Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 196:
Description
Dewey Davidson Pencil-Signed P-38 Lightning Print, Copyright 1990, Hand-Signed and Dated 1992 Offered here is a finely detailed black-and-white pencil-style lithographic print of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning by American aviation artist Dewey Davidson, pencil-signed and dated ’92 by the artist in the lower left margin of the mat. The printed title block at lower right reads "P-38, DEWEY DAVIDSON, 1990(c), " indicating the original artwork was completed in 1990 and this example hand-signed two years later. As is typical of such artist-signed studio prints, no separate published provenance exists for this individual sheet; its history rests in the signature, printed credit line, and the surviving framer’s label on the reverse. Davidson is known among aviation art collectors for his meticulously rendered pencil-and-ink studies of historic American military aircraft, works long associated with military museum gift shops – most notably the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio – and with galleries catering to veterans and aviation enthusiasts. The subject, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, was among the most distinctive Allied fighters of the Second World War, its twin-boom, twin-engine airframe valued for long-range escort and interdiction duty in both the European and Pacific theaters. Davidson’s composition places the aircraft at rest on a tropical airfield, palm trees and low huts visible in the distance, evoking the island-hopping campaigns of the Pacific war without depicting any specific documented mission or unit marking. The print is glazed and matted with a light gray mat and dark ruled inner border, presented in a simple black wooden or composite frame in wide landscape format. The artist’s pencil signature and ’92 date appear at lower left beneath the image; the printed attribution "P-38, DEWEY DAVIDSON, 1990(c)" occupies the lower right corner within the image. A well-preserved, artist-signed tribute to the iconic P-38 Lightning – an affordable, display-ready piece of World War II aviation art for the collector’s wall.
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