Dr. Seuss Signed Drawing

Appraised on: August 21, 2010

Appraised in: Washington, DC

Appraised by: Kathleen Guzman

Category: Collectibles

Episode Info: Junk in the Trunk (#1519)

Originally Aired: November 7, 2011

IMAGE: 1 of 2  

Appraisal Video: (1:24)

GUEST: I grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, where Dr. Seuss lived much of his life before he moved to California. And my grandmother knew him. And when I graduated from high school in 1964, she actually wrote to him and asked him to send me something. It was a complete surprise. So I've had it since then.

APPRAISER: Well, Dr. Seuss, obviously immortalized by all of his children's books and lives in everyone's memories. His name is Theodor Geisel, and there's very little of his original artwork out there, the reason being that Audrey Geisel, at his death, donated almost everything to the University of San Diego.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And they maintain his archive and his library there. Now normally, when something is inscribed to someone else, it's worth less, but in this particular case, being on the stationery that is his stationery from California, being in the medium that he normally worked in, having a great signature like it does, and being inscribed to you really helps the provenance of it. About three years ago, someone in California started faking the drawings, and the market really has been fooled. There are a few auction records of ones that have sold recently, and something like this would bring about $6,000 on the auction market.

GUEST: Wow.