Delightful Disneyana: Van Eaton Galleries’ Two-Day Disney Sale

Collecting Disney memorabilia, park signage, artifacts, and event editions has become such a popular worldwide category that it has earned its own distinctive moniker: Disneyana. Van Eaton Galleries of Studio City, CA is presenting its Celebrating the Disney Studio and Parks auction on June 21 and 22, 2025. Lots #0001-0460 will be offered on the first day, and lots #0461-0967 will be offered on the second day. This event offers nearly a century’s worth of category-spanning merchandise from the Happiest Place on Earth and other Disney properties. Here are some auction highlights from this two-day Disney sale.

The top lot in this sale is #0762, a Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride vehicle, estimated at USD 200,000 to $400,000. This legacy vehicle is in the form of a smiling gray elephant with his trunk pointed upward and to the side. He wears a white clown ruff trimmed in blue and a pink hat and matching blanket. Dumbo is mounted upon an eight-feet round red and yellow painted display. Based on its detailing and presentation, the Van Eaton Galleries experts suspect that this ride was produced in the 1960s, although its certificate of authenticity from Disney states that it was made in 1955. 

The Dumbo carousel ride is among the most cherished attractions across the entire Disney network. It can be experienced at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, Shanghai Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland. The ride debuted in August of 1955 at Disney’s Anaheim, CA park. It was inspired by Disney’s fourth full-length feature film, Dumbo, which hit the silver screen in 1941. Over time, the ride’s elephants have been updated in terms of their colors, movement, and forms; these changes help to date the production era of individual vehicles. Disney originally planned this ride with pink elephants, to mirror the “Pink Elephants on Parade” segment of the Dumbo film. 

This sale features many early Disney-inspired displays. Lot #0068, a set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs display characters, is estimated at $40,000 to $60,000. These hand-painted, front-side-only papier-mâché figures from the 1937 Disney animated film include Grumpy, Sleepy, Dopey, Bashful, Snow White, Sneezy, Doc, and Happy. They were produced in the 1930s by Old King Cole. All but Bashful, who comes from a different set and has his name written on his hat, stand on bases bearing their names.

The Old King Cole Display Company was located in Canton, Ohio and specialized in papier-mâché display figures. These were stationary or had simple automaton movements. Old King Cole had a manufacturing license agreement with Disney to create eye-catching displays of their popular characters for theaters and retail establishments. Not surprisingly, Mickey Mouse was their debut production. Most of the time, these figures were thrown out after their promotional or marketing functions had been completed. As such, today they are extremely rare and highly valued among Disney, movie, entertainment, and ephemera collectors. 

Park, ride, and film concept art is another key category in this early summer Disney sale. Lot #0763, a Mary Blair It’s a Small World concept painting, is estimated at $18,000 to $20,000. This gouache on artist’s board work, created for Disneyland in 1965, features fuchsia, cobalt, and nearly turquoise-colored mermaids playfully frolicking upon the back of an orange and pink crocodile. The work is highlighted in gold paint, which provides a wonderful contrast to the painting’s otherwise matte finish. 

Mary Blair (American, 1911 – 1978) was an accomplished artist and illustrator known for her use of bold color and striking imagery. She spent much of her career at Disney in various capacities. Blair produced concept art for films including Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Song of the South, and Cinderella. She also created spaces and places for Disney, like the park’s signature It’s A Small World ride, elements of Epcot’s World Showcase, and dramatic indoor and outdoor decorative artworks. In 1991, she was inducted into the Disney Legends Hall of Fame, which was established in 1987 to honor those individuals who made transformational contributions to the Disney organization.

This auction also presents a fine collection of decade-spanning park used attraction posters. Lot #0775, a PeopleMover poster, is estimated at $15,000 to $20,000. This rarity, produced for Disneyland in 1977, is only one of two examples extant, according to the Van Eaton Galleries experts. Designed by Tim Delaney, it is hand-silkscreened and illustrated with GoodYear racers and a tram. Its purpose was to promote the park’s SuperSpeed Tunnel, which took riders quickly and conveniently through Space Mountain to Tomorrowland. 

Tim Delaney, a big fan of all things Disney since childhood, worked at Walt Disney Imagineering for nearly three and a half decades. He was involved in designing some of the most forward-thinking park experiences at Disney, Epcot, Living Seas, California Adventure, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Disney properties. He was also involved in design, creating the posters promoting the experiences he conceived. Many of his original drawings and illustrations are preserved through the Walt Disney Imagineering archives, located at the Imagineering campus in Glendale, CA.

Park-used signage, building materials, and apparatus, as well as souvenirs, props, historical items, and other category-spanning Disneyana, will round out this exciting two-day sale. Lot #0071, an original Walt Disney Studios animation desk designed by Kem Weber in 1940, is estimated at $10,000 to $15,000. This sturdy, well-engineered wooden desk is detailed with metal handles, a circular drawing area, a hand-cranked pencil sharpener, and plenty of flat shelves for storage. Animator and director Tim Walker– best known for his DuckTales, TaleSpin, and Darkwing Duck franchises– was just one of the Disney creatives who used this desk over the years. 

For more information on Van Eaton Galleries’ June 21 and 22 Celebrating the Disney Studio and Parks auction, visit LiveAuctioneers.

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