As of Oct 04, 2024

Bunny Yeager

Lot 17012
Bettie Page Christmas
Unique hand color fiber-based gelatin silver print

20,0 x 16,0 in (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
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Lot 17012
Bettie Page Christmas
Unique hand color fiber-based gelatin silver print
20,0 x 16,0 in (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
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Auction: 18 days

Heritage Auctions

City: Dallas, TX
Auction: Oct 24, 2024
Auction number: 15237
Auction name: The Bunny Yeager Archive: Pin Up Photographs Showcase Auction
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Lot Details
Signed in ink, mount verso.
Bunny Yeager (American, 1929-2014) Bettie Page, Christmas, 1954 Unique hand color fiber-based gelatin silver print 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm) (image/sheet) Signed in ink, mount verso. From the collection of Grapefruit Moon Gallery This one of a kind hand colored photograph by Bunny Yeager dates to the 1954 year-long partnership between the photographer and iconic pin-up model Bettie Page. This festive and flirtatious Christmas scene was taken in Bunny’s home and shows Bettie trimming the family tree with shiny baubles wearing nothing but a Santa cap. This shoot was life-changing for both artist and model. Yeager sent the photos to Hugh Hefner who had just recently started his magazine Playboy. Hefner offered her $100.00 for the images and used one of them as the centerfold of January of 1955. "Nobody had heard of Hugh Hefner" she told an interviewer. "But I figured because they were new they might pay attention to an amateur, and that’s what happened…If I hadn’t have made that early connection when he was just starting out, maybe I wouldn’t have got such a big push, but immediately I became employable." Yeager's hand-colored pieces are among the most rare artifacts from her archive, and none are more significant than this image, one of the most famed and beloved from her five decade career. HID12401132022 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved
Overall good condition. Some minor creasing in the top edge, not affecting the image. A few pinhead sized holes scattered in the image and margins. Sheet is flush mount to a foam core board, not framed.
Lot Details
Signed in ink, mount verso.
Bunny Yeager (American, 1929-2014) Bettie Page, Christmas, 1954 Unique hand color fiber-based gelatin silver print 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm) (image/sheet) Signed in ink, mount verso. From the collection of Grapefruit Moon Gallery This one of a kind hand colored photograph by Bunny Yeager dates to the 1954 year-long partnership between the photographer and iconic pin-up model Bettie Page. This festive and flirtatious Christmas scene was taken in Bunny’s home and shows Bettie trimming the family tree with shiny baubles wearing nothing but a Santa cap. This shoot was life-changing for both artist and model. Yeager sent the photos to Hugh Hefner who had just recently started his magazine Playboy. Hefner offered her $100.00 for the images and used one of them as the centerfold of January of 1955. "Nobody had heard of Hugh Hefner" she told an interviewer. "But I figured because they were new they might pay attention to an amateur, and that’s what happened…If I hadn’t have made that early connection when he was just starting out, maybe I wouldn’t have got such a big push, but immediately I became employable." Yeager's hand-colored pieces are among the most rare artifacts from her archive, and none are more significant than this image, one of the most famed and beloved from her five decade career. HID12401132022 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved
Overall good condition. Some minor creasing in the top edge, not affecting the image. A few pinhead sized holes scattered in the image and margins. Sheet is flush mount to a foam core board, not framed.
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