Edith Lavell Original Illustration

I recently made a neat purchase on eBay. The auction lot contained two old illustrations in watercolor from the 1930s. Each illustration measures approximately 9 inches by 14 inches. One of the illustrations is the cover art of the Edith Lavell book, The Mystery of the Secret Band.


It is just the lower half of the cover art. The upper half is missing, and the illustration is damaged around the edges. The top part of Edith Lavell's name is just barely visible along the bottom. For comparison, here is the front panel of the dust jacket from the book:


In closely examining the illustration, there is no doubt that it is the actual illustration that was used to produce the dust jacket art for the book. There is even a slight imperfection in the illustration near the car's bumper that appears exactly the same in the dust jacket.

Another illustration was included in the lot:


I do not recognize the second illustration, so I do not know which book it is from. This seller had many lots of original illustrations from different A. L. Burt books, so it is likely from an A. L. Burt book. If anybody recognizes the above illustration, please let me know.

The crude way in which both illustrations were cut shows the utter disregard that the publishers had for the original illustrations. It is amazing that any of them have survived to this day, in any kind of condition.