East Hampton Artists

May 10, 2017, 11:06 am

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The community of East Hampton has long been known as an avant-garde artist enclave. Our May 11 auction of Contemporary Art features a century’s worth of output by artists who called the Hamptons their home.

Beginning in the nineteenth century with high-caliber artists such as Childe Hassam and Thomas Moran and his wife Mary Nimmo Moran, the East End was known for its tranquil light and inspirational environs.

Lot 217: Fairfield Porter, Ocean I (Second State), color lithograph, 1973. Estimate $1,000 to $1,500.

Fairfield Porter was an artist and critic who divided his time between Southampton and his family’s island in Maine. He was heavily influenced by Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard, a debt that is especially visible in Porter’s interior scenes. He remained dedicated to figurative art even as the Abstract Expressionist movement became de rigueur. One of Porter’s frequent muses was the landscape of the East End, and more than 200 of his works were bequeathed to the Parrish Art Museum after his death.

Lot 7: Jackson Pollock, Untitled, screenprint, 1951, printed 1964. Estimate $5,000 to $8,000.

Perhaps the most famous East Hampton artist was Jackson Pollock. He lived with his wife, Lee Krasner, in a house and studio on Springs Fireplace Road that is now a museum. Pollock and Krasner changed the face of American painting in the 1940s and ’50s when Pollock began his “drip paintings.” They were close friends with other creators in the region, including Alfonso Ossorio, and were largely influential in luring city artists out east.

According the the Museum of Modern Art, “One of the few Abstract Expressionists to work in printmaking at periods throughout his career, Pollock began making lithographs in the 1930s that were realist in style and largely influenced by his teacher, Thomas Hart Benton, the American Regionalist painter best known for his sprawling murals. He later moved to engravings, which show a subtle interaction between figuration and abstraction through an overall network of lines, and screenprints, in which he experimented with colored inks and papers.”

Lot 3: Willem de Kooning, Clam Digger, lithograph, 1966. Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

Willem de Kooning and his wife Elaine de Kooning moved to a studio in East Hampton in 1963. Over a career that spanned almost seven decades, he did some of his most famous and compelling work in the studio he designed and built in Springs. He was inspired by the light and ocean air that reminded him of his native Holland. De Kooning is best known for his gestural interpretations of women that have been so abstracted they begin to lose their form.

One of the pieces from the upcoming auction depicts a Clam Digger, one of the oldest activities recorded in East Hampton. An earlier painting of the same name was featured in de Kooning’s retrospective at MoMA in the section, “Starting Over in Springs.”

Lot 17: Helen Frankenthaler, Air Frame, color screenprint, 1965.
Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.

Husband-and-wife artistic powerhouse Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell moved to East Hampton in 1945, before Motherwell gained international renown for his monumental black and white abstractions. Frankenthaler was a pioneer of the “staining” movement and was deeply influential to the Color Field Painters in Washington, D.C., including Kenneth Noland. Though he is more famous for his bichromatic abstract compositions, Motherwell once said he “made his best work out there.” We have more information about works by Motherwell in this sale on our blog.

Lot 12: Robert Motherwell, Summertime in Italy, lithograph, 1965-66.
Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Unlike some of the other artists who found their stride in the Hamptons, Roy Lichtenstein moved to the East End in 1970 to escape his fame. Already, he had achieved critical and commercial success for his “dot” paintings that revolutionized Pop Art. According to a 1987 article from The New York Times, “The painter Larry Rivers, another friend of the artist, feels that Lichtenstein helped rescue modern art from the grip of the Abstract Expressionists and the emotive, gestural way of painting that had prevailed in the 1950s.” Upon moving to Southampton, his style loosened and he turned to seascapes, eschewing the rigid predictability of his famous Ben Day dots.

Lichtenstein created the promotional poster for a 1980 benefit at East Hampton’s Guild Hall, a museum that has celebrated East End artists since its foundation in 1931, which was recently described as “That eye-popping image, with a pair of gulls framed against puffy, marshmallowlike clouds while winging their way past creamy yellow dunes, still beautifully encapsulates all things East End.”

Lot 167: Roy Lichtenstein, Guild Hall East Hampton, color screenprint poster, 1980. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

Contemporary artists continue to draw inspiration from the East End. Abstract realist Donald Sultan left the New York art scene in the ’80s to work in the relative peace and quiet of his Amagansett studio, where he focused on “the three main themes of painting: landscapes, still-lifes, and florals.” He is known for his larger-than-life interpretations of these subjects, often in jarring, non-representational colors. He also frequently employs unexpected materials and techniques in his work.

Lot 267: Donald Sultan, Wall Flowers, color screenprint, 1994.
Estimate $5,000 to $8,000.

Eric Fischl‘s work from the 1980s is known for capturing a tense voyeuristic scene suspended in a breathless stillness, reminiscent of the domestic scenes of Edward Hopper. Inner Tube is an example of this motif, showing an adolescent boy obscured by sunlight watching a nude woman apply sunscreen in the shade. Fischl lives in East Hampton with his wife, April Gornik; each continuously draws inspiration from the landscape.

Lot 265: Eric Fischl, Inner Tube, color aquatint, 1989. Estimate $1,200 to $1,800.

Jennifer Bartlett is a part-time resident of Amagansett and Brooklyn whose work is recognizable by a varied scale of grids that encompass her works. In some pieces, such as 3 p.m. Chair (Black & White), the grid is minuscule and obfuscates the subject matter; in contrast, the grid in In the Garden #8 is so large it breaks the image into just two planes. The long reflecting pool with a figure at the end is a frequent theme of her work.

Lot 262: Jennifer Bartlett, In the Garden #8, conte crayon and color pastels, 1980. Estimate $7,000 to $10,000.

East Hampton is one of America’s most enduring artist communities, and will surely continue to inspire new movements and generations of creative geniuses.

Find more works by these artists and others in the catalogue.

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George & Robert Cruikshank, Early Caricaturists

May 11, 2017, 11:26 am

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Brothers George and Isaac (who often went by his middle name of Robert) Cruikshank were famed early nineteenth-century caricaturists. Their work appears in two of our sales this season, 19th & 20th Century Literature and Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books.

George Cruikshank is most famous for his illustrations for several first editions (in book form) by Charles Dickens, including Sketches by Boz and Oliver Twist. Decades before, he illustrated a satirical periodical titled The Scourge, or, Monthly Expositor of Imposter and Folly, which ran from 1811 to 1816. Our 19th & 20th Century Literature sale features a complete set of The Scourge, only the third ever to come to auction. The complete set is rare because very few copies of the final twelfth volume exist, as subscription numbers had fallen dramatically.

Lot 61: George Cruikshank, The Blessings of Paper Money, or King a Bad Subject, 1811, from The Scourge, complete set of 12 volumes, London, 1811-16.
Estimate $4,000 to $6,000. At auction May 16, 2017.

George was only 19 years old in 1811 when he began illustrating for The Scourge. A commentary of the exsanguination of the British mint into French pockets appeared in the August 1 issue of that year. The Blessings of Paper Money, or King a Bad Subject depicts “a figure of Napoleon crowned is introduced in the act of withdrawing a large pan filled with gold from John Bull, who is being dosed with paper money, his chest covered with leaches.”

Robert G.W. Kirk and Neil Pemberton continue in Leech, “the two physicians represent parliamentarians responsible for a bill to depreciate the value of British bank notes, threatening to drain the wealth of the nation. Napoleon reveals his parasitic nature by withdrawing a pan filled with gold coins from underneath John Bull.”

Lot 61: George Cruikshank, A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggar’s Petition, uncensored, 1816, from The Scourge, complete set of 12 volumes, London, 1811-16. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000. At auction May 16, 2017.

The present set is especially interesting because it contains one of few known copies of the original, uncensored plate of A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggar’s Petition, 1816. The image depicts the Duke of Cumberland, who had, the previous year, married a woman of questionable morals (who also happened to be his cousin). The couple was barred from the royal court not only for the Duchess’s promiscuity but for the Duke’s reputation of incest and murder. He is shown here being expelled from Parliament by a cannonball that has tattered his pants.

Tamara L. Hunt gives the context for the censorship: “The new Duchess looks longingly at three grotesque Grenadiers, saying ‘Ah! who could resist such Lovers as these. Happy is the woman whose husband is a Grenadier.’ To emphasize further the Duchess’s questionable past, Cumberland wears a cuckold’s horns. Lord Cochrane, whose vote tipped the scales to defeat Cumberland’s grant, fires a cannon at the Duke, expelling him from Parliament. The large black area on the right of this self-censored print covers the figure of Cumberland’s late valet, who allegedly cut his own throat after unsuccessfully trying to murder the Duke in 1810. He holds a bloody razor, crying ‘Is this a razor that I see before me? Thou canst not say I did it,’ echoing the popular rumor that the Duke had murdered him.”

Lot 61: George Cruikshank, A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggar’s Petition, censored, 1816, from The Scourge, complete set of 12 volumes,
London, 1811-16. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000. At auction May 16, 2017.

Lot 61: George Cruikshank, A Peep into the Blue Coat School!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, 1816, from The Scourge, complete set of 12 volumes,
London, 1811-16. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000. At auction May 16, 2017.

A Peep into the Blue Coat School!!!!!!!!!!!!!! satirizes a specific incident that occurred in November, 1815. According to a contemporary legal pamphlet, “On the 25th day of November [1815…], Lieut. Gen. Sire Eyre Coote had gone into the Mathematical School [of Christ’s Children’s Hospital] and conversed improperly with the boys,–asking them whether they liked flogging, and telling them they might flog him: and that for this extraordinary conduct, the Lieut. Gen. was taken by the Porter of the Lodge to the City Compter.”

Other accounts suggest a version of events that more closely resembled Cruikshank’s interpretation: that the interaction was more than conversational and when Coote was caught, his rear end was exposed and there were several boys behind him holding a whip.

The British Museum describes the image as such: “A scene in a bare schoolroom, with a map, &c., on the wall. A pig in military uniform, wearing a plumed cocked hat and a ribbon (incorrectly colored blue), stands on its hind-legs, its fore-feet resting against a wall, to be birched by three Christ’s Hospital boys, in their long blue gowns and yellow stockings. From his pocket hangs a purse labelled ‘Secret Service Money’. At his feet lie his sword and a document: ‘Bill to promote Floging in the Army . . . [C]oote.’ Against this lies: ‘An Ode to the Birch Tree by T Tickletoby Esqr’. He says: “I have had enough, you hurt me.” The boy who is flogging says: “I’ll give him Eighteen penny worth he may depend, I’ll make him sing out.” Another boy: “Flog away bob, you have not had two shillings worth yet!” On a form in the foreground lies a book: ‘Histy of Birds & Beasts—The Coote’, indicating that the pig is Sir Eyre Coote. A plainly dressed woman stands in the doorway with Sir W. Curtis and the Lord Mayor Wood in his gown. She says: “There’s the curious beast!” Curtis: “Shocking! Shocking! you shall hear of this Sir – – Speedy & soon.” Wood: “Is it possible!!”

In the end, Coote gave a gift of £1,000 to the hospital and was subsequently acquitted.

George Cruikshank’s younger brother Isaac is more commonly known by his middle name of Robert. Like his brother, Robert was a gifted artist and caricaturist. An unusual lot in our June 7 auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books comprises 25 finished ink and watercolor drawings intended for publication as “juvenile dramas,” a popular children’s activity in the early nineteenth century. The images depict leading actors of the day dressed as their most famous characters, so that children could reenact the drama on their own. Five of the images included in the lot are accompanied by their published hand-colored engraved plates.

Robert Cruikshank, Mr. Ducrow & His Favorite Pegasus Dancing the Persian Minuet in Charlemagne, from a portfolio of 25 ink & watercolor theatrical portrait sheets, London, 1830s. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000. At auction June 7, 2017.

All similar in style, the drawings appear to have been created for the use of John Fairburn, a successful printer of theatrical scenes in the 1830s. Three of the present matching engravings were published by Fairburn, while two others bear the imprint of William Spencer Johnson, a publisher known to have issued later strikes of Fairburn’s plates.

Robert Cruikshank, Mr. Kean as Richard III, from a portfolio of 25 ink & watercolor theatrical portrait sheets, London, 1830s.
Estimate $8,000 to $12,000. At auction June 7, 2017.

Toy Theater, also known as Paper Theater, was an established English child’s amusement since the early 1800s; however, popularity increased significantly when the talents of more accomplished artists such as the Cruikshanks became involved in creating the portraits. The present series of drawings by Robert Cruikshank are finely done, portraying almost identifiable likenesses of the thespians exuberantly engaged in the detailed costumes of their stage roles. Some of the notable portraits include: Mr. Farley as Grindoff in The Miller & His Men; Mr. Edwin as the Prince of China in The Bronze Horse; Mr. O. Smith as Mammon in The Devil’s Ducat; Miss Huddart as Joan of Arc; Miss Louisa Pyne as Don Juan; Mr. C. Hill as Saint Bernard in The Avenger; Miss Vincent as Prince Aladdin; and Miss H Lewis as Ann Jane Thornton, the Female Sailor.

Robert Cruikshank, Van Amburgh, the Brute Tamer of Pompeii, from a portfolio of 25 ink & watercolor theatrical portrait sheets, London, 1830s. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000. At auction June 7, 2017.

Check out the catalogues of 19th & 20th Century Literature and Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books.

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Psychedelic Concert Posters

May 12, 2017, 4:48 am

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This post was written by Sarah Shelburne of the Vintage Posters department using examples from the May 25 auction of Graphic Design.

Lot 261: David Singer, Fillmore West / Closing Week / Grateful Dead, 1971. Estimate $700 to $1,000.
Bill Graham was a famed promoter who, along with Family Dog, hosted the concerts and commissioned the posters that became emblematic of the psychedelic movement. This poster was commissioned in his honor for the final concert held at the
Fillmore West in 1971, which featured an all-star line-up of the acts he had promoted during his tenure.

Few art forms have been as seamlessly integrated into the cultural milieu as that of the psychedelic posters of the 1960s. Emerging from the microcosm of the San Francisco music scene, and later recognized as the origin of the hippie and hard rock convergence, poster artists imbued their designs with the LSD-fueled, avant-garde and experimental qualities of the sound they intended to evoke. While the legendary halls of the Fillmore West and the Avalon Ballroom launched the careers of such stars as Carlos Santana, The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, their visionary promotion in turn launched a new wave of artistic innovation that continues to mold graphic design to this day.

Lot 10: Emil Rudolph Weiss, Die – Insel, 1899. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.
Lot 257: Wes Wilson, The Sound / Jefferson Airplane / Muddy Waters, 1966. Estimate $800 to $1,200.

Elements of the psychedelic style, while instantly identifiable as its own genre, can be traced back to other foundational movements in advertising, including, most notably, the Viennese Secession. Wes Wilson, the artist generally acknowledged as the father of the psychedelic poster due to his early popularity and enterprising style, reportedly derived his bulbous and unrestrained lettering from the typography of the Secession. Upon examining the works of artists such as Alfred Röller and Emil Rudolph Weiss, it is clear that the innovative typography and playful coloring present throughout their oeuvre heavily influenced the poster artists who followed them.

Lot 274: Lee Conklin, Butterfield Blues Band / Santana, 1968.
Estimate $300 to $400.

In a modernization of this Secessionist template, the poster artists of the psychedelic era incorporated boundless lettering and bright, playful color palettes in their advertising. These stylistic choices were often further informed by their own drug use, in an effort to visually impart upon the viewer an experience found at any concert they promoted. Wilson utilized LSD in choosing his color scheme, developing a motif with sometimes grating combinations that evoked a psycho-stimulated drug trip. In this way, he (and the artists who built upon this style) continued a graphically experimental dialogue that had begun over half a century earlier.

Lot 267: Greg Irons, Crosby – Stills – Nash & Young / Blues Image & John Sebastian, 1969. Estimate $500 to $750.
Carlos Santana, who began his musical career with an impromptu performance at the Fillmore West in 1966, was one of two acts to fill in for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young for this scheduled performance when they were forced to drop out at the last minute.
The other act was Janis Joplin.

These visually stimulating, and occasionally jarring, posters have become inextricably linked with the bands they promoted, the lifestyle they referenced, and the era as a whole. The “San Francisco Sound,” was born from the varied dance halls of the city, and encompassed bands as varied as Jimi Hendrix, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Grateful Dead, and Crosby, Nash, Stills & Young. While each concert would attract a different crowd, the experience was made cohesive through their visionary, and now iconic, posters, and the larger theme of musical, artistic, and psychedelic experimentation that defined the late 1960s.

Find more concert posters in our catalogue.

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Records & Results: 19th & 20th Century Literature

May 18, 2017, 1:08 pm

≫ Next: Graphic Design in the Vienna Secession

≪ Previous: Psychedelic Concert Posters

First editions and inscribed copies filled the shelves at our May 16 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature. The sale broke several auction records and encompassed a variety of genres, dates and media. The trifurcated Books department (specializing in Art Books and Early Printed Books as well as Literature), is as old as Swann Galleries itself.

Lot 188: T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, privately printed edition, inscribed,
London, 1926. Sold May 16, 2017 for $62,500.

The top lot of the sale was a complete privately printed edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, by T.E. Lawrence, the inspiration for the classic film Lawrence of Arabia. The stunning tome, bound in green leather, boasts 65 plates and color illustrations by contemporary artists. The present copy was inscribed by Lawrence and given to his dentist, Warwick James; it was purchased by a collector for $62,500.

Lot 61: George Cruikshank, The Scourge, first edition, complete set of 12 volumes, London, 1811-16.
Sold May 16, 2017 for $11,250, a record for the work.

An auction record was achieved for the complete set of 12 volumes of The Scourge; or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly, 1811-16, illustrated by George Cruikshank. This was only the third complete set ever to appear at auction; the final, twelfth volume is extremely scarce due to the dwindling subscriber numbers towards the end of the periodical. The set was especially unusual because it contained the rare suppressed plate of A Financial Survey of Cumberland, or Beggars Petition, 1815, which overtly suggested the disgraced Duke of Cumberland had murdered his valet, in both its censored and uncensored state. After breakneck bidding, a collector made the winning bid of $11,250.

Lot 73: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, first American edition, New York, 1912. Sold May 16, 2017 for $10,000.

The auction debut of the first American edition of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, 1912, set a strong precedent, exceeding its high estimate of $7,500 to reach $10,000.

Lot 96: William Faulkner, Soldiers’ Pay, first edition, New York, 1926. Sold May 16, 2017 for $21,250.

Half of the highest prices in the sale went to first editions of cornerstones of American literature. Twentieth-century authors performed especially well, with William Faulkner’s first novel, Soldiers’ Pay, leading the pack at $21,250. The first edition of Main Street, 1920, by Sinclair Lewis, achieved a new auction record of $6,500. Harper Lee’s monumental To Kill A Mockingbird, 1960, sold for more than five times its high estimate of $1,000, finally finishing at $5,750. Similarly, a first edition with the dust jacket of The Pastures of Heaven, 1932, charmingly inscribed by author John Steinbeck to his friend Louis Paul, reached $13,750.

Lot 147: Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, first trade edition, presentation copy, inscribed, New York, 1929.
Sold May 16, 2017 for $6,750.

Works by American modernist author Ernest Hemingway were well received, with 100% of the 14 offered lots going to buyers after frenzied bidding. An inscribed first trade edition of A Farewell to Arms, 1929, reached $6,750, while a first edition of Death in the Afternoon, 1932, was purchased for $2,125.

Lot 171: James Joyce, Ulysses, first edition, on handmade paper, number 724,
Paris, 1922. Sold May 16, 2017 for $33,750.

Another highlight was a rare limited first edition on handmade paper of James Joyce’s magnum opus Ulysses, 1922, which exceeded its high estimate to sell for $33,750.

For full results, browse the catalogue. The next auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature will be held on November 14, 2017.

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Graphic Design in the Vienna Secession

May 23, 2017, 8:28 am

≫ Next: The Endless Mountains: A Map That Promised More

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This post includes notes from the catalogue of our May 25 auction of Graphic Design, featuring an extensive selection of works out of the Wiener Werkstätte, the design school for the Vienna Secession.

Lot 10: Emil Rudolph Weiss, Die – Insel, 1899. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Unlike some artistic movements whose names came from outside the artists involved, such as the Impressionists or the Fauves, the Vienna Secession was the concerted effort of a group of artists, led by Gustav Klimt, to create a new standard for design. In 1903, the participants formed a school called the Wiener Werkstätte in order to spread their ideas. A palatial building was designed in 1897 by Joseph Maria Olbrich, where the group held a series of exhibitions to expose the public to their new ideas and styles. In gold lettering above the entrance reads the phrase, Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit. (To every age its art. To art its freedom.)

The entrance to the Secession building, Vienna. Creative Commons.

The movement was also called Jugendstil (“The Young Style”) because members sought to break away completely from any established art historical tradition. Like its parent movement, Art Nouveau, the Vienna Secession was a reaction against the conservative art traditions that dominated Germany and Austria at the time.

Lot 1: Die Fläche, complete volume on 192 illustrated pages, 1903-04. Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

Die Fläche (The Surface) was the design magazine published by the Wiener Werkstätte. Leopold Forstner‘s illustrated cover explains the contents: “Designs for decorative painting, posters, book and printing equipment, preprinted, envelope, menu and business cards, illustrations, wallpapers, black and white art, textile, weaving and printing, stencils, lead glazings, intarsia, embroidery, monograms, dress jewelry etc etc.”

The publication reproduced works by such masters as Josef Maria Auchentaller, Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, and Alfred Roller, as well as other prominent Viennese artists.

Lot 2: Ottokar Mascha, Österreichische Plakatkunst, circa 1914.
Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Österreichische Plakatkunst is the only comprehensive book on the Austrian poster during its golden age. It contains works by Ernst Deutsch, Klimt, Julius Klinger, Moser and Egon Schiele, among others. Very few copies survive, as it was probably published in 1914, and suffered from appearing right at the beginning of the First World War. In many ways it can be considered the Maîtres de l’Affiche of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the addition of scholarly text to complement the images.

Lot 3: Koloman Moser, Richardsquelle, 1899. Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

Koloman Moser was a founding member of the Vienna Secession and a professor at Vienna’s School of Arts and Crafts. Together with Josef Hoffmann, he co-founded the Weiner Werkstätte and was a versatile and prolific artist in his own right. Book design, graphic design, interior design, jewelry, furniture, silverware, fashion and ceramics were just some of the fields in which he excelled. Much of his graphic work was done on behalf of the Secession and his commercial posters are quite rare. Here, he advertises mineral water from the Bohemian spa town of Lazne Kynzvart (Bad Königswart, in German). Richardsquelle, the name of the spring, was named after Prince Metternich’s son Richard. The first printing of several variations, this poster was issued again around 1908, including the image of the bottle itself.

Lot 5: Bertold Löffler, Kunstschau Wien, 1908. Estimate $30,000 to $40,000.

Bertold Löffler studied at the School of Arts and Crafts alongside Moser. Much of his graphic work was produced for the Kabarett Fledermaus and the Wiener Werkstätte, for whom he designed posters, postcards, calendars and other collateral material. In 1908, Löffler participated in the art exhibition, Kunstschau. Organized by Klimt, the large exhibition combined the work of Vienna’s School of Arts and Crafts, the Art School for Women and Girls and the Wiener Werkstätte. The poster Löffler designed to promote the exhibition is a masterful stepping stone between the heavy, often abstract ornamentation of the Secession and the cleaner, more linear designs of the Wiener Werkstätte.

Lot 7: Egon Schiele, Secession 49: Ausstellung, 1918. Estimate $15,000 to $20,000.

Egon Schiele was one of the meteoric talents of the Secession movement. Unlike the colorful and decorative work of the early Secessionists, Schiele’s output was darker and more intense, highlighted by powerful, erotic and figurative imagery. He can rightfully be considered one of the first Expressionists. As part of the Secession’s 49th Exhibition, Schiele was granted an entire room to display the 50 of his works that had been chosen. He also designed the exhibition poster itself. He imagined all the participants of the Secession gathered around a dinner table, with himself at the head. The empty seat opposite him is said to be intended for Gustav Klimt, who died about a month before the exhibition’s opening. The exhibition launched Schiele into international renown. Tragically, Schiele died during the Spanish Flu pandemic later that year.

For more design from the Viennese Secession, browse the full catalogue.

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The Endless Mountains: A Map That Promised More

May 26, 2017, 12:32 pm

≫ Next: A Personal Collection of Bernhardt Wall Books

≪ Previous: Graphic Design in the Vienna Secession

Specialist Caleb Kiffer of our Maps & Atlases department on one of his favorite pieces in our June 7 auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books: a 1750 map of Pennsylvania that may have sparked German emigration to the state.

Lot 60: Lewis Evans, Speciel Land Charte von Pensilvanien, Neu Jersey, Neu York, Frankfurt, 1750. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

In 1749, Lewis Evans, America’s greatest eighteenth-century cartographer, published his first major map titled A Map of Pensilvania, New-Jersey, New-York, and the Three Delaware Counties. This extremely scarce map was published in Philadelphia and details the area described in the title, providing what minimal cartographical knowledge of the interior lands there was. Part of the information was compiled by Evans himself during a trek through the region in 1743. In the center of the map appears a bold, frightening, yet tantalizing statement: The Endless Mountains. Line after line of engraved comments and anecdotes relating to the land, weather, rivers, safe routes of passage between already established towns and places populate the empty spaces of the map.

Detail showing “Die ohn Ende Fortwährende Berge” – “The unending mountains”

As put by Seymour Schwartz in The Mapping of America: “Furnishing the first detailed coverage of such a large colonial area, the map of course has great importance.” A trait that truly makes an early map important is: did it have an impact on people? Did a map of a far away, unknown, “endless” new country cause somebody to become inspired to move there from across the ocean? In this case, yes. And what people composed such a huge swell of immigration to this particular area at this particular time? The Germans. The Pennsylvania Germans.

Also known as the Pennsylvania Dutch due to their name for their language (Deutsch), the population still exists today in one of the oldest and largest Amish communities in the country.

Detail showing Lewin Evans’s name as “Ludwig Evans”

The map presently being offered was published in Frankfurt, Germany in 1750, a year after Evans’ first map appeared. It is an edition for which only one other extant copy can be located, in the Library of Congress. Lewis Evans’ name is given as “Ludwig Evans” on the map. The cartography is faithfully copied and unchanged, while every name of every town, river, mountain range, Indian tribe, and each letter of those long lines of descriptive and potentially alluring text has been painstaking re-engraved from the English to German. Somebody in Germany got hold of a copy of Evans’ map and took to the laborious task of re-engraving the entire thing, thus making it available to an audience primed to take that step to set out and change their lives for the promise of a new and better life. All it would’ve taken was a push; all it would’ve taken was a look at this map.

Lewis Evans, A Map of Pensilvania, New-jersey, New-York, and the Three Delaware Counties, 1749. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

As Evans notes on the map: “This country is finely improved to the mountains; and the inhabitants enjoying the fruits of the difficulty of first settling. The roads are very well accommodated. Here opportunity and materials are never wanting to furnish the industrious with profusion. It is a country of Liberty and good laws, where justice is administered without rigour or partiality.”

Find more in the full catalogue.

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A Personal Collection of Bernhardt Wall Books

May 30, 2017, 9:45 am

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Bernhardt Wall was an American illustrator active in the first half of the twentieth century. A selection of fine, early or test examples of his work were given to his lifelong friend Natalie Williams of Marshall, Texas. This post is a collection of notes from the catalogue, for our June 13 auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books.

Although Wall began his career as a commercial lithographer and achieved success in that area, a trip to the Southwest in 1915 so inspired him that he devoted his future work to chronicling that region in print and image. The following lots, which contain inscribed books, graphics and ephemera, include the richest section of Williams’s library of Walliana from that period. A portion of the collection was previously acquired by the Cushing Memorial Library at Texas A&M University.

Lot 196: Bernhardt Wall, Following Abraham Lincoln, complete set of 85 volumes, limited edition, Lime Rock, 1931-42.
Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

Following Abraham Lincoln

When Wall began the Following Abraham Lincoln series in 1931, he intended to produce only 15 volumes. However, “after getting into stride, I found that my hero had done considerable traveling . . . so the volumes grew and piled up.” In the end, Wall produced 85 volumes chronicling the president’s life.

Lot 195: Bernhardt Wall, The Etcht Miniature Monthly Magazine, complete limited set of 12, with more than 375 etchings, Sierra Madre, 1948.
Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

The Etcht Miniature Monthly Magazine

In the prospectus for this rare miniature periodical, Wall states: “This magazine is my latest, and mayhap, my last toil in the field of periodical publishing. At my age [75 years] such a venture may seem foolhardy. I hate rest and rust. Hence I go on … the subject matter will be about well-known personages, bits of text, and spots where history was made.” It was indeed a very personal exploration of themes for Wall, with musings on baseball, the American West, art, travel, natural history, and other topics that enthralled him over the course of his long life.

Correspondence

Lot 209: Bernhardt Wall, archive of correspondence to Natalie Williams. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

In addition to works of art, the sale will offer a rich archive of material that reflects the long and dear friendship shared by Wall and Williams. The letters are filled with Wall’s thoughts and details about projects and publications, travels and personal matters. The archive includes his manuscript of An Itch to Etch, a lecture he delivered at the Ernest Powell studio in Marshall, Texas in May 1937, inscribed to Williams. In addition, there are small copper plates engraved for some of the works, sketches and drawings of travels and people, proof and trial print sheets, and over 50 postcards sent from around the country.

Lot 199: Bernhardt Wall, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Speech, limited edition miniature book, signed, with typed letter signed to Williams, Sierra Madre, 1946. Estimate $600 to $900.

Another lot includes a letter that serves as a gift inscription to Williams: “Herewith No. ONE of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Speech. I just had to do this. The other miniature went over 60 copies in a month. I did not expect such a thing . . . I feel like a kid playing with a toy.” The letter is rather intimate, explaining his recent decision to marry again after the death of his wife, Jane, for the sake of having a partner to look after him, to dispel gossip of possible romances with female friends, to help him keep house, and nurture his work. “Please do not think me mercenary. Doris had been known to Jane . . . we liked her much.” He also invites her to stay with them when the Williamses visit the 1939 World’s Fair and mentions a recent visit from Dard Hunter. Included in the lot is an inscribed and signed copy of the miniature book Addresses of Abraham Lincoln.

For more fine press books, browse the catalogue.

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Leaving the Land: Ship’s Logs from England to the Mediterranean in the Nineteenth Century

May 30, 2017, 2:25 pm

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In January of 1819, Captain William Hodgson steered the three-masted merchant ship Transit down the River Avon from Bristol, beginning a six-month voyage toward the Mediterranean. The ship’s log book he meticulously kept of the journey is one of the stars of our June 7 auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books.

Lot 296: William Hodgson, Journal of a Voyage, bound volume of two manuscript logs,
with 35 watercolor drawings, at sea, 1819 and 1821. Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

A ship’s log is a daily record of weather and goings-on aboard a vessel during its voyage. Content-wise, the present book contains routine recordings of very matter-of-fact information such as direction, speed, weather and crew chores. However, with this log Captain Hodgson has created an exceptional artistic presentation: the fine calligraphy of his headers and the surprisingly accomplished watercolor drawings of his own ships and others fashion a much more engaging and unique portrayal of the trading vessels’ voyages through the Mediterranean. Most logs of this period contained illustrations or crude drawings, once described to Specialist Caleb Kiffer as looking “like jailhouse tattoos.” The quality of Captain Hodgson’s finished watercolor drawings far exceeds that description.

Lot 296: William Hodgson, Journal of a Voyage, bound volume of two manuscript logs, with 35 watercolor drawings, at sea, 1819 and 1821.
Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

Little is known about Captain Hodgson, but surely he was a romantic at heart: many of the accomplished watercolors adorning his log are captioned with lines of verse from William Falconer‘s epic Shipwreck or a line from William Cowper‘s Human Frailty:

But oars alone can ne’er prevail

To reach the distant coast

Th’ breath of Heaven must swell th’ sail

Or all the toil is lost.

Lot 296: William Hodgson, Cowper poem in Journal of a Voyage, 1819 and 1821. Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

The volume contains logs of two different vessels’ voyages to the Mediterranean on which William Hodgson was the master. The first chronicles the voyage of the Transit from January to June, 1819, from Bristol to the Mediterranean; the second was written aboard the two-masted ship Astræa on her voyage from London to the Mediterranean in 1821. Both were small trading vessels out of England.

Lot 296: William Hodgson, Leaving the Land, from Journal of a Voyage, 1819 and 1821. Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

Mostly he depicts the two ships from different angles, in various ports, in calm and choppy seas, and at different times of the day, including tranquil sunrise and moonlit scenes. Portraits of the occasional ship encountered on the voyage are included, as well as landscape coastal profiles and the Rock of Gibraltar.

Lot 296: William Hodgson, A View of Galatia Island, Coast of Algiers, from Journal of a Voyage, 1819 and 1821. Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

Towards the end of the first voyage, Captain Hodgson seems to have gotten sick of his endeavor, as the drawings become less detailed and in some cases are not even included. The next journey he begins with renewed vigor. His pages are more precisely organized and each rope in the sails is delineated.

Lot 296: William Hodgson, sketch of a ship in Journal of a Voyage, 1819 and 1821. Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

Find more in the full catalogue.

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Records & Results: Graphic Design

June 1, 2017, 10:24 am

≫ Next: Nahui Olin: Muse & Maker

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Our May 25 auction of Graphic Design offered a cornucopia of inspired works spanning fin de siècle Art Nouveau masters to modernist posters.

Lot 96: Charles Loupot, Col Van Heusen, 1928. Sold May 25, 2017 for $50,000.

The top lot of the sale was Col Van Heusen, 1928, one of the most elegant Cubist-style designs created by Charles Loupot. The strikingly colored work, which was intended to advertise men’s collars, displays some of the richest inking seen in the artist’s work; it sold for $50,000, far exceeding its pre-sale high estimate of $30,000. Works by Loupot performed well overall, with several claiming places in the top lots. The verdant 1923 advertisement for Voisin Automobiles reached $30,000, while his 1919 poster for Sato / Cigarettes Egyptiennes went to a collector for $7,500.

Lot 17: Ludwig Hohlwein, Besuchet den Tiergarten, 1912. Sold May 25, 2017 for $22,500, a record for the work.

Ludwig Hohlwein’s charming life-size image of a baby zebra and a macaw, intended to promote the opening of the new Munich Zoo, Besuchet den Tiergarten, 1912, was purchased by a collector for $22,500, a record for the work. Another record went to a Soviet propaganda poster captioned in Russian, Let’s Build a Fleet of Airships in Lenin’s Name!, 1931, by Georgij Kibardin ($5,250).

Lot 228: Auto Races / World’s Greatest Drivers, 1928.
Sold May 25, 2017 for $6,250.

Making its auction debut was the monumental poster Auto Races / World’s Greatest Drivers, standing more than 12 feet tall, which sold for $6,250. The previously unrecorded Art Deco Fete de Nuit aux Folies Bergere, 1928, by Maurice Picauld, reached $7,250 in its first auction appearance.

Lot 5: Bertold Löffler, Kunstschau Wien, 1908. Sold May 25, 2017 for $42,500.

The sale featured a premier selection of Art Nouveau and Wiener Werkstätte material, led by Bertold Löffler’s bold poster Kunstschau Wien, 1908, which reached $42,500. Additional highlights included Secession 49 – Ausstellung, a 1918 exhibition poster by Egon Schiele into which he incorporated a self portrait ($22,500).

Lot 91: Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, Normandie, 1935.
Sold May 25, 2017 for $22,500.

Works by the poster-world icon Adolphe Mouron Cassandre performed well, with two major works confirming his position as a design visionary; the monumental 1935 poster Normandie, emphasizing the incredible size of the transatlantic ship, reached $22,500, while Miniwatt / Philips Radio, 1931, which shines in primary hues, sold for $6,000. Ottokar Mascha’s Österreichische Plakatkunst, circa 1914, was the only comprehensive book published about Austrian posters during their golden age; the rare tome doubled its estimate, selling for $18,750.

Lot 310: Andy Warhol’s / My Hustler, 1966.
Sold May 25, 2017 for $6,250.

More recent works included the promotional flyer for Andy Warhol’s / My Hustler, a 1966 film by the artist; the typographical work sold to a collector for $6,250. The prismatic poster for The Electric Factory / Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1968, by Icabod (Rob Stewart) and Snake (Karl Howard), reached $4,750.

See the catalogue for full results.

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Nahui Olin: Muse & Maker

June 5, 2017, 11:54 am

≫ Next: Recently Rediscovered Watercolor by John Marin

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Nahui Olin, the pseudonym of Carmen Mondragón, was a Mexican Surrealist active in the 1920s and ’30s. She hailed from the upper echelons of Mexican society, and fraternized with the likes of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse in Paris in the 1910s. An exceedingly rare signed and inscribed first edition of her poetry book, Optica Cerebral: Poemas Dinámicos, 1922, will be crossing the block in our June 13 auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books.

Lot 122: Nahui Olin, Optica Cerebral: Poemas Dinámicos, first edition, signed and inscribed, Mexico, 1922. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

She said of her chosen moniker, “My name is like that of all things: without beginning or end, and yet without isolating myself from wholeness by my distinct evolution in that infinite set, the closest words to name me are NAHUI-OLIN. The cosmogonic name, the force, the power of movements that radiate light, life and strength. In Aztec, the power that the sun has to move the set encompasses its system.”

Edward & Cole Weston, Nahui Olin, silver print, 1924, prints late 1960s.
Sold October 25, 2016 for $3,750.

The name was bestowed upon her by her paramour, the painter Gerardo Murillo, who used the pseudonym Dr. Atl, the Aztec Nahuatl word for water. “Nahui Olin,” also of Aztec origin, has to do with renewal and the sun’s force behind the cyclic rhythm of the heavens; it is the symbol of earthquakes. Olin’s intense green eyes were often depicted in paintings of her by artists such as Diego Rivera, Tina Modotti and Edward Weston.

Lot 122: Nahui Olin, title page for Optica Cerebral: Poemas Dinámicos, 1922. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

In addition to being an artist’s muse, Olin was also an artist and poet in her own right. Optica Cerebral: Poemas Dinámicos was her first collaborative work with Dr. Atl. Her famous eyes are the focus of the cover of the work, an abstract elongation of their whites shooting off the sides of the page hints at the powerful contents within. The Aztec-style illustrations on the title-page and vignette reflect the sun and earth symbolism of her name.

Lot 122: Nahui Olin, Optica Cerebral: Poemas Dinámicos, 1922.
Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Here is a translation of one of her illustrated poems (above):

Dizzying glare –

Radiation destructive death –

Craving more luminous splendor –

Desperation for better life –

Purply blue of your greatest desire –

Burning restlessness –

Radiant energy –

Flame gently crowned gold –

Radiance –

Electrocution in whose lumber consciousness is precipitated as an extortionate planet in the fire of a sun … your name is the greatest symbol of the cosmogonies

Lot 122: Nahui Olin, Optica Cerebral: Poemas Dinámicos, first edition, signed and inscribed, Mexico, 1922. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

The present copy was signed and inscribed to José Martinez Sotomayor, dated Mexico, June 25, 1922, soon after the book’s publication. Sotomayor was a lawyer, judge and writer who published and contributed to contemporary Mexican journals such as Bandera de Provincias, and Contemporáneos, along with José Gorostiza, Jaime Torres Bodet and Xavier Villaurrutia, often under the pseudonym Till Ealling.

For more Art, Press & Illustrated Books, browse the full catalogue.

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Recently Rediscovered Watercolor by John Marin

June 7, 2017, 8:44 am

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A recently rediscovered watercolor by John Marin will be making its auction debut in our June 15 sale of American Art. The work displays two features for which the artist is famous: jagged, nearly abstracted shapes, and vistas of Maine.

Lot 92: John Marin, Small Point, Maine, from the Bumper, watercolor, 1928. Estimate $50,000 to $80,000.

Before it was lost to scholarship, Small Point, Maine, from the Bumper, was exhibited in January 1930 in New Marin Watercolors at Alfred Stieglitz‘s gallery, An American Place (see below). This was the inaugural exhibition at Stieglitz’s largest and final gallery, where he continued to promote his favorite American Modernists.

Lot 92, verso: Exhibition notes, An American Place, Small Point, Maine, from the Bumper.

Marin was renowned for his abstract watercolors and prints of landscapes and cityscapes, particularly of New York and Maine. His rapport with Stieglitz began when Marin met Stieglitz’s agent, Edward Steichen, while they were both in Paris in 1908 (Marin had been in Paris since 1905, making etchings very much in the style of James A. M. Whistler and hoping to establish himself as a fine artist). Steichen directed Stieglitz’s attention to Marin’s work, which prompted the gallery director to visit Marin’s Parisian apartment. Stieglitz was extremely impressed and the following year, at Gallery 291 in New York (Stieglitz’s first gallery), he held an exhibition of Marin’s works. When Marin returned to the United States in 1911, Stieglitz began supplying him with a yearly stipend that would support and encourage his artistic output. Marin was represented in the seminal Armory Show of 1913 by a watercolor of the Woolworth Building; his prints on the subject — one of his favorites — continue to command high prices.

John Marin, Woolworth Building (The Dance), etching and drypoint, 1913.
Sold November 5, 2013, for $81,250.

Even after Gallery 291 closed, Stieglitz continued to promote Marin’s work and ultimately helped him attain critical acclaim. Marin’s first major retrospective was held at the Daniel Gallery in New York in 1920. Stieglitz featured Marin’s work in the famous Seven Americans exhibition at the Anderson Gallery, New York, and arranged another retrospective for the artist at his new gallery, the Intimate Gallery, in December 1925.

Lot 93: John Marin, Seascape with Sailboat, watercolor and chalk, 1951. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

Marin spent his first summer in Maine in 1914 and returned there frequently throughout his career, drawn by the rugged wilderness, coastline and pristine landscapes. He maintained a summer home in Addison, Maine, where he died in 1953. Small Point, Maine, is on the coast, roughly between Portland and Boothbay Harbor.

On July 31, 1917, Marin wrote to Stieglitz from Small Point about how much he loved the area:

Wonderful days. Wonderful sunset closings. Good to have eyes to see, ears to hear the roar of the waters. Nostrils to take in the odors of the salt, sea and the firs. Fish fresh, caught some myself. Berries to pick, picked many wild delicious strawberries. The blueberries are coming on. On the verge of the wilderness, big flopping lazy still-flying cranes. Big flying eagles. The solemn restful beautiful firs. The border of the sea. Good night.

Discover more in the full catalogue.

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Grapefruit: Yoko Ono’s Guide to Living Art

June 9, 2017, 12:28 pm

≫ Next: Winslow Homer’s Personal “Bible”

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Visionary Yoko Ono created “event scores” as a way to encourage people to find art and beauty in their quotidian activities. A signed first edition of her seminal self-published book of event scores, Grapefruit, 1964, is a highlight in our June 13 auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books.

Lot 273: Yoko Ono, Grapefruit, limited first edition, signed, Tokyo, 1964. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

Ono’s event scores were intended to replace a physical work of art with written instructions or suggestions for acts that the person experiencing them could create. Pulse Piece, for example, suggests, “Listen to each other’s pulse by putting your ear on the other’s stomach. 1963 Winter.” The activities usually highlight a simple day-to-day activity. Often considered a Fluxus work, Grapefruit has become a monument of conceptual art. The title comes from the way Ono felt about herself: a hybrid between American and Japanese identities, the way a grapefruit is a hybrid between a lemon and an orange.

Dedication page of Grapefruit, 1964. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

The book is divided into five sections titled Music, Painting, Event, Poetry and Object; later editions added Film and Dance. The instructions are preceded by dedications to contemporary figures of arts and letters including John Cage, Peggy Guggenheim, George Maciunas,Isamu Noguchi, Nam June Paik and La Monte Young, and also includes documentation relating to Ono’s recent exhibitions and performances.

Conversation Piece, an event score from Grapefruit, 1964.

Grapefruit was a primary inspiration for John Lennon’s 1971 hit song Imagine, saying later that it “should be credited as a Lennon-Ono song because a lot of it—the lyric and the concept—came from Yoko… There’s a whole pile of pieces about ‘Imagine this’ and ‘Imagine that.'”

Find more art books in our full catalogue.

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Winslow Homer’s Personal “Bible”

June 9, 2017, 2:48 pm

≫ Next: Records & Results: Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books

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On a visit to his Prout’s Neck studio, Winslow Homer’s friend and fellow artist John W. Beatty picked up a dogeared book and asked him if he found it of value. Homer quickly and succinctly replied, “It is my bible.” The book was Michel Eugène Chevreul’s The Laws of Contrast of Colour, first published in 1839. Homer’s beloved copy, published in 1860, will feature in our June 15 auction of American Art.

Lot 2: Winslow Homer, Portrait of Charles Savage Homer, Jr., pencil, on the front end page of the artist’s personal copy of The Laws of Contrast of Color, 1860, by Chevreul, 1884.
Estimate $5,000 to $8,000.

According to David Tatham, “The book was presented to Winslow Homer by his older brother Charles (above) in 1860, before Homer had begun seriously to paint in oils (though he was by this time well-established as a popular illustrator and had used watercolor washes for some of his drawings). Homer apparently used the book as a basic guide for color usage throughout his career. It is the only book on art known to have been owned by Homer except for unidentified works on the etching process . . . Beyond its use as a color guide, this copy seems to have been used by Homer as a kind of scrap book, including as it does Homer’s pencil portrait of his brother, Homer’s address at the New York University Building during 1861-72, a photograph dated 1882 from his years in England, a clipping of 1887 or later showing Chevreul at age 102 and many other markings and inscriptions.”

Lot 2: Winslow Homer’s copy of Chevreul’s book, The Laws of Contrast of Color, showing notes.

Chevreul was the first color theorist to acknowledge that colors operate relative to one another–that one green leaf looks different against a blue sky that its brown trunk, for example. Josef Albers picked up this theory more than a century later with his book, The Interaction of Color. Both authors contend that a color depends on the shades that surround it, and that different color combinations will produce different effects. The vibrant plates Chevreul used to demonstrate his theories look as though they could have been part of Albers’s tome instead.

The lot includes an unmarked, relatively pristine copy of the same book that had also been in Homer’s possession in his studio in Prout’s Neck, Maine. The images above come from this second book, because Homer’s preferred version is extremely delicate.

Winslow Homer’s two copies of The Laws of Contrast of Colors.

Browse the full catalogue for more American Art.

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Records & Results: Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books

June 12, 2017, 9:58 am

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Our June 7 auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books saw strong results with multiple auction debuts and records, as well as a plethora of unique and unusual items. Approximately two thirds of the lots offered fell into the category of maps and atlases, with strong results in both subheadings. Of the 265 lots, 86% percent found buyers, exceeding the low estimate for the section by more than $100,000.

Lot 225: Hovhannes Amira Dadian, Illustrated World Atlas, with 10 hand-colored double-page maps, Venice, 1849. Sold June 7, 2017 for $37,500.

The first world atlas in the Armenian language topped the sale, reaching more than five times its $6,000 high estimate to sell for $37,500, a record for the work. Hovhannes Amira Dadian created the atlas in the Armenian monastery on the Venetian island of San Lazzaro in 1849 in an effort to bring Western knowledge to his home country. The atlas boasts ten hand-colored double-page maps, including one of the solar system, all of which were printed in Paris and based primarily on contemporary French models.

Lot 60: Lewis Evans, Special Land Charte von Pensilvanien, Neu Jersey, Neu York, engraved map, Frankfurt, 1750. Sold June 7, 2017 for $27,500.

Another highlight was the Speciel Land Charte von Pensilvanien, Neu Jersey, Neu York, a 1750 map by Lewis Evans published in Frankfurt, whose alluring designations such as “The Endless Mountains” may have been responsible for the subsequent German emigration to the state. The map sold for $27,500, far exceeding its high estimate of $15,000. The only other known copy is in the collection of the Library of Congress.

Lot 296: William Hodgson, Journal of a Voyage, two manuscript logbooks bound, with 35 watercolor illustrations, 1819 & 1821.
Sold June 7, 2017 for $20,800.

Multiple bidders on a manuscript logbook that recounts two voyages from England to the Mediterranean, replete with records and delightful watercolors by Captain William Hodgson, sent the price flying past the high estimate of $5,000 to a price realized of $20,800. Specialist Caleb Kiffer noted, “The log book is one of those unusual items that rarely comes to market and that gets people really excited.”

Lot 69: Slate globe, American, early twentieth century. Sold June 7, 2017 for $1,625.

Other items he noted included a mysterious early twentieth-century chalkboard globe that tripled its modest high estimate to sell for $1,625, and a rare map by Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres detailing the proceedings of the Revolutionary War near Charleston, SC ($21,250).

Lot 36: Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres, A Sketch of the Operations Before Charlestown the Capital of South Carolina, large chart, London, 1780.
Sold June 7, 2017 for $21,250.

For complete results, browse the full catalogue. The next auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries will be held December 5, 2017. We are currently accepting quality consignments.

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Records & Results: Art, Press & Illustrated Books

June 14, 2017, 1:25 pm

≫ Next: Records & Results: Spring 2017

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Our June 13 auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books offered a spectrum of books that doubled as objets d’art, with records for important twentieth-century works celebrating art and typography.

Lot 159: Arthur Szyk, The Szyk Haggadah, limited first edition on vellum, signed, London, 1939. Sold June 13, 2017 for $17,500.

The top lot of the sale was a signed and inscribed first edition Arthur Szyk’s Haggadah, 1939, printed on vellum with 14 full-page sumptuous color plates. The tome was purchased for $17,500.

Lot 273: Yoko Ono, Grapefruit, limited first edition, signed, Tokyo, 1964. Sold June 13, 2017 for $13,750.

A rare first edition of Grapefruit, 1964, Yoko Ono’s first “event score,” doubled its high estimate to sell for $13,750, a record for the work. Another auction record was achieved for Helen West Heller’s woodcut poetry book Migratory Urge, 1928, which included an introduction by Llewellyn Jones; the signed association copy sold to a collector for $8,750. Specialist Christine von der Linn noted, “The interest in hotly contested lots including Ono’s Grapefruit and Heller’s Migratory Urge spoke to current political and artistic sensibilities.”

Lot 104: Helen Helen West Heller, Migratory Urge, limited edition, signed, introduction by Llewellyn Jones, Chicago, 1928. Sold June 13, 2017 for $8,750, a record for the work.

She added, “I was thrilled to see that important art-historical material was sought-after, as evidenced by the great interest in the Masters of Abstract Art exhibition book,” referring to the only known signed copy of the exhibition catalogue for Masters of Abstract Art: An Exhibition for the Benefit of the American Red Cross, 1942, which included such artists as Fernand Léger, Jacques Lipchitz and Piet Mondrian. The book was purchased by an institution. “As we move further into the twenty-first century, these time capsules of twentieth-century art movements are becoming ever more valued and understood.”

Lot 30: Masters of Abstract Art: An Exhibition for the Benefit of the American Red Cross, signed by Léger, Mondrian, and other contributors, New York, 1942. Sold June 13, 2017 for $8,125.

Several classic works printed with stunning illustrations by Salvador Dalí were offered, led by a limited special edition of Dante’s La Divina Commedia, bound in sculptural copper covers and printed on paper salvaged from the flood of Florence in 1966, and a 1969 signed limited edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, each of which sold for $5,250.

Lot 224: Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia, complete set of six volumes bound in copper sculpture, with lithographs by Dalí, Florence, 1964.
Sold June 13, 2017 for $5,720.

Browse the catalogue for full results. The next sale of Art, Press & Illustrated Books at Swann Galleries will be held in Spring 2018. We are currently accepting quality consignments.

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Records & Results: Spring 2017

June 16, 2017, 2:52 pm

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The spring 2017 season at Swann Galleries marked the 75th anniversary of our first auction. On March 27, 1942, Benjamin Swann held an auction dedicated to rare and antiquarian books. Since then, Swann Galleries has become the largest auctioneer of Works on Paper in the world, and New York’s oldest specialty auction house.

Over the last 18 sales, we offered more than 7,000 lots and broke more than 60 auction records.

Lot 16: Les Maîtres de l’Affiche, complete set of 5 volumes, Paris, 1896-1900. Sold January 26, 2017 for $47,500.

We opened the season with a landmark single-owner sale titled Alphonse Mucha & Masters of Art Nouveau: The Harry C. Meyerhoff Collection, the largest private collection of works by the artist and his circle ever to come to auction. Ninety-four percent of the 220 posters, sketches and ephemera – more than half of which were by Mucha – found buyers. Many of the pieces were unique, previously unrecorded, or had never before appeared at auction. The top lot was the complete set of five volumes of Les Maîtres de l’Affiche, which was published periodically in Paris from 1896 to 1900. The art critic Roger Marx compiled what he believed to be the best Art Nouveau posters of the time from Europe and the U.S., with full-color lithographs of works Jules Chéret, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, Mucha and others. The set, in its original binding designed by Paul Berthon, was purchased by an institution for $47,500.

Lot 285: Group of 22 photographs from NASA missions, 1965-84, printed circa 1985. Sold February 14, 2017 for $43,750.

On February 14 we offered Icons & Images: Photographs & Photobooks, 65 years to the day after Swann held the first U.S. auction dedicated to photographs, The Marshall Sale, on February 14, 1952. The $1.6M sale featured a run of lots related to the moon landing and space exploration. A group of 22 large cibachrome prints from NASA missions, 1965-84, reached a final price of $43,750, above a high estimate of $25,000.

Lot 551: Marc Chagall, Four Tales from the Arabian Nights, complete deluxe edition of 13 color lithographs, New York, 1948. Sold March 2, 2017 for $269,000.

Topping our March 2 sale of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings, which exceeded $3M and broke ten auction records, was the rare deluxe edition of Marc Chagall’s portfolio Four Tales from the Arabian Nights, of which only 11 were printed. Previously, the set belonged to Kurt Wolff, publisher of Pantheon Books. The vibrant color lithographs include a 13th plate denoting the deluxe edition; still in its original case, it was purchased by a collector for $269,000.

Lot 73: A leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, enclosed in A. Edward Newton’s A Noble Fragment, Mainz, 1455. Sold March 9, 2017 for $52,500.

One week later, on March 9, we offered a leaf of the Gutenberg Bible, 1455, in our biannual sale of Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books. The remnant of the first book ever printed was hinged in a 1921 folio of A Noble Fragment; being, A Leaf of the Gutenberg Bible by A. Edward Newton. The leaf contains the text of Ecclesiasticus 16:14-18-29; it was purchased by a collector for $52,500.

Lot 293: Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Tournée du Chat Noir, 1896.
Sold March 16, 2017 for $30,000, a record for the work.

The second of four poster auctions of the spring season was Vintage Posters on March 16. The top lot of the sale was the iconic Tournée du Chat Noir by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen. The 1896 large-format poster was purchased after a flurry of bids between two phone bidders for $30,000, a record for the work.

Lot 31: Jean de Brunhoff, Le Roi Babar, watercolor, cover illustration for the first edition of the third Babar book, 1933. Sold Mary 21, 2017 for $40,000.

Our biannual auction of Illustration Art offers original works of art intended for publication. On March 21, the sale finished with an 83% sell-through rate and multiple auction records. he top lot of the sale was the original watercolor for the cover of the first French edition of the third Babar book, Le Roi Babar, 1933, by Jean de Brunhoff. It was purchased by a collector for $40,000.

Lot 75: Carte-de-visite album of 48 photographs, including two of Harriet Tubman, one previously unrecorded, circa 1860s. Sold March 30, 2017 for $161,000.

On March 30, our annual auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana exceeded $1M for the first time in the department’s 20+ year history. The success was largely due to interest surrounding a Civil War-era carte-de-visite album that contained a previously unknown photograph of Harriet Tubman. The album topped the sale, selling for $161,000, above a pre-sale high estimate of $30,000. Specialist Wyatt Houston Day discovered the photograph of Tubman in the album, which was compiled by Quaker abolitionist Emily Howland in the 1860s. The album contains 48 photographs, including 44 cartes-de-visite of noted abolitionists, politicians and friends of Howland. Material relating to Frederick Douglass saw new records, including an 1880 Autograph Letter Signed to George Alfred Townsend, in which Douglass writes, “You are wrong in saying I bought my liberty, a few friends in England bought me and made me a present of myself,” which reached $100,000, more than doubling the previous record for a letter by the famed abolitionist.

Lot 102: David Hammons, Untitled (Double Body Print Collage), pigment and ink with printed paper collage, 1976.
Sold April 6, 2017 for $389,000.

The crowd was standing-room only at our April 6 auction of African-American Fine Art. The sale totaled more than $2.5M, with five of the top lots breaking previous auction records, all of which had been set by Swann since the department’s inception ten years ago. Onlookers cheered as six lots exceeded $100,000, with David Hammons’s Untitled (Double Body Print), 1976, reaching $389,000.

Lot 34: Edward S. Curtis, Red Cloud, Oglala, platinum print, 1905.
Sold April 20, 2017 for $32,500.

Nearly all of the offered lots by Edward S. Curtis sold above or within the estimate in our April 20 auction of Images & Objects: Photographs & Photobooks. Highlights included a striking portrait of Red Cloud, Oglala, 1905, which sold for $32,500, a record for the work, above a high estimate of $9,000. The Scout, Apache, 1906, a dramatic orotone in the original frame depicting a silhouetted Native American on horseback, more than doubled its high estimate of $12,000 to sell for $27,500, a record for an orotone of the image; another orotone in its original frame, An Oasis in the Badlands, 1905, was purchased by a collector for $21,250, above a high estimate of $15,000.

Lot 341: Hernán Cortés, Autograph Letter Signed to Majordomo Diego de Guinea, Mexico December 21, 1538. Sold April 27, 2017 for $32,500.

On April 27, our tenth consecutive auction of Printed & Manuscript Americana exceeded $700,000. A first edition Book of Mormon, 1830—the only edition to list Joseph Smith as the “author and proprietor” rather than as the translator—led the sale at $52,500. A rare letter by Hernán Cortés to his property manager, instructing him to be hospitable to a visiting bishop, was purchased for $32,500; no other letters from the conquistador have appeared at auction in the last 30 years.

Lot 345: Edward Hopper, Evening Wind, etching, 1921. Sold May 2, 2017 for $118,750.

Edward Hopper’s luminous etching Evening Wind, 1921, sold to a collector for $118,750 in our May 2 auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints, with highlights from as long ago as 1495 and as recent as 1959.

Lot 224A: Elliott Erwitt, photograph of John F. Kennedy & Dwight D. Eisenhower, signed by both, circa 1960. Sold May 4, 2017 for $32,500.

On May 4 we held an auction of Autographs, with twentieth-century highlights by authors taking the spotlight. The sale performed well overall, with 88% of items offered finding buyers. The top lot was a photograph by Elliott Erwitt, of President Dwight D. Eisenhower with his successor John F. Kennedy, during their historic transitional meeting at the White House on December 6, 1960. Signed by both, it more than doubled its high estimate of $15,000 to sell for $32,500.

Lot 188: T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, privately printed edition, inscribed, London, 1926. Sold May 16, 2017 for $62,500.

First editions and inscribed copies filled the shelves at our May 16 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature. The sale broke several auction records and encompassed a variety of genres, dates and media. The top lot of the sale was a complete, privately printed edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, by T.E. Lawrence, the inspiration for the classic film Lawrence of Arabia. The stunning tome, bound in green leather, boasts 65 plates and color illustrations by contemporary artists. The present copy was inscribed by Lawrence and given to his dentist, Warwick James; it was purchased by a collector for $62,500.

Lot 96: Charles Loupot, Col Van Heusen, 1928. Sold May 25, 2017 for $50,000.

Our May 25 auction of Graphic Design was led by Col Van Heusen, 1928, one of the most elegant Cubist-style designs created by Charles Loupot. The strikingly colored work, which was intended to advertise men’s collars, displays some of the richest inking seen in the artist’s work; it sold for $50,000, far exceeding its pre-sale high estimate of $30,000. Works by Loupot performed well overall, with several claiming places in the top lots. The verdant 1923 advertisement for Voisin Automobiles reached $30,000, while his 1919 poster for Sato / Cigarettes Egyptiennes went to a collector for $7,500.

Lot 225: Hovhannes Amira Dadian, Illustrated World Atlas, with 10 hand-colored double-page maps, Venice, 1849. Sold June 7, 2017 for $37,500.

Our June 7 auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books saw strong results with multiple auction debuts and records. Approximately two thirds of the lots offered fell into the category of maps and atlases, with strong results in both subheadings. The first world atlas in the Armenian language topped the sale, reaching more than five times its $6,000 high estimate to sell for $37,500, a record for the work. Hovhannes Amira Dadian created the atlas in the Armenian monastery on the Venetian island of San Lazzaro in 1849 in an effort to bring Western knowledge to his home country. The atlas boasts ten hand-colored double-page maps, including one of the solar system, all of which were printed in Paris and based primarily on contemporary French models.

Lot 159: Arthur Szyk, The Szyk Haggadah, limited first edition on vellum, signed and inscribed, London, 1939. Sold June 13, 2017 for $17,500.

Leading June 13’s auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books was a signed and inscribed first edition Arthur Szyk’s Haggadah, 1939, printed on vellum with 14 full-page sumptuous color plates. The tome was purchased for $17,500.

Lot 41: William Glackens, The Beach, Isle Adam, oil on canvas, 1925-26. Sold June 15, 2017 for $581,000.

We closed our Spring 2017 season with a climactic sale of American Art on June 15. The annual auction offered exclusively original or unique works by artists living or working in North America over the last 200 years. The top lot of the sale, and of Spring 2017, was William Glackens’s The Beach, Isle Adam, 1925-26. The bright canvas, depicting bathers at a popular locale outside of Paris, is one of the artist’s most significant works from the mid-1920s. A collector purchased the oil painting over the phone for $581,000.

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Records & Results: American Art

June 19, 2017, 8:37 am

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We closed our Spring 2017 season with a climactic sale of American Art on Thursday, June 15. The annual auction offered exclusively original or unique works by artists living or working in North America over the last 200 years.

Lot 41: William Glackens, The Beach, Isle Adam, oil on canvas, 1925-26. Sold June 15, 2017 for $581,000.

The top lot of the sale, and the season as a whole, was William Glackens’s The Beach, Isle Adam, 1925-26. The bright canvas, depicting bathers at a popular locale outside of Paris, is one of the artist’s most significant works from the mid-1920s. A collector purchased the oil painting over the phone for $581,000.

Lot 92: John Marin, Small Point, Maine, from the Bumper, watercolor, 1928. Sold June 15, 2017 for $50,000.

Half of the top lots in the sale appeared at auction for the first time. One of the highlights was a recently rediscovered watercolor by John Marin, titled Small Point, Maine, from the Bumper, 1928. Before the work was lost to scholarship, it was included in the inaugural exhibition at Alfred Stieglitz’s final gallery, An American Place. The painting was purchased by a collector for $50,000.

Lot 173: Milton Avery, Lakeside Trees, watercolor, 1953. Sold June 15, 2017 for $65,000.

Twentieth-century works dominated the sale, with multiple works by Milton Avery and Charles Burchfield receiving some of the highest bids. Avery’s bright watercolor Lakeside Trees, 1953, was purchased by a collector for $65,000, while Reclining Bathers, 1950, a unique color monotype with hand coloring in oil and gouache, reached $13,750. All four watercolors by Burchfield found buyers. The 1917 watercolor Untitled (House on a Hill) led the pack, selling for $30,000, above a high estimate of $18,000. Untitled (Rainbow on Roof of House), 1916, achieved its high estimate of $20,000.

Lot 101: Charles Burchfield, Untitled (House on a Hill), watercolor and pencil, 1917. Sold June 15, 2017 for $30,000.

Browse the catalogue for complete results. The next sale of American Art at Swann Galleries will be held in Spring 2018.We are currently accepting quality consignments.

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Mrs. Stimson Joins Her Husband at the Huntington Historical Society

June 27, 2017, 3:02 pm

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Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lewis Stimson lived in an estate in Huntington, Long Island. In his memoir, he wrote of her, “That marriage has now lasted over fifty-four years, during which she has ever been my devoted companion, and the greatest happiness of my life.” For the duration of their lives in Huntington, a pair of portraits hung in their home. After his death in 1950, his was left to the Huntington Historical Society. Hers was given to a niece upon her death six years later. Now, for the first time in more than 60 years, their portraits will be reunited in the Historical Society, following the sale of Mrs. Stimson’s portrait in our June 15 auction of American Art.

Lot 35: Leopold Gould Seyffert, Mrs. Henry L. Stimson, oil on canvas, 1915.
Sold June 15, 2017.

From their estate of Highhold, the Stimsons could see the shore of Connecticut across Long Island Sound to the north, and the Atlantic beaches to the south. They hosted a community fair on their property every Thanksgiving. Mr. Stimson served as the Secretary of War under Presidents Roosevelt, Taft and Hoover, and has been called one of the most politically influential men of the twentieth century. Mrs. Stimson was born Mabel Wellington White to a prominent Connecticut family. She was the great-great granddaughter of Founding Father Roger Sherman and the sister of Elizabeth Selden Rogers, a suffragette.

Mr. and Mrs. Stimson

Noted portraitist Leopold Gould Seyffert painted them in 1915 and 1917, along with several other members of the family. Each of the larger-than-life portraits retains the original matching black and gilt frame. The couple will be hung together following Mrs. Stimson’s journey home to the Huntington Historical Society.

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Specialists in the Field: The New Museum

June 30, 2017, 12:40 pm

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Specialists at Swann keep up with the cultural heartbeat by frequenting museum exhibitions. Over the summer, we’ll be sharing some of their experiences, beginning with Diana Flatto and Jessica Feldman of our Prints & Drawings department.

From Diana Flatto:

The current exhibitions at the New Museum have been on our to-do list since before they opened. Each artist’s work on view is incredibly strong, and we are pleased to see three female artists represented on rightful merit, without emphasis on a gendered perspective. Moreover, each artist works in unique media, ranging from painting and works on paper to sculpture, installation and video.

Jessica Feldman admiring paintings by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Under-Song For A Cipher includes an array of recent large-scale oil paintings by the British artist. Jessica has been following Yiadom-Boakye’s work for some time. She says, “I love her work because it’s informed by art historical tradition but also infused with the fantastical.” Yiadom-Boakye’s velvety paintings lend a meditative air to the gallery. Jessica calls them “gorgeously poetic and thought-provoking–everything I had hoped for and more!” Though she is a British artist, her monumental portraits of black figures suggest those by artists Swann offers regularly, like Barkley Hendricks and Charles White.

We can’t pass up an opportunity to gaze at some prints!

Carol Rama: Antibodies is a retrospective of the Italian cult figure’s oeuvre spanning early work from the twentieth century through her death in 2015. The exhibition features several series of etchings depicting the body, interspersed with her evocative drawings and paintings. A self-taught artist, Rama stands out for her creativity and independent expression.

Diana Flatto exploring Kaari Upson’s installation within the survey
Good thing you are not alone

Another gallery view of Good thing you are not alone

Kaari Upson: Good thing you are not alone features early and more recent work by the artist including drawings, sculpture, installation and film. I first saw Upson’s work in person at this year’s Whitney Biennial, and had been excited to view more at the New Museum. Upson toes a balance between personal and societal musings, delving into her relationship with her mother as well as issues of consumerism, resulting in aesthetically and ideologically effective work. We hope to see more work by emerging artists like Upson as we grow our Contemporary Art offerings.

We’ll continue to share more reviews by specialists in the field throughout the summer!

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American War Posters, 100 Years Later

July 10, 2017, 1:47 pm

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Our August 2 auction of Vintage Posters will feature an exceptionally wide array of World War I imagery, honoring the centennial anniversary of the U.S.’s entry into the fray. More than 100 propaganda posters from the period will be offered, with rarities by Howard Chandler Christy and James Montgomery Flagg.

Lot 124: Howard Chandler Christy, Gee!! I Wish I Were A Man, 1918. Estimate $1,500 to $2,000.

“There were certainly propaganda posters before 1917, but the organization and mass distribution of World War I posters distinguished them from previous printings,” says David H. Mihaly, the Jay T. Last Curator of Graphic Arts and Social History at the Huntington Library, who organized an exhibition on the subject in 2014.

Lot 115: Laura Brey, Enlist / On Which Side of the Window Are You?, 1917. Estimate $1,000 to $1,500.

According to the Library of Congress, “During World War I, the impact of the poster as a means of communication was greater than at any other time during history. The ability of posters to inspire, inform, and persuade combined with vibrant design trends in many of the participating countries to produce thousands of interesting visual works.”

Lot 125: Joseph C. Leyendecker, America Calls / Enlist in the Navy, 1917. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

From Smithsonian Magazine: “Posters—which were so well designed and illustrated that people collected and displayed them in fine art galleries—possessed both visual appeal and ease of reproduction. They could be pasted on the sides of buildings, put in the windows of homes, tacked up in workplaces, and resized to appear above cable car windows and in magazines. And they could easily be reprinted in a variety of languages.

Lot 141: James Montgomery Flagg, I Want You for U.S. Army, 1917. Estimate $7,000 to $10,000.

The government enlisted the help of the Society of Illustrators in a concentrated effort to create galvanizing posters to rouse the American people into action, leading to one of the most iconic images in the American collective conscious: James Montgomery Flagg’s I Want You for U.S. Army, 1917. Uncle Sam points directly at the viewer as a challenge to join the fight, inspiring legions of Americans to fight for their country.