9 February 1939. Tintin is convinced that a plot is brewing against the Syldavian sovereign. His arrival in the country was not easy; he even escaped execution. One solution: “Let’s go quickly and warn King Muskar XII of the danger that threatens him…” , says the reporter, on his way to the Royal Palace.

A week later, the reader of the Petit Vingtième discovers a crucial scene on the cover of No. 7: a butler, stiff as a picket pole, advances in the foreground. Tintin and Milou follow him closely. In the background stands a guard, the torso bulging. Well polished, the tiles slightly reflect the legs of the characters and the legs of Milou. No doubt, the hero is in the residence of the Syldave head of state. Under the drawing, a sentence adds to the suspense: "Will Tintin be received by S.M. Muskar XII?"

On the cover of the Petit Vingtième, the design is enhanced by two colors called «support»: green and red. The twentieth century and its supplements were printed in typography, and the colors were affixed approximately and in limited numbers.

The original in Chinese ink appeared in an Artcurial sale dedicated to Hergé in 2017. Initially left in black and white, it had been painted in watercolor and white gouache by the draftsman the day he offered it to a relationship. This is not an isolated case: Hergé did the same with some other covers of the Petit Vingtième.

Estimated between 600 and 800,000 euros by expert Éric Leroy, the drawing only reached 505,000 euros at the sale on 18 November 2017.

Now this drawing evoking a sequence of Ottokar’s Sceptrer has recently resurfaced. On March 17, the Farrando house organized a sale under the generic title Complete furniture of a Parisian apartment and various. Many objects of art, paintings, plates, carpets, armchairs and other dresses have succeeded each other under the hammer of the auctioneer. In the middle of all these lots, only one piece had a connection with the comic strip: Hergé’s cover drawing for Le Petit Vingtième of February 16th, 1939. The estimate was lower than that set by Artcurial at the time: between 350 and 500,000 euros. But despite a press release on actuabd.com and a conference by expert Michel Coste, Hergé's place in the auctions, the day before the auction, fans of Tintin did not jostle: Milou, his master and the butler did not find a buyer. This little jewel of Hergé will undoubtedly be seen again in the near future in another sale, preferably devoted to the ninth art.