Swann Gallery - Results of Winter Auction
Swann Galleries’ annual winter auction of Fine Photographs on February 7 reflected the interrelationship between photographic literature, vernacular imagery, and fine art photography. The backbone of the sale was an unusual American private collection. The auction’s top lot, William Bradford’s landmark example of photographic literature, The Arctic Regions, Illustrated with Photographs Taken on an Art Expedition to Greenland, London, 1873, a large and sumptuous volume with 141 mounted albumen prints, in an elaborate morocco gilt binding, brought $144,000*.
Among diverse 19th-century albums were William Notman’s 56 topographic views of Canada, albumen prints, 1860s-70, $15,600; 66 albumen prints of Japanese figures by Felix Beato, most hand-colored, circa 1871, $66,000; Gaudenzio Marconi’s album containing 199 photographs of female nudes as mythical figures and angels, albumen prints, 1870s, $10,800; and a sample book by J.H. Crockwell, Souvenir of Park City, Her Mines, Mining, and Pleasure Resorts, with 50 albumen prints, 1891, $15,600. Twentieth-century photographic albums included Foster and Kleiser’s catalogue of billboard sites in Portland, Oregon containing 57 silver prints showing billboards with overpainting, 1926-27, $12,000; and a sample book of Gumpert’s Gelatin Desserts, Brooklyn, New York, with more than 60 silver prints, most hand-colored, depicting dishes made with what we today call Jell-O, 1925, which doubled its pre-sale estimate to sell for $7,200.
Individual images spanned the full spectrum of photographic expression. Modernist works proved to be very popular, with André Kertész’s Chez Mondrian, silver print, 1926, printed 1960s, bringing $12,000; Edward and Cole Weston’s Two Shells, silver print, 1927, printed 1954, $14,400; Dain L. Tasker’s Eucalyptus, An X-Ray, bromide contact print, 1932, $14,400; and Man Ray’s Lampshade, toned silver print on a trimmed carte postale, 1920, $31,200, and his portrait of Meret Oppenheim, silver print, 1935, $43,200. Other desirable portraits of well-known subjects included Alexander Rodchenko’s Vladimir Mayakovsky at the Beach, silver print, circa 1928, $12,000; Alfred Stieglitz’s Portrait of Dorothy Norman, silver print, circa 1931, inscribed by Stieglitz to Norman, $24,000; Yousuf Karsh’s Portrait of Sir Winston Churchill, warm-toned silver print, with Churchill’s signature, 1941, $16,800; and Irving Penn’s Marcel Duchamp, platinum-palladium print on Rives paper, flush-mounted on aluminum, 1960, printed 1979, $31,200.
Among other mid-century highlights were Josef Sudek’s Ze seminárské zahrady [From the Seminary Garden], pigment print, 1952, $13,200; Seydou Keïta’s Untitled (reclining woman), silver print, 1956-57, printed 1999, $10,800; Ansel Adams’s Tree, Stump, Mist, Cascade Pass, Washington, silver print, 1960, printed 1976, $14,400; and Diane Arbus’s A Naked Man Being a Woman, N.Y.C. silver print, 1968, printed 1972, $10,800. Contemporary works included Sally Mann’s Virginia at Six, silver print, 1991, $13,200; and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Sea of Buddha, Kyoto, silver print, 1995, $13,800.
*All prices include buyer’s premium.
Among diverse 19th-century albums were William Notman’s 56 topographic views of Canada, albumen prints, 1860s-70, $15,600; 66 albumen prints of Japanese figures by Felix Beato, most hand-colored, circa 1871, $66,000; Gaudenzio Marconi’s album containing 199 photographs of female nudes as mythical figures and angels, albumen prints, 1870s, $10,800; and a sample book by J.H. Crockwell, Souvenir of Park City, Her Mines, Mining, and Pleasure Resorts, with 50 albumen prints, 1891, $15,600. Twentieth-century photographic albums included Foster and Kleiser’s catalogue of billboard sites in Portland, Oregon containing 57 silver prints showing billboards with overpainting, 1926-27, $12,000; and a sample book of Gumpert’s Gelatin Desserts, Brooklyn, New York, with more than 60 silver prints, most hand-colored, depicting dishes made with what we today call Jell-O, 1925, which doubled its pre-sale estimate to sell for $7,200.
Individual images spanned the full spectrum of photographic expression. Modernist works proved to be very popular, with André Kertész’s Chez Mondrian, silver print, 1926, printed 1960s, bringing $12,000; Edward and Cole Weston’s Two Shells, silver print, 1927, printed 1954, $14,400; Dain L. Tasker’s Eucalyptus, An X-Ray, bromide contact print, 1932, $14,400; and Man Ray’s Lampshade, toned silver print on a trimmed carte postale, 1920, $31,200, and his portrait of Meret Oppenheim, silver print, 1935, $43,200. Other desirable portraits of well-known subjects included Alexander Rodchenko’s Vladimir Mayakovsky at the Beach, silver print, circa 1928, $12,000; Alfred Stieglitz’s Portrait of Dorothy Norman, silver print, circa 1931, inscribed by Stieglitz to Norman, $24,000; Yousuf Karsh’s Portrait of Sir Winston Churchill, warm-toned silver print, with Churchill’s signature, 1941, $16,800; and Irving Penn’s Marcel Duchamp, platinum-palladium print on Rives paper, flush-mounted on aluminum, 1960, printed 1979, $31,200.
Among other mid-century highlights were Josef Sudek’s Ze seminárské zahrady [From the Seminary Garden], pigment print, 1952, $13,200; Seydou Keïta’s Untitled (reclining woman), silver print, 1956-57, printed 1999, $10,800; Ansel Adams’s Tree, Stump, Mist, Cascade Pass, Washington, silver print, 1960, printed 1976, $14,400; and Diane Arbus’s A Naked Man Being a Woman, N.Y.C. silver print, 1968, printed 1972, $10,800. Contemporary works included Sally Mann’s Virginia at Six, silver print, 1991, $13,200; and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Sea of Buddha, Kyoto, silver print, 1995, $13,800.
*All prices include buyer’s premium.
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