Conrad’s Falcon

OS asked for a dollar estimate for her Barnaby Conrad signed lithograph. When an artist is a huge personality with a legendary past, “comparable sales” (prices paid of past works) will NOT accurately reflect the stature of the artist’s oeuvre. Artist, author, portraitist, cabaret owner, bar room pianist, bullfighter, friend to writers, one-time Vice Consul to Spain, and boxer – a local legend since the 1960s, Barnaby Conrad (San Francisco, 1922 – Carpinteria, 2013) is such an artist. OS discovered this lithograph of a beautiful falcon at the back of her late husband’s closet, signed in the plate “Barnaby Conrad, June 1986,” countersigned by hand “Barnaby Conrad.” A label reads: “First Award, “Brief Encounter,” Fiction, Santa Barbara Writers Conference, June 1986.” OS’s husband “won” this print at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, founded by Conrad in 1973.

OS notes that the Santa Barbara Writers Conference turns 50 years old this year. Mr. Conrad and his wife Mary ran the conference for over 30 years. Monte Schulz, also a local legend, has attended since 1975 and became owner of the conference in 2010.

Conrad began his bullfighting career at the age of 19 as a student in Mexico City, and shortly thereafter entered Yale as an art student. It is his literary career, however, that is the basis of his fame. He published over 30 books in his lifetime, designing and illustrating his own covers for many of them. Throughout his life, he made a point of acquainting himself with interesting people. His 1997 book Name Dropping: Tales from my San Francisco Nightclub dishes the dirt on celebrated drinkers at his club “El Matador,” founded in 1953.

I researched Conrad’s most recently sold art, books, and autographs. An illustration by Conrad, The Last Fight of Manolete (32.5 x 43”) – produced as a lithographic advertisement for Pearl Beer of San Antonio, TX – was recently sold by Vogt Auctions for $530. Unlike OS’s piece (mentioned at the top of this column), this work was not signed. OS’s lithograph is worth more – but how much more? Undoubtably Conrad was a noted career artist: he has charcoal portraits in the National Portrait Gallery depicting Truman Capote, James Michener, and Alex Haley.

Conrad’s book Matador (1952) sold over two million copies, and a signed first edition will sell for $800 in good condition. This is the story of legendary bullfighter Manolete, who, in his comeback fight, was gored and died in 1947. Conrad was also gored in 1958 but lived to fight again. A book formerly in Conrad’s collection on the history of bullfighting, signed by Conrad, is offered on Argosy Books for $200, proving again that simply his signature is valued because of the man he was. A sketch of his bullfighting teacher Carlos Arruza (1920-1966), a prominent bullfighter in the 1940s, sold for $200.

Conrad’s signature alone sells for $300 and more. The website “History for Sale: Autograph and Manuscript Leader” offers 10 personal bank checks signed by Conrad in 2002, payments to collaborating authors for his book Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life. All these checks for sale are signed by Conrad to Catherine Ryan Hyde, and offered for $220. Contributor Elizabeth George’s signed check is offered for $360, Conrad’s check to Hubert Gold is offered for $323, one to J.F. Freeman for $360, another to Cherie Carter-Scott for $320, one to Francis A. Weaver for $320, a check to John Leggett for $320, one to Donald Newlove for $272, to A. Scott Berg for $380, and a check to Evan Hunter is offered for $200. Conrad’s signed name commands $300 in the autograph market.

More sold works by Conrad add to my evaluation: a bronze bust by Conrad of Manolete (10.5 x 7.5 x 9”), offered by iGavel from the estate of actor Richard Widmark, did not sell, but carried the auction estimate of $300-500. Conrad’s sketch of legendary bullfighter Carlos Arruza (1920-66), who was Conrad’s bullfighting teacher, sold for $200.

Conrad is an important cultural figure whose career included 40 bullfights in Spain, Mexico and Peru, authorship of over 30 books (many selling millions of copies), and a reputation as a multi-talented artist in many mediums and genres. Attendees at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference attest to his support of writers; his friends included Sinclair Lewis (Conrad was his personal secretary in 1947), John Steinbeck, William F. Buckley Jr., and Ray Bradbury. 

Conrad as a polymath supersedes the value of one work on the commercial market. Judging from the values paid for an autograph, and the price paid for an unsigned poster, I put the value of the falcon lithograph, of which only 300 were printed in 1986, at $1,200.