Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

My great aunt, Daisy Beck, was Walt Disney's grade school teacher, and Daisy let him out of gym class so he could do more painting and drawing. And he simply revered her, and every time he was in Kansas City, he came by and visited, and several times at our home.

APPRAISER

Really? What we have is a... a classic cel. It's a gouache on celluloid, and there's a background that's been airbrushed. And it's Dopey from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" from 1938, and it's actually signed by Walt Disney--

GUEST

Yes.

APPRAISER

--which is interesting, because Disney did not really sign a lot of things. He was loath to.. to sign even letters. He had his secretary sign them. He had... whenever he sent out cels, he had... would have one of the artists do his signature. And every once in a while, for special people, he would sit down and make quite a production of signing either a letter or an actual cel, and this is a very clear and strong picture of his. But also the name is interesting. Did you ever think of the name Daisy and the connection to Disney?

GUEST

I don't know as there was any connection between Daisy and Disney.

APPRAISER

Well, because I always think of Donald's friend, Daisy. You know, I think that might have been a homage to her and the inspiration she created for him. When it comes to value, this is a very clean cel. Now, it's interesting because animation cels were only designed to last for the life of the production of the movie. There was no idea of preserving these. They were saved more by accident than anything else. So that being a gouache on the celluloid, over a period of time, they would crack. Extremes of heat and cold would affect them. This one is in extremely good condition, and it's a great shot of one of the Snow White characters. A cel like this, all by itself, would sell for $3,000 to $4,000. There's a tremendous added value to having a real Walt Disney signature on the cel, and it usually adds about another $3,000 to $4,000, so you're looking at anywhere from $7,000 to $8,000 for this cel.

GUEST

Well, that's great, yeah.