Collector’s guide

The words in a cel listing

Cel listings use a language of their own. Here is what each term means, in a sentence or two, with links to real examples where Pegbar has one.

Part one

The cel and its setting

Production cel: A sheet of clear acetate, painted by hand, made to be photographed for the film. “Cel” is short for celluloid, the material used in the early years.
Cel level: One layer of a shot. A frame can stack several cels over one background, such as a character on one level and a prop on another. The Friar Tuck cel has Tuck alone, with the stew pot on a separate level.
Setup: A cel shown with a background, ready to frame. The cel and the background may or may not have been filmed together.
Key setup: A cel on the production background it was filmed with, so the pair matches a frame of the film. These are among the most prized pieces.
Production background: The hand-painted scenery the cels were photographed over. Backgrounds and cels were usually sold separately.
Pan background: A background painted wider than the frame, so the camera could travel along it during a shot.
Printed background: A printed scene, often a lithograph, used to display a cel for sale. It was never in the film. The Baloo cel sits on one.
Courvoisier setup: A cel sold through the Courvoisier Galleries of San Francisco between 1938 and 1946. These were often trimmed to the figure and set on a wood-veneer or painted background with a label.

Part two

Sericel: A cel printed by silkscreen in a numbered edition for collectors. It was never filmed, but its line art can come from a real drawing, so it can still line up with a frame.
Limited edition cel: A cel hand-painted for collectors in a numbered edition, often recreating a famous moment. It was never filmed.
Publicity cel: A cel made to promote a film, for press or posters. It usually shows a complete figure, where a production cel is often one layer of a shot.
Colour model cel: A cel painted as a colour reference, so the painters knew which paint went where on a character.

Part three

Animation drawing: The animator’s pencil drawing on punched paper. Every production cel starts as one of these.
Hand inking: Before the Xerox process took over in the 1960s (at Disney, from 1961), inkers traced each drawing onto the front of the cel by hand with pen and ink.
Xerox line: The drawing copied onto the cel by a Xerox process. Disney worked this way from 101 Dalmatians in 1961 through The Little Mermaid in 1989, and TV studios used the same process for their series. The line on the cel is the animator’s own, which is why Pegbar can match it.
Painting on the back: Colour was painted on the back of the cel, so the brush marks stay hidden and the line stays crisp on the front.
Pegbar and peg holes: The strip with three pegs that kept every drawing and cel in place on the desk and under the camera. Cels were punched to fit it. The holes are often still there, or trimmed off for framing.
Field size: The camera’s view, named by its width in inches. A 12-field cel was made for a 12-inch view; a 16-field cel for a wider shot.
On ones, on twos: How long each drawing stays on screen. On twos, each drawing is photographed for two frames, twelve drawings a second. Fast action is often on ones. Tuck’s scene is on twos.
Exposure sheet: The chart that told the camera operator which drawings and cels to photograph for every frame of a scene.

Part four

Studio seal: An embossed or stamped seal a studio added to cels it sold. Its wording can date the sale: on Disney cels, the name “The Walt Disney Company” dates from 1986. The Tito cel carries one.
Certificate of authenticity: A letter or card describing the cel. What it is worth depends on who issued it: the studio, an independent expert, or the seller vouching for its own stock.
Disneyland Art Corner: A shop in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, open from 1955 to 1966, that sold production cels to park visitors for a few dollars each.
Screen-matched: A cel shown to match a specific frame of the film. On Pegbar this is the matched answer, with the frame and the drawings either side shown as evidence.

Before you buy

A good dealer will be glad you asked. Each answer is something you can check, not just something you are told.

Which scene is it from? Ask whether they have matched it to the film, or only named the film.
Can I see the back? The paint is on the back, and so is most of the cel’s history.
Are there peg holes? Or a trimmed edge where they used to be.
What is the background? A production background, a printed one, or one added later.
Is there a seal or certificate? And who issued it.
What have similar cels sold for? Compare against past sales, not other asking prices.

Put it to work

Start with a photo and the film. Pegbar matches it against its frame library, right in your browser.