Lot 375

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Description:

Shel Silverstein Large Orig. Signed Drawing and Rare Signed Contract, Fantastic Pair Ready for Display

Wonderful Silverstein original signed artwork of  "Runny Babbit", a character who became Shel Silverstein's work in progress for 20 years and ultimately was published as a children's book posthumously in 2005, becoming a New York Times bestselling poetry book. Silverstein's play on words for "Runny Babbit", are playfully expressed in this amazing piece of art. The fantastic drawing is on a 8.5" x 10" sheet. Silverstein draws Runny Babbit, a large floppy eared, cotton tailed bunny rabbit, with whiskers and eye lashes, surrounding him in a hand drawn linear frame. Silverstein adds a playful inscription in which he swaps out letters between words; "THE FIRST RUNNY BABBIT - / FOR / GERB HARDNER / AND / SPARBARA BROUL/ I HOPE HE SMAKES YOU MILE. SHOVE". And in Silverstein's classic endearing play on words he signs his name as "SHOVE - LEL", which is of course "LOVE -SHEL", (once inverted). Accompanied by a Shel Silverstein signed songwriter's contract for the song "What you gonna do?", Dated "February 28th, 1963", signed by the publisher Melody Trails, Inc; and the writers "Shel Silverstein", "Fred Neil", and "Bob Gibson". 8.5" x 14". The contract "sells, assigns, transfers and delivers to the Publisher, its successors and assigns, a certain heretofore unpublished original musical composition ...". Both the art and the contract are in near fine condition, the slightly age toned art sheet was originally 8.5" x 14", but the lower blank section had been folded below back to fully highlight the artwork. Small corner wrinkle to upper left corner.

Runny Babbit  is largely composed of spoonerisms in rhyming verse (see example of the writing style of this book below). 

Runny Babbit lent to wunch
And heard the saitress way,
"We have some lovely stabbit rew—
Our Special for today.”

Silverstein's first book, "Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back", was published in 1963. Silverstein began drawing at age seven by tracing the works of Al Capp. He told Publishers Weekly: "When I was a kid—12 to 14, I'd much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit with the girls, but I couldn't play ball. I couldn't dance. Luckily, the girls didn't want me. Not much I could do about that. So I started to draw and to write. I was also lucky that I didn't have anybody to copy, be impressed by." But Silverstein was more than an author and artist, he also was a musician. His musical output included a large catalog of songs; a number of them were hits for other artists. 

Shel Silverstein's art is recognizable worldwide for its form, humor, insight and passion. He both wrote and illustrated his own books, and today his original art which is exceedingly scarce, is highly collectible - even more so if the drawing is a character from one of his books. Shown in the additional images are pictures from pages of the book, several of which show Runny Babbit. *Please note the book however does not accompany the lot and the images are for reference only.

This is a superb one-of-a-kind example, and a true conversation piece to frame and hang on the wall in your home or office.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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January 6, 2021 10:30 AM EST
Wilton, CT, US

University Archives

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $99 $10
$100 $299 $20
$300 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $2,999 $200
$3,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 + $5,000