Appraisal: 1966 Girard Goodnough Cat Illustrations

GUEST: I picked them up at a museum benefit sale.

APPRAISER: Uh, what museum benefit sale?

GUEST: In Bloomington?

I tried to talk friends into buying the set, but no one would take them.

I decided, "I'm going to get them myself."

APPRAISER: Well, they're wonderful illustrations by a advertising illustrator and book illustrator named Girard Goodenow.

We can see that he has, in fact, signed this piece, lower left, "Girard."

With this piece, we have the information from the magazine.

What did you pay for the pieces?

GUEST: Together, $100.

APPRAISER: They're really wonderful paintings.

It's interesting, cats have been in art since the very beginning of time.

They've been in the Egyptian tombs.

They've been in Baroque paintings.

They've been in Renaissance paintings.

Originally, cats were seen as predators.

In the Victorian period, they were seen as playful companions.

And here, we have a Woman's Day cover.

This is the original for this cover, from August of 1966, where the cat is protector.

This is a scene that is inside the article for the piece.

And you have all the different breeds of cats.

It does say right here that it was August 1966.

And this, I believe, was probably an alternate cover for the piece.

I think that it was a work-in-progress study that was ultimately used as a template for the cover piece.

And the cover piece is much more finished, which is gouache on paperboard.

There are, in fact, differences between the original illustration and the cover, and that's because of the type that was needed to advertise the magazine.

We have the cat upper right flipped over in the final display.

And we also have a missing kitty here that originally would have been there, which is the title of the article on the inside.

I think it's a wonderful collection.

I would appraise the collection, uh, for insurance at $3,000.

GUEST: Wha... (gasps): That's... (laughs): That's unbelievable.

APPRAISER: Oh, yes, absolutely.

Absolutely.

GUEST: That's really unbelievable.