Early Animation Art Slips : Auctions: The market for pieces from early black-and-white films retrenches, but color Disney works appreciate.

After three years of record-breaking prices, the market for early black-and-white animated art has retrenched, but color material from feature Disney films continues to appreciate, two major sales Saturday in New York City indicate.

The sale of the Herbert Black collection--a major cache of Disney animation--at Sotheby’s on Saturday afternoon had been the object of considerable attention within the animation industry. Between 1986 and 1989, the Canadian industrialist spent record sums for black-and-white cel-and-background setups from 1930s Mickey Mouse shorts. The $286,000 he paid for a cel and background of a mouse hitting Donald Duck with a boxing glove from “Orphan’s Benefit” (1934) in May, 1989, remains the highest sum ever paid for a piece of animation artwork.

But, on Saturday, that setup brought only $88,000--a third of what Black had previously paid and considerably less than its pre-sale estimate of $100,000-$150,000. A second setup from the same film, for which Black had paid $181,000, fetched $60,500 against an estimate of $70,000-$90,000. A third “Orphan’s Benefit” setup depicting a crowd of rowdy mice that had cost him $131,000 failed to sell. Its estimated price was $80,000-$120,000.

However, a cel and background of Mickey and Minnie in medieval costume from “Ye Olden Days” (1933) brought the highest price of the day: At $187,000, it sold well over the pre-sale estimate of $80,000-$120,000 (Black paid $176,000 for it in October, 1989).

Color material from Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) and “Fantasia” (1940) generated the most interest among buyers. A cel and background of Mickey Mouse commanding the stars to twinkle from the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” sequence sold for $93,500, nearly twice its estimate of $40,000-$50,000; a set of four watercolor storyboards for the same segment brought $35,750, against a pre-sale estimate of $15,000-$25,000. Of the 74 lots in the Black collection, 69 found buyers for a total of $1,073,600.

“Basically the sale was a great success, although the black- and-white pieces were a bit disappointing,” said Dana Hawkes, a Sotheby’s director. “Quality material from ‘Fantasia’ and ‘Snow White’ is obviously highly sought after. When the early black-and- white pieces first came on the market, they generated lot of excitement because they were a novelty that hadn’t appeared before. Today, they don’t seem so novel--that’s the one area of the market that appears to be settling.”

An additional 178 lots of animation artwork from other sources were offered at Sotheby’s later Saturday afternoon: 151 were sold for a total of $391,820. A cel and background of Snow White kneading pie crust dough while the forest animals look on brought $25,300. It was estimated at $8,000-$12,000. A setup of Jiminy Cricket from “Pinocchio” (1941, currently in re-release) sold for $17,600, well over the estimate of $8,000-12,000.

Earlier in the day, at Christie’s East, an additional 245 of 295 lots offered found buyers, for a sale total of $667,711. An 11 1/2x35-inch watercolor production background of the Witch’s Castle from “Snow White” sold for $71,500, three times its pre-sale estimate of $15,000-$25,000.