoons began to be distributed by Columbia Pictures."
The poster has spent more than two decades hidden from view in a private collection, after being acquired by American Crowell Havens Beech in 1988. While his family believed that he had sold his entire collection in the 1990s, Beech had secretly kept the poster on top of a dresser.
The auction displays the continued popularity of Disney collectibles at auction. Paul Fraser Collectibles has a superb selection of Disney memorabilia for sale, including an extremely rare Walt Disney-signed sketch of Mickey Mouse.
 The Style B three sheet poster is perhaps the rarest in the hobby |
More outstanding results were seen by a 1933 Style B King Kong poster, which topped its $100,000 valuation by 288.3% to sell for $388,375. Described as "a visual triumph" by the auction house, it is one of the rarest three-sheets in movie poster collecting and is almost never offered for sale.
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