The Beatles' original Yellow Submarine surfaces

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The Beatles' original Yellow Submarine surfaces and is set to fetch £10,000 at auction this week
· First drawing of Yellow Submarine to fetch more than £10,000 at auction
· Rare celluloid painting depicts vessel used in 1968 film starring Beatles
· Featuring handwritten notes, it was used as a master for animation team 
· Yellow Submarine was a success and led to The Beatles' 10th studio album
By EMMA GLANFIELD FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 6 April 2015

The first ever drawing of The Beatles' famous Yellow Submarine which is dubbed the 'holy grail of memorabilia' is set to fetch more than £10,000 at auction.

The unique psychedelic cartoon, which is hand-painted, depicts the eponymous submarine from the 1968 film in which the Fab Four travel to Pepperland to save it from the Blue Meanies.

The rare celluloid painting, known as a cel, was used as a master version from which artists working on the film created all other images of the wacky vessel.


The first ever drawing of The Beatles' famous Yellow Submarine which is dubbed the 'holy grail of memorabilia' is set to fetch more than £10,000 when it is sold at auction in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday


The rare celluloid painting, known as a cel, was used as a master version from which artists working on the Yellow Submarine film created all other images of the wacky vessel. The 1968 film starred The Beatles (above)

It features handwritten notes instructing artists on the correct colours to use when recreating the submarine.

More than 240 artists and animators worked full time for an entire year to produce the film using revolutionary techniques, and it is credited with helping boost the popularity of animation.

Yellow Submarine was a critical success on its release and led onto The Beatles' 10th studio album the following year.

The single Yellow Submarine, written by Paul McCartney and sung by Ringo Starr, had featured on the 1967 album Revolver and spent four weeks at the top of the UK charts.

Original examples of cels from Yellow Submarine are so sought after that experts have tipped the submarine cartoon to fetch £10,000 when it goes under the hammer on Thursday.

Jim Lentz, director of animation art at Heritage Auctions which is hosting the sale in Dallas, Texas, said: 'Yellow Submarine is one of the most important animations of all time. 


Yellow Submarine was a success on its release and led onto The Beatles' 10th studio album a year later


The single Yellow Submarine, written by Paul McCartney and sung by Ringo Starr, had featured on the 1967 album Revolver and spent four weeks at the top of the UK charts. The original cel is set to sell for £10,000

'It is a film that has stood the test of time and is as relevant today as when it was made in 1968.

'The message of the film - all you need is love - is timeless.

'It is incredible to think the team behind the film put it together in only a year when at that time it would take up to four years to make a feature animation film.

'The animation was ground-breaking and that coupled with the fact that the film was all about the biggest band in the world is what made it so iconic.

'Amazingly, after the film was made the celluloid sheets were sold off in high street stores for as little as seven pounds. Now they are worth thousands.'

'This is a rare hand-painted colour model cel painted by the ink and paint department for cel and animation reference.

'It would be one of the earliest final versions of the Yellow Submarine hand-painted - it really is the holy grail of Yellow Submarine memorabilia.

'Since small stickers were used for when the sub travelled there are not really a great deal of Yellow Submarine cels out there.

'This comes from a former Yellow Submarine ink and paint department employee.

'It is an unusually large image. Colour model cels were used also to help determine the final approved colour scheme of the yellow submarine.

'Colour model cels from this film are very rare, and this is one of the single best cels of the Yellow Submarine we have seen.'

The Animation Art Signature Auction will take place in Dallas, Texas on April 9.