This is an original production cel used in the making of the 1960's Peanuts animated series produced by Bill Melendez. This piece is one of those classic moments when Snoopy just has to take Linus' security blanket

Peanuts had its origin in Li'l Folks, a weekly panel comic that appeared in Schulz's hometown paper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, from 1947 to 1949. When his work was picked up by United Features Syndicate, they decided to go for the new comic strip he had been working on. Ironically, Peanuts never appeared in the Pioneer Press, as the rival Minneapolis Star-Tribune had exclusive rights to the strip for its entire run. In addition to the strip and numerous books, the Peanuts characters have appeared in animated form on television numerous times. This started when the Ford Motor Company licensed the characters in 1961 for a series of black and white commercials for the Ford Falcon. The ads were animated by Bill Melendez for Playhouse Pictures, a cartoon studio that had Ford as a client. Schulz and Melendez became friends, and when producer Lee Mendelson decided to make a two-minute animated sequence for a TV documentary called A Boy Named Charlie Brown in 1963, he brought on Melendez for the project. Before the documentary was completed, the three of them (with help from their sponsor, the Coca-Cola Company) produced their first half-hour animated special, the Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning A Charlie Brown Christmas, which was first aired on the CBS network in 1965. The animated version of Peanuts differs in some aspects from the strip. In the strip, adult voices are seldom heard, and conversations are usually only depicted from the children's end. To translate this aspect to the animated medium, Melendez famously used the sound of a modified trombone to simulate adult "voices". A more significant deviation from the strip was the treatment of Snoopy. In the strip, the dog's thoughts are verbalized in speech balloons; in animation, he is typically silent, his thoughts communicated through growls, laughs, and pantomime, or by having human characters verbalizing his thoughts for him. These treatments have both been abandoned temporarily in the past; they experimented with teacher dialogue in She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, and in the animated adaptations of the plays, Snoopy's thoughts were conveyed in voiceover. The elimination of Snoopy's "voice" is probably the most controversial aspect of the adaptations, but Schulz apparently approved of the treatment. The success of A Charlie Brown Christmas was the impetus for CBS to air many more prime-time Peanuts specials over the years, beginning with It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Charlie Brown's All-Stars in 1966. In total, more than thirty animated specials were produced. Until his death in 1976, jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi composed highly acclaimed musical scores for the specials; in particular, the piece "Linus and Lucy" which has become popularly known as the signature theme song of the Peanuts franchise. Schulz, Mendelson, and Melendez also collaborated on four theatrical feature films starring the characters, the first of which was A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969). Most of these made use of material from Schulz's strips, which were then adapted, although in other cases plots were developed around areas where there were minimal strips to reference. Such was also the case with The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, a Saturday-morning TV series which debuted on CBS in 1983 and lasted for three seasons.

The process of Animation is often a collaborative effort. The evidence of this can often be seen in the long credits at the end of most animated shorts and films.

Whilst only the most talented and skilled artisans would be employed by the studios, it is often difficult to attribute the corresponding artist to the exact piece of artwork we offer.

We therefore credit this artwork as being created by a Studio Artist, acknowledging their skill and talent bringing joy to collectors around the world.

You can now get your hands on some magnificent Peanuts art. In addition to Peanuts art, we also have available Peanuts posters as well as Peanuts prints. This collection is the only place to look for Peanuts gifts.