# Red Skelton artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/red-skelton/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T22:05:43.663Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: American

## Portrait

![Red Skelton](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Red_Skelton_1960_rebalance.jpg/1280px-Red_Skelton_1960_rebalance.jpg)
Adam Cuerden · Public domain
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_Skelton_1960_rebalance.jpg

## About Red Skelton

Red Skelton (1913–1997), born Richard Bernard Skelton, was an American entertainer and comedian whose identity is anchored by Wikidata and VIAF authority records. He became best known through national radio and television work, particularly The Red Skelton Show, and also appeared in vaudeville, burlesque, films, nightclubs, and casinos. Alongside that entertainment work, he pursued a separate career as a visual artist. This dual identity matters on an artist page: collectors may recognize the performer’s name while encountering objects offered as his artwork. The collected sources firmly establish the person and the existence of his artistic activity, but they do not provide institution-grade detail about artistic training, movements, recurring media, subjects, or named series. Appraisily therefore identifies Skelton as an American entertainer and artist without assigning an unsupported school or movement. Individual works require assessment through their cataloguing, inscriptions, provenance, condition, and supporting documentation.

## Common works and media

The collected sources confirm that Red Skelton maintained a visual-art career, but they do not establish recurring media, subjects, editions, or named series. Common work types should therefore be described only after the underlying auction lots have been reviewed, with original works, editions, reproductions, and other objects kept distinct. Until that lot-level classification is available, no painting, print, drawing, sculpture, or other category should be presented as characteristic of his output.

## Market and appraisal context

Appraisily’s public artist page indexes auction records under Red Skelton, but the collected source pack does not include a major-auction-house biography or detailed lot excerpts. Market interpretation should begin with identity and attribution: determine whether an object is credibly connected to Richard Bernard “Red” Skelton and whether its cataloguing distinguishes an original work from an edition, reproduction, or other object bearing his name. An appraisal should then consider the stated medium, dimensions, subject, date, signature or inscription, edition information, condition, provenance, and relevant comparable public sales. These considerations do not authenticate a work or imply a price trend; they identify the evidence needed for a responsible comparison.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine public artist-identity research with indexed auction records and, when available, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots. Source gaps and attribution limits are retained rather than replaced with unsupported conclusions.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1277029
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/29722266/
- Bibliothèque nationale de France: https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb13939230d
- Red Skelton: http://www.redskelton.com/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Skelton
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/red-skelton/
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_Skelton_1960_rebalance.jpg