# Mel Hunter artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/mel-hunter/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T14:16:56.260Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1927-07-27
- Death date: 2004-02-20
- Nationality: American
- Common media: Illustration, Scientific and technical illustration

## Portrait

![Mel Hunter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Mel_Hunter%2C_1953.png)
Mel Hunter · see-source-page
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Hunter

## About Mel 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.

## 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.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine researched identity records with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are publicly available. Conclusions remain limited when authoritative biographies or lot-level evidence are absent.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15117549
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/2163149068358865730005/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Hunter
- Wikipedia: https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%84_%D9%87%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%B1
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/mel-hunter/