In a few e-mail exchanges with Edgar Rice Burroughs scholar Robert R. Barrett, a couple of speculations about the art for Tarzan at the Earth’s Core have arisen. One is about the status of the original painting, the fact being that none of the original art for any of the Metropolitan Books has ever shown up on the collector’s market. This seems to confirm that these pieces are “lost” in that they do not exist in the artist’s or author’s estates or in acknowledged collections. J. Allen St. John sold all of his Burroughs-related art in the 1950s and this painting was not seen at that time. The piece may have been given away to a Metropolitan employee, or it might have “disappeared” after the color separations were made.
The other speculation is that, unlike most of the paintings St. John did for the A.C. McClurg & Co. editions, the lettering for this painting was probably done separately, “on paper” and added during the printing process. This idea is based on the fact that the artist only charged $250 (!) for the whole package which was less than the $300 he usually charged McClurg for a frontispiece and wraparound jacket job on which he did the titling directly on the painting. It was easier for him to do the lettering separately, money was scarce after the 1929 Crash, and he probably had to negotiate with Metropolitan since they were used to using their own in-house artists.
It may be that this painting still exists in the attic of some private home somewhere. We can only dream. . .