Mel Hunter Auction Prices and Value Guide

Mel Hunter auction prices are tracked in Appraisily's artist market index, with source-directory coverage of 402 records. Use this page to review sold-lot activity, market context, and valuation factors before requesting a formal appraisal.

Mel Hunter auction prices: quick answer

Mel Hunter auction prices depend on medium, size, date, condition, provenance, edition details, attribution confidence, and recent comparable auction sales.

Artist
Mel Hunter
Source records
402
Market update
2026-02-06

Mel Hunter market snapshot

Mel Hunter shows deep auction liquidity with 352 tracked lots. Median realized sale is around $150. Category concentration is still broad or sparse. Last 12 months recorded 42 sales. Latest recorded sale: 2025-11-05.

Realized price distribution

  • Under $1,000 (100.0% · 58 sales)
  • $1,000 to $10,000 (0.0% · 0 sales)
  • $10,000+ (0.0% · 0 sales)
Median sale (last 12 months)
$125
Sales recorded (last 12 months)
42
Median shift vs prior year
0.0%
Latest recorded sale
2025-11-05

Artist context

About Mel Hunter

Mel Hunter portrait
Mel Hunter · see-source-page · Source

Born

1927

Died

2004

Nationality

American

Also known as

Milford Joseph Hunter

Mel Hunter (1927–2004), born Milford Joseph Hunter, was an American illustrator whose career joined science-fiction imagery with technical and scientific communication. Public biographical material associates his science-fiction illustration with authors including Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein, while also identifying institutional clients such as the Pentagon, Hayden Planetarium, and the Massachusetts Audubon Society. These records place him within twentieth-century American illustration rather than establishing a specific fine-art movement. Collectors may encounter Hunter through work connected to publishing, science, technology, or institutional interpretation, and the name should be matched carefully to authority records because “Mel Hunter” is shorter than his recorded full name. Wikidata and VIAF independently identify the illustrator and agree on his 1927–2004 life span. The available source pack is strongest on identity and professional scope; it is less detailed about individual works, physical media, commissions, or a documented catalogue of output.

IllustrationScientific and technical illustrationScience fictionScience and technology

Common works and media

Hunter is publicly documented as producing science-fiction illustration as well as technical and scientific illustration. Work associated with authors such as Isaac Asimov or Robert A. Heinlein, and assignments for scientific or institutional clients, are the clearest documented contexts in this source pack. The pack does not establish a reliable breakdown by painting, drawing, print, poster, edition, or other physical format, so an appraisal should describe the actual object rather than infer its medium from Hunter’s name alone.

Market and appraisal context

Appraisal of a Mel Hunter work should begin by identifying whether it is science-fiction, technical, or scientific illustration and by documenting any connection to a named author, publication, or institutional client. Those distinctions can help select genuinely comparable lots, but the collected source pack does not expose lot-level descriptions or realized-price histories from a major auction house. It therefore does not support claims about price trends, scarcity, or premiums for particular subjects or formats. Attribution and the work’s specific physical characteristics should be established from the object and its documentation before auction records are compared. Appraisily can then weigh sale date, realized price, and similarity of available public lots without treating a directory record count as evidence of value.

Auction categories and appraisal factors

Common auction categories

  • Illustration art
  • Science-fiction illustration

Value drivers

  1. Documented connection to a named author, publication, or institutional client should be established for the specific work before selecting comparable lots.
  2. The work type and subject—such as science-fiction, technical, or scientific illustration—should be identified at lot level when choosing comparables.

Appraisal caveats

  • The collected source pack contains no accessible major-auction-house biography, catalogue entry, or lot-level sale description.
  • The collected Appraisily page response was rate-limited and did not expose individual lots, realized prices, physical media, editions, dimensions, condition, or provenance.
  • The auction categories and valuation considerations are provisional and should not be interpreted as evidence of price trends, scarcity, or market premiums.

Evidence

Sources for artist context

This source-grounded artist context is based on collected public records: medium confidence, adequate source quality.

Source-grounded artist Markdown

Data basis

This page is built from Appraisily's public auction market index. Private transactions, incomplete sale feeds, and attribution changes may not be fully represented.

LLM-readable Markdown summary for Mel Hunter

LLM summary index · LLM full index

Artist value FAQ

How much is Mel Hunter worth?

Comparable public auction sales are the best starting point, but final value depends on the specific artwork, condition, size, medium, provenance, and attribution confidence.

Can Appraisily value my Mel Hunter artwork?

Yes. Appraisily can review photos, dimensions, signatures, condition, provenance, and comparable market data to prepare a current valuation.