At Auction August 1

Here’s a look at some of the highlights to be found inside our upcoming catalogue of Vintage Posters:

Leonetto Cappiello

Leonetto Cappiello, Fêtes du Congrès Interational des Étudiants, 1907. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.

Leonetto Cappiello, Carnaval / Vinho do Porto, 1911. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

Leonetto Cappiello, Cognac Gautier, circa 1907. Estimate $7,000 to $10,000.

Luciano Achille Mauzan

Luciano Achille Mauzan, Calzado Pluma, 1930. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

Luciano Achille Mauzan, Tonic – Water Bilz, 1929. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

Art Nouveau

Jean Misceslas, L’Estampe et l’Affiche, 1898. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Alice Russell Glenny, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy and Society of Artists Exhibition, 1897. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

Alphonse Mucha, Oesterreich auf der Weltausstellung / Paris 1900, 1899. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

C. Allan Gilbert, Wellesley College / May Scribner’s, 1898. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

Twentieth Century

Jean Dupas, Le Taureau Noir, etching, 1931. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

René Lelong, Kodak / Nékül ne Menjen a Balatonra. Estimate $1,200 to $1,800.

J. Spring, Cognac Sorin, 1930. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

Complete Catalogue Coming Soon

For more information on the sale, contact Specialist Nicholas D. Lowry in the Vintage Posters department.

Consign with Swann

Our specialists accept consignments on a rolling basis. For a complete list of consignment deadlines and upcoming auctions, check our Schedule.

The post A Look Inside the Catalogue: Vintage Posters appeared first on Swann Galleries News.

This post is by Keavy Handley-Byrne of our Photographs & Photobooks department.

To celebrate Pride Month, I wanted to share a couple of queer artists’ work in recognition of their accomplishments. Here are some of the artists who’ve had a big impact on me as a trans and queer photographer.

Kehinde Wiley, After La Negresse, 1872, cast marble dust and resin, 2006.
Sold May 22, 2018 for $6,500.

Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley is a contemporary artist working in traditional media and style. This year, he became the first black artist to paint the official presidential portrait with his monumental painting of Barack Obama. Wiley’s work addresses the lack of art historical representation of black subjects, referencing Jacques-Louis David and the French Rococo movement, replacing oft-represented heroic figures with young black men, bringing them positive visibility. This particular piece repositions a muse greatly desired by the artist from a queer perspective, another theme throughout Wiley’s work. Though not a lens-based artist, I’ve found that Wiley’s art-historical references have greatly influenced my practice and widened my knowledge of classical art history, and have helped expand these narratives into a world closer to my own experience.

Mickalene Thomas, You’re Gonna Give Me The Love I Need, multimedia collage with silkscreen, 2010.
Sold October 9, 2014, for $16,250.

Mickalene Thomas

Another contemporary artist working with ideas of representation and visibility, Mickalene Thomas’ works are defined by their depiction of powerful black women. Her work references in equal parts art historical figures and subjects, including Courbet and odalisques, and blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Through her multi-media portraiture, Thomas goes about re-examining the artist-muse relationship with an updated understanding of agency, repositioning the subject from a perspective of same-sex desire. Seeing the desire of a woman so prominently and unabashedly displayed in works of art is rare, even in the modern and post-modern era, making Thomas’ work empowering and satisfying for me as a queer person.

Hannah Höch, Untitled, photocollage, circa 1925-30.
Sold February 17, 2004 for $24,150.

Hannah Höch

The sole female member of the Berlin Dada group (among many important women contributors to the movement), Höch used photomontage — a technique she helped to pioneer — to depict androgynous individuals. She would often combine masculine and feminine traits to create one body and use these traits in her subjects to blur traditional gender roles. Her work explored the contrast between how women were portrayed in media and their lived realities, and believed women’s liberation to be of a kind with other social and political revolutions. As a queer person attracted to multiple genders, it is rare that I find an artist who both addresses in their work and openly identifies with bisexuality, but Höch’s approach to both attraction and gender in her work is a welcome reminder that the B in LGBTQ+ is very much present and valid, despite widespread belief that this isn’t so.

Claude Cahun, Untitled (Self-portrait with friend), silver print, 1929.
Sold May 26, 2005 for $14,950.

Claude Cahun

Known for their gender-bending photographs, Claude Cahun began photographing themself around 1912, at age 18. Their direct gaze in these self-portraits, when combined with their shaved head and the obfuscation of typical gender signifiers, challenged expectations of gender, sexuality, and beauty in early twentieth-century France. Though there are many exceptionally talented transgender visual artists, Cahun is one of the very few whose work is not overlooked due to their identity. To me, Cahun’s work was an early introduction to representation of nonbinary trans people through photography; their writings and photographs encouraged me to explore varied expressions of gender openly, especially through photographs. Their work is a reminder that femininity does not have to be absent from nonbinary representation, and that, contrary to popular belief, being trans, and particularly being nonbinary, is not a twenty-first-century phenomenon.

Keavy is a regular contributor to the Swann blog:

Magnum Photographs: 70th Anniversary

Identifying Types of Photographic Prints

Danny Lyon & New Photojournalism

Lunar Photography Through the Ages

On Sally Mann

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Our June 5 sale of Illustration Art broke long-standing records and brought new artists to auction for the first time. 76% of the rich selection of just over 250 works of art sold.

Lot 156: Al Hirschfeld, Cabin in the Sky, ink and correction fluid, for The Herald Tribune, 1940. Sold June 5, 2018 for $32,500.

Contributing to the success of the auction was a section of works for historically important theater productions by noted set and costume designers. A promotional drawing by Al Hirschfeld for Cabin in the Sky, 1940, published in The Herald Tribune, was purchased by a collector for $32,500. Hirschfeld also designed the promotional poster for the 1943 film. An early sketch by Jo Mielziner for the set of the Tony award-winning first production of Death of a Salesman, 1949, far exceeded the previous record for a work by the artist, which had stood at $3,250—the ink and wash piece at Swann was purchased by a collector for $23,750. Costume designs by Erté and Elizabeth Montgomery, known as Motley, also performed well.

Lot 45: Russell H. Tandy, The Secret in the Old Attic, watercolor, ink and gouache, for Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #21, by Carolyn Keene, 1944. Sold June 5, 2018 for $35,000, a record for the artist.

Topping the sale was Russell H. Tandy’s cover for one of Carolyn Keene’s popular Nancy Drew mysteries, The Secret in the Old Attic, 1944. Each detail of the watercolor and gouache painting was done by hand, including the precise text of the title and author’s name. After break-neck bidding, the work was purchased by a collector for $35,000, a record for the artist.

Lot 233: Charles Addams, Penguin Convention, watercolor, cover for The New Yorker, 1977. Sold June 5, 2018 for $30,000.

A record was also achieved by Ruth Eastman with a proposed cover for The Saturday Evening Post, titled Hitting the Links of Palm Beach, mid-1920s. The gouache painting on a printed Post cover reached $8,750, above a high estimate of $1,200. The record for a cover by Charles Addams for The New Yorker was not one of the dark gags for which he is known, but for the bright and hysterical Penguin Convention, 1977. The watercolor vista of innumerable penguins wearing nametags was also a record for any work in color by the artist: it sold to an institution for $30,000.

Lot 102: George Wolfe Plank, Christmas Gifts, ink and watercolor, cover for Vogue, 1913. Sold June 5, 2018 for $22,500, a record for the artist.

Another highlight was the auction debut of any work by George Wolfe Plank. Christmas Gifts, 1913, was one of more than 60 covers the artist produced for Vogue between 1911 and 1936. The elegant watercolor reached $22,500.

Works by beloved illustrators Harrison Cady, Arthur Rackham, Charles Schulz, Everett Shinn and Jessie Willcox Smith also performed well.

The next auction of Illustration Art at Swann Galleries will be held on December 6, 2018. The house is currently accepting quality consignments.

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Multi-talented artists can appear in multiple departments at Swann. Our June 14 auction of American Art will feature highlights by Pavel Tchelitchew, whose work also appears in our auctions of Illustration Art.

Russian-born Pavel Tchelitchew developed an interest in art at an early age. One of his instructors in Kiev was Alexandra Exter, a pupil of Fernand Léger and an important theater designer. Tchelitchew left the country in 1920, stopping briefly in Berlin, where he executed several theater designs, including the Constructivist-inspired set for Savonarola, 1923. James Thrall Soby said in his 1942 book Tchelitchew: Paintings, Drawings, “Tchelitchew’s work in Berlin appears to have been enthusiastically received and is said to have widely influenced German stage designers during the mid-1920s. Unfortunately, documentation on his productions is extremely limited. . . . The influence of Fernand Léger and the Russian Constructivists was still strongly felt in both costumes and sets. Savonarola was the most Constructivist of all his productions.”

Lot 226: Pavel Tchelitchew, Savonarola, preliminary sketch for set design, graphite, gouache and watercolor, 1923. Sold December 14, 2017 for $8,125.

He then moved to Paris, where he rubbed elbows with Gertrude Stein and her coterie. He began to experiment with a more surrealist style, influenced by his devout belief in clairvoyance and the occult. The Sorceress embodies these themes: in inks and wash, Tchelitchew painted his own fortune teller, accompanied by her cat, in a mystical haze of flowers and smoke. His Constructivist roots are visible in the angles of the old woman’s face and coat, but the work otherwise evinces a blend of Postimpressionism and Surrealism.

Lot 275: Pavel Tchelitchew, The Sorceress, ink and wash, 1932. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

Also from this period is a moody portrait of the Communist dissident Robert Cluzan, a militant and mole in the police department in Lyon during World War II, some ten years after this painting was made. Tchelitchew eschews Constructivism again, though the style’s sculptural qualities are evident in Cluzan’s musculature.

Lot 278: Pavel Tchelitchew, Portrait of Robert Cluzan, pastels, 1930.
Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

After a decade or so in Paris, Tchelitchew left for New York with his partner, the writer Charles Henri Ford. There he became close friends with Paul Cadmus‘s brother-in-law Lincoln Kirstein (who, along with George Balanchine, formed the New York City Ballet). Tchelitchew designed costumes and sets for several important ballet productions, including Balanchine’s Errante and Orpheus. Through his connection to Kirstein, Tchelitchew became part of the artistic circle that included Cadmus, Jared French and George Tooker.

Lot 273: Pavel Tchelitchew, Interiors (Skull), ink and wash, 1944.
Estimate $7,000 to $10,000.

Interiors (Skull) is an excellent example of Tchelitchew’s recognizable mature style. Internal and external views overlap to create an unsettling view of a human head. He returned to this subject frequently until his death in 1957.

Browse the full catalogue.

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William Wheeler III’s collection of Revolutionary and Presidential Americana, coming to auction June 21, began on his 21st birthday with the gift of his three-times-great-uncle’s appointment as an Ensign to the Massachusetts Militia in the Revolutionary War, signed by John Hancock. His fascination with the material artifacts of the period, however, had begun even earlier.

William Wheeler III

As a sixth grader in Worcester, Massachusetts, Wheeler spent afternoons at the American Antiquarian Society, browsing the archives of pre-Revolutionary newspapers and pamphlets. History came alive for him through the records of courageous acts he’d learned about in school.

Lot 202: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Typed Letter Signed, to W.T. Garner, describing his successful polio treatment, Warm Springs, October 1927.
Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.

In adolescence, a bout of polio sparked an admiration for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other figures whose lives were touched by the condition. By the time of his 21st birthday and the acquisition of the Hancock autograph, a close personal relationship had developed between Wheeler and his historical heroes via their letters, documents and memorabilia.

Lot 136: Andrew Jackson, Autograph Letter Signed, to editor Thomas Eastin, concerning a dispute that would lead to a duel in which he killed Charles Dickinson, Nashville, February 1806. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

A particular interest in Andrew Jackson, inspired by records of his own ancestors’ dealings with him, drove Wheeler to learn and acquire everything he could about the president. He wanted the whole story: What drove Jackson to act the way he did? Each Autograph Letter and Document Signed added dimension to the story Wheeler was learning about the development of the American political system.

Lot 75: Pay order for £12 to express rider Jonathan Park “to enable him to defrey his Expences going express to Philadelphia” to warn the Continental Congress of the imminent arrival of British warships, Massachusetts, 3 May 1776.
Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

His deeply personal collection grew, enhanced by his work as manufacturing consultant, creating a corpus simultaneously heartfelt and incisive. Each acquisition added a chapter to Wheeler’s personal understanding of the American story. It is his hope that the auction will enrich the “stories” of other collectors.

Browse the full catalogue.

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Our auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books on June 7 brought to market landmarks from the history of cartography and ornithology. The nearly 400 lots traced important developments in science and natural history, especially in North America.

Lot 337: John James Audubon, Fish Hawk, Plate 81, hand-colored aquatint and engraved plate from Birds of America, London, 1830.
Sold June 7, 2018 for $68,750.

Leading the auction was the hand-colored elephant plate of Fish Hawk from John James Audubon’s Birds of America, 1830, at $68,750. Audubon works, as well as those generally related to birds, performed well overall, achieving three of the top five highest prices in the sale. Another highlight was the first octavo edition of a complete subscriber’s copy of Birds of America, 1840-44, which was purchased by a collector for $22,500.

Lot 54: Nicolas de Fer, L’Amerique Divisee Selon Letendue de ses Principales Parties, engraved decorative wall map, Paris, 1713.
Sold June 7, 2018 for $30,000.

By delightful coincidence, all three of the most important “Beaver Maps” were in the sale and performed well. Nicolas de Fer’s L’Amerique Divisee Selon Letendue de ses Principales Parties, 1713, colloquially known as the “Original Beaver Map,” was the first major map to include an engraved cartouche of beavers in the wilderness. It was purchased by a collector for $30,000. The beaver motif was emulated and popularized later by Herman Moll in his circa 1735 atlas, The World Described, on the spread depicting New England, which came to be known as “The Beaver Map” for its ubiquity ($22,500). Finally, “The Dutch Beaver Derivative,” the moniker given to Henri Chatelain’s 1719 long Carte Tres Curieuse de la Mer du Sud…, reached $9,375.

Lot 25: Herman Boye, A Map of the State of Virginia Reduced from the Nine Sheet Map of the State, in Conformity to Law, case map, Philadelphia, 1827.
Sold June 7, 2018 for $27,500.

Important post-Revolutionary American maps included the first 1827 issue of Herman Boye’s Map of the State of Virginia Reduced to come to auction in more than 50 years ($27,500). The first official map to delineate the exact boundaries of Pennsylvania, by Reading Howell, 1792, reached $5,980.

Lot 280: Map of Manhattan issued by the Department of Docks, compiled by Charles K. Graham, 1873. Sold June 7, 2018 for $8,750.

True to form, unusual plans of Manhattan sparked interest among buyers. A seven-part map compiled by Charles Kinnaird and issued by the Department of Docks in 1873 shows the original shoreline of the island, overlaid with proposed infrastructure including piers and bulwarks. Only five institutional copies are known to exist; it was purchased by a collector for $8,750. Another highlight was Egbert Viele’s “Water Map,” or Topographical Atlas of the City of New York, 1874, depicting the waterways of Manhattan before its development ($9,100).

The next auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries will be held on December 13, 2018. The house is currently accepting quality consignments.

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Our auction of American Art on June 14 offered original works by bastions of the category including William Glackens and John Singer Sargent, as well as artists whose work has only more recently been recognized. 81% of the 300 works found buyers, indicating a robust market with continued interest in rising stars.

Lot 245: Jared French, Etruscan Man, marble, circa 1935.
Sold June 14, 2018 for $13,750.

Nearly a fifth of the auction comprised works by the artist collective PaJaMa, consisting of Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret Hoening French and their various partners and friends. Many of these works came from the collection of Jon Anderson and Philis Raskind-Anderson, including Jared French’s graphite Portrait of Paul Cadmus, 1931, and study for Elemental Play, 1946 ($10,625 and $11,250, respectively). The evocative chalk Nude Reclining on Bentwood Chairs with a Dog, circa 1975, by Paul Cadmus, reached $10,000.

Lot 278: Pavel Tchelitchew, Portrait of Robert Cluzan, pastels, 1930.
Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

All five works in the sale by Pavel Tchelitchew found buyers, with the 1930 pastel Portrait of Robert Cluzan leading the auction at $32,500. Cluzan was a communist police officer who sold Nazi secrets during WWII. Tchelitchew’s ink and wash Interiors (Skull), 1944, a motif for which the artist is well known, reached $11,250.

Lot 108: Mahonri Young, two sketchbooks, with approximately 86 drawings, various media. Sold June 14, 2018 for $22,500.

The increasingly popular section of sketchbooks saw competition for collectors and dealers seeking background information into beloved artists’ processes. Two sketchbooks by Ashcan artist Mahonri Young, grandson of LDS leader Brigham Young, sold after breakneck bidding for $22,500, a record for a work on paper by the artist, who is primarily known as a sculptor. A sketchbook of diners in Washington restaurants by Peggy Bacon nearly doubled its high estimate to sell for $5,750.

Lot 197: Fairfield Porter, Coastal Scene, color pastels. Sold June 14, 2018 for $20,000.

All eight works by Fairfield Porter saw strong results, including two sketchbooks featuring primarily urban scenes, which sold together for $6,750. The highlight was Coastal Scene, a charming pastel view of Maine islands that encapsulates the artist’s oeuvre, purchased by a collector for $20,000. The double-sided watercolor Rocky Coastal View, also of Maine, reached $13,750.

Lot 200: Emilio Cruz, Floating Figures, oil on canvas. Sold June 14, 2018 for $17,500, a record for the artist.

An auction record was established for Emilio Cruz, an African-American artist of Cuban descent whose work is gaining recognition: the undated oil painting Floating Figures, a fine example of his expressive blend of figuration and abstraction, reached $17,500.

Lot 12: John Singer Sargent, Head of a Young Girl, pencil, circa 1875-78.
Sold June 14, 2018 for $25,000.

Additional highlights included a pencil portrait by John Singer Sargent of a young girl, circa 1875-78, was purchased by a collector for $25,000, and an elegant oil painting by William Glackens of Le Royal Conti-Isle Adam, circa 1926, which evinces his later Impressionist style ($27,500).

Lot 36: William Glackens, Le Royal Conti-Isle Adam, oil on canvas, circa 1926. Sold June 14, 2018 for $27,500.

Todd Weyman, Director of American Art and Vice President of Swann, was pleased with the sale. “Twentieth-century American Art continues to attract new buyers. We’re delighted to see traditionally under-recognized artists like Emilio Cruz offered alongside superstars like Glackens and Sargent, and achieving comparable prices.”

The next fine art auction at Swann Galleries will be 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings on September 20, 2018. The house is currently accepting quality consignments for autumn auctions.

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William Wheeler III‘s collection of Revolutionary & Presidential Americana, coming to auction June 21, features letters, documents and manuscripts that reveal the stories behind some of the most influential events in American history.

William Wheeler III

A letter from then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson reveals the young United States’ apprehension in foreign affairs. The letter is in response to Maryland Governor Thomas Sim Lee’s question regarding an incident between French and British ships in American waters that came to be known as the Citizen Genêt Affair.

In April 1793, President George Washington issued a Declaration of Neutrality in response to the outbreak of war between Britain and France. Jefferson believed in a neutral stance, joined in this opinion by Attorney General Edmund Randolph, though opposed by other members of the cabinet with respect to the enforcement of the neutrality, especially Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Secretary of War Henry Knox.

Adolf Ulrich Wertmüller, Edmond Charles Genet, oil on canvas, 1784. Courtesy of the Albany Institute of History & Art.

French ambassador Edmond-Charles Genêt had plans of his own. Soon after his arrival at Charleston, South Carolina, on April 8, 1793, the newly-appointed French Minister to the U.S. began commissioning privateers to seek out and capture the ships of Britain and Spain, both enemies of France, in U.S. ports and waters. One of the four privateers commissioned was the schooner Sans Culotte, which translates to “without pants” and refers to a popular revolutionary movement in Paris. On April 29, the Sans Culotte captured the British schooner Eunice off the coast of Virginia, threatening U.S. neutrality.

Jefferson and Randolph held that the 1778 Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France obligated the U.S. to allow French privateers to capture their enemies and enter U.S. ports with their prizes without interference. Hamilton and Knox argued that the U.S. ought to declare the Treaty void, and that not returning a captured ship in U.S. waters to its owner would make the U.S. an instrument of the aggressor in violation of the terms of the neutrality.

Lot 171: Thomas Jefferson, Autograph Letter Signed, to Thomas Sim Lee, stating that the government is not authorized to intervene in the Citizen Genêt affair, 1793.
Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

Here is what Jefferson said: “Measures had been already taken for prosecuting such American citizens as had joined in the capture therein mentioned, a letter to that effect having been written to the Attorney of the US. in the state of Maryland. With respect to the prize, the government did not think itself authorised to do any thing. Your Excellency will have been informed by a letter from the Secretary at war, addressed to you as the head of the militia of your state, of the measures proposed for preventing the fitting out [of] privateers in our ports in future, as well as for the preservation of peace within our limits. . . .”

Disputes about the enforcement of neutrality recurred between the Administration’s two camps as new incidents arose involving Genêt’s privateers, culminating in the adoption by both camps of eight rules, approved by the president, clarifying U.S. policy on neutrality.

In these rules, sent in the form of a circular to the state governors by Knox on August 7, 1793, privateers were forbidden to bring captured ships into U.S. ports, demonstrating a shift in Jefferson’s opinion from that expressed in the present letter.

Genêt, after repeatedly disregarding the instructions of the Administration regarding the dangerous behavior of his privateers, was recalled to France at the request of the U.S., but was permitted to remain in the U.S. in order to avoid persecution by the new Jacobin government.

Browse the full catalogue.

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At Auction April 19

The Knowing Eye: Photographs & Photobooks features a rare vintage print of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic Premier at La Scala, Milan, circa 1933, and Robert Frank’s quirky Portrait of art dealer Richard Bellamy, circa 1959. Contemporary photographs include The Most Beautiful Part of a Man’s Body, 1986, by Duane Michals, as well as a deluxe edition of Robert Adams’s From the Missouri West, 1980.

Lot 82: Alfred Eisenstaedt, Premier at La Scala, Milan, Italy, silver print, circa 1933. Estimate $40,000 to $60,000.

Lot 10: Gustave Le Gray, Portrait of a young woman, daguerreotype, circa 1847-48.
Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

Lot 103: Walker Evans, River Rouge Plant, Detroit, Michigan, silver print, 1947.
Estimate $15,000 to $25,000.

Lot 65: Ansel Adams, Winter in Yosemite [Pine Forest in Snow], silver print signed & inscribed to Carl Wheat, circa 1932. Estimate $40,000 to $60,000.

Lot 60: Manuel Álvarez Bravo, La Buena Fama Durmiendo, silver print, 1939, printed 1970s. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

Lot 131: Peter Hujar, Robert Wilson, Vestry Street, silver print, 1975. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Lot 207: Duane Michals, The Most Beautiful Part of a Man’s Body, silver print, 1986. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.

Complete Catalogue

For more information on the sale, contact a specialist in the Photographs & Photobooks department.

Consign with Swann

Our specialists accept consignments on a rolling basis. For a complete list of consignment deadlines and upcoming auctions, check our Schedule.

Get the Semimonthly Newsletter 

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On June 21, our auction of Revolutionary & Presidential Americana from the Collection of William Wheeler III saw a 91% sell-through rate for important autographs, letters and documents from some of the biggest players in American history. Wheeler, a manufacturing consultant from a long line of New Englanders, devoted much of his adult life to acquiring illuminating pieces of Americana from the Revolutionary War and nearly every president.

Lot 136: Andrew Jackson, Autograph Letter Signed, retained draft, regarding his antimony with Charles Dickinson, Nashville, 1806. Sold June 21, 2018 for $7,000.

Wheeler harbored a special fascination with the life and deeds of Andrew Jackson, which led to a run of 34 significant letters and documents signed by the president, 88% of which found buyers. Highlights included a retained copy of a letter to be published by editor Thomas Eastin, providing his own account of the altercations that would lead to his killing Charles Dickinson in a duel. One of two known complete drafts, it reached $7,000. An 1833 autograph letter signed as president to his adoptive son, Andrew Jackson, Jr., a request that he go to their plantation (the Hermitage) in response to reports of grieving and ailing slaves, sold for $9,375.

Lot 131: Rutherford B. Hayes, archive related to the 1876 election in South Carolina. Sold June 21, 2018 for $23,400.

The 1876 presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden was overshadowed in South Carolina by the gubernatorial contest on the same ticket. An archive of 153 items relating to the election, which resulted in riots, lynch-mobs and a contested victory for the governorship, topped the sale at $23,400.

Lot 28: Patrick Henry, Autograph Letter Signed, to Colonel William Fleming, Williamsburg, 1778. Sold June 21, 2018 for $16,250.

Also available was an autograph letter signed by Patrick Henry to Colonel William Fleming requesting that the militia in Montgomery County, Virginia, be prepared in the case of an attack by Native Americans in 1778. The letter more than doubled its high estimate, selling after breakneck bidding to a collector for $16,250. Additional Revolutionary highlights included a brief autograph letter signed to Ira Allen, the brother of Ethan Allen, from Thomas Paine, concerning a missed connection at the subversive Caffe Boston in Paris in the 1790s ($10,000), and a pay order signed by 15 members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives “to defray [the] costs” of express rider Jonathan Park on his urgent ride to Philadelphia in May 1776 ($13,750).

Lot 49: Charles Coatesworth Pinckney, Autograph Letter Signed, sending condolences after Washington’s death, Harper’s Ferry, 1799. Sold June 21, 2018 for $16,250.

In addition to fresh perspectives on monumental events, the auction provided an endearing human side to some of history’s most well-known players. A fine example is a heartfelt letter from Charles Pinckney to Tobias Lear, George Washington’s secretary, upon learning of the first president’s death in 1799. He wrote, “I shall not attempt to express my feelings on this occasion: language cannot describe them. In him I have lost a friend & father. Say everything proper for me to Mrs. Washington & Mrs. Lewis. I cannot console them; but I can weep with them.” This rare missive was purchased by an institution for $16,250, above a high estimate of $10,000.

The next auction of Americana at Swann Galleries, featuring The Harold Holzer Collection of Lincolniana, is scheduled for September 27, 2018. The next auction of Autographs at Swann Galleries will be on November 8, 2018. The house is currently accepting quality consignments for autumn auctions.

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The 2017-18 auction season at Swann Galleries was replete with record prices and rediscovered paintings, offering works created as early as the fifteenth century and as recently as last year. We held our highest-grossing auction ever: African-American Fine Art on April 5, 2018 totaled $4.5 M. That sale also boasted the top price of the season: $725,000 for a 1956 oil on canvas by Norman Lewis. We also offered three major private collections: posters from the collection of Gail Chisholm, science fiction from the estate of Stanley Simon and select Americana and autographs form the collection of William Wheeler III.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights and records from the last year. Inspired? Learn how to consign at Swann.

Norman Lewis, Untitled, oil on canvas, 1956. Sold April 5, 2018 for $725,000, the second-highest price for the artist at auction.

African-American Fine Art

Charles White, O Freedom, charcoal with crayon and wash, 1956. Sold April 5, 2018 for $509,000, a record for the artist.
O Freedom is currently displayed in White’s retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jacob Lawrence, 19. Tension on the High Seas, tempera on board, 1956.
Sold April 5, 2018 for $413,000.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Flight into Egypt, oil on canvas, circa 1910. Sold October 5, 2017 for $341,000.

American Art

Pavel Tchelitchew, Portrait of Robert Cluzan, pastels, 1930.
Sold June 14, 2018 for $32,500.

Wolf Kahn, Poisonous Yellow-Green, oil on canvas, 2001.
Sold June 14, 2018 for $31,250.

Autographs

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major, Autograph Musical Quotation dated & signed, London, 21 March 1888. Sold November 7, 2017 for $27,500.

Thomas Jefferson, Letter Signed, to Major-General Nathanael Greene, Richmond, February 1781. Sold March 22, 2018 for $35,000.

Books

19th & 20th Century Literature

Ian Fleming, The Centenary Edition of the Works of Ian Fleming, one of 26 lettered sets, 18 volumes, London, 2008. Sold November 14, 2017 for $30,000.

Ernest Hemingway, Three Stories & Ten Poems, limited first edition, Paris, 1923. Sold May 15, 2018, for $23,750.

Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books

Aegidius Romanus, Lo libre del regiment dels princeps, first edition in Catalan, Barcelona, 1480.
Sold October 17, 2017 for $50,000.

Sir Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesie, unauthorized first edition, London, 1595. Sold March 8, 2018 for $149,000, a record for the work.

Luis de Lucena, Arte de Ajedres, first edition of the earliest extant manual on modern chess, Salamanca, circa 1496-97.
Sold March 8, 2018 for $68.750, a record for the work.

Fine Illustrated Books & Graphics

Gustav Klimt, Das Werk von Gustav Klimt, with 49 plates, Vienna & Leipzig, 1918.
Sold April 26, 2018 for $106,250.

Contemporary Art

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled: Four Prints, complete set of four color screenprints, 1983-2001.
Sold November 16, 2017 for $200,000.

Victor Vasarely, Majus II, polystyrene, 1974. Sold May 22, 2018 for $13,750.

Illustration Art

William Oden Waller (studio), Manhattan Mary, gouache and graphite, 1927. Sold December 14, 2017 for $77,500.

Russell H. Tandy, The Secret in the Old Attic, watercolor, ink and gouache, for Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #21, by Carolyn Keene, 1944. Sold June 5, 2018 for $35,000, a record for the artist.

Maps & Atlases

Richard Hakluyt, Novus Orbis, first printed use of “Virginia” on a map, Paris, 1587.
Sold December 5, 2017 for $80,000, a record for the work.

John James Audubon, Fish Hawk, Plate 81, hand-colored aquatint and engraved plate from Birds of America, London, 1830.
Sold June 7, 2018 for $68,750.

Photographs & Photobooks

Walker Evans, River Rouge Plant, Detroit, Michigan (with Ford signage on freight car), silver print, 1947. Sold April 19, 2018 for $57,500. This is the only known print of this image; a negative is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Robert B. Talfor, Photographic Views of Red River Raft, album with 113 hand-colored photographs, 1873.
Sold February 15, 2018 for $93,750. This is one of three known extant copies of the book.

Lewis W. Hine, Powerhouse Mechanic, silver print,
circa 1921. Sold February 15, 2018 for $81,250.

Saul Leiter, Waiter, Paris, chromogenic print, 1959, printed 1990s. Sold October 19, 2017 for $25,000, a record for the work.

Printed & Manuscript African Americana

Carte-de-visite album with 83 images of prominent African Americans and abolitionists, circa 1860s. Sold March 29, 2018 for $47,500.

Frederick Douglass, Signed cabinet card, by George Kendall Warren, Boston, circa 1879. Sold March 29, 2018 for $30,000, an auction record for a signed photograph of Douglass.

Printed & Manuscript Americana

Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, Parts I & II, first separate edition, Philadelphia, 1777.
Sold April 12, 2018 for $50,000.

Missionary archive of Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond, Minnesota, 1833-93.
Sold September 28, 2017 for $112,500.

Prints & Drawings

Pablo Picasso, Françoise sur fond gris, lithograph, 1950.
Sold September 19, 2017 for $125,000.

Edward Hopper, The Lonely House, etching, 1923.
Sold November 2, 2017 for $317,000, a record for a print by the artist.

Edward Hopper, House by a River, etching, 1919. Sold March 13, 2018 for $100,000.

Henri Matisse, Grand Masque, aquatint, inscribed to model Nadia Sednaoui, 1948. Sold May 8, 2018 for $87,500, a record for the work.

Vintage Posters

Man Ray, [London Transport] – Keeps London Going, 1938. Sold May 3, 2018 for $149,000, a record for the work.

Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, Normandie / Maiden Voyage, 1935. Sold October 26, 2017 for $20,000.

Special Collections

Highlights from the Gail Chisholm Collection

Erik Nitsche, General Dynamics / Hydrodynamics, 1955.
Sold March 1, 2018 for $5,500, a record for the work.

Georges Dorival, Vers le Mont – Blanc, group of three posters, 1928. From the Collection of Gail Chisholm. Sold March 1, 2018 for $13,750.

Selections from the Estate of Stanley Simon

Isaac Asimov, Foundation trilogy, first editions, each signed, New York, 1951-53. From the Estate of Stanley Simon.
Sold May 15, 2018 for $9,750, a record for the work.

Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle, first edition, signed, New York, 1962. From the Estate of Stanley Simon. Sold May 15, 2018 for $10,400, a record for the work.

Revolutionary & Presidential Americana from the Collection of William Wheeler III

Charles Coatesworth Pinckney, Autograph Letter Signed, sending condolences after Washington’s death, Harper’s Ferry, 1799. Sold June 21, 2018 for $16,250.

We are currently accepting quality consignments for autumn auctions.

The post 2017-18 Year in Review appeared first on Swann Galleries News.

Our Specialists in the Field summer series is back for 2018! Here’s what some of us are cracking into in the off-season.

Nicholas D. Lowry, President & Principal Auctioneer

Noah Charney and Ingrid Rowland, The Collector of Lives, 2017.

This is a biography of Giorgio Vasari, a multi-talented Renaissance artist and sculptor best remembered for his book Lives of the Artists, which represented the first time biographies had been written about artists. He covered all of the important Italian Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. In writing this book, Vasari “singlehandedly invented the genre of artistic biography and established the canon of Italian Renaissance art” and I wanted to know more about him.

Alexandra Nelson, Communications Director

R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War, 2018.

I’m a big fan of escapist summer reads, almost always erring towards SFF, but my recommendation is not light fare. R.F. Kuang self-describes as “grimdark’s darkest daughter” on her twitter profile, and her debut novel doesn’t disappoint. It’s a gruesome, bloody coming-of-age fantasy that’s definitely not for kids. Steeped in a fictionalized East Asia partially informed by the Second Sino-Japanese war, you come away wanting more but also needing a breather: luckily this is part one of a trilogy.

Christine von der Linn, Specialist, Illustration Art and Fine, Press & Illustrated Books

William Logan, Dickinson’s Nerves, Frost’s Woods: Poetry in the Shadow of the Past, 2018.

I’ve been a student of material culture for most of my life and, as I find myself turning back to poetry for insight and pleasure more and more, I find this new work exploring the physical world and historical context of poems at the time of their creation fascinating. While the words of poetry can be fluid and open to interpretation, insight to contemporary meanings and definitions can provide a keener sense of understanding and a new appreciation of the work.

Daile Kaplan, Vice President & Director, Photographs & Photobooks

Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach, 2017.

My philosophy is simple: if I can’t actually hang out on the beach then I need to figure out a way to bring the ocean to me. Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach is a complex novel that (partially) does just that. The setting is Brooklyn during the 1930s through ’40s, and the borough’s coastal areas figure prominently in the protagonist’s journey.

While Coney Island remains the more popular attraction, when I was growing up, Manhattan Beach was a go-to destination. Egan’s lyrical passages about the sea reveal a literary artist at work. Diving (in rivers, oceans and bays) serves as a powerful metaphor for self discovery. And, her descriptions of wartime shipbuilding in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where women proudly populated the industrial workplace, brought to mind a time when genuine patriotism and identifying as an American truly meant something special.

Ferry Foster, Communications Assistant

Jim Al-Khalili, The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance, 2012.

I recently finished The House of Wisdom, a chronological history of Arabic science. Century by century, Jim Al-Khalili traces the pursuit of knowledge in Baghdad’s great library-university-consortium known as the House of Wisdom that flourished from the ninth- to eleventh centuries. Beginning with an obsessive translation and recording of ancient Greek texts, Arab thinkers built upon this knowledge to create the distinct fields of chemistry, algebra, medicine and physics, which spread west and north to Europe and sparked the Age of Enlightenment there.

Jaye Melino, Administrator, Prints & Drawings

Sharon Waxman, Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World, 2008.

I read Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World, by Sharon Waxman for a class in college and have recently picked it back up, as the question of what to do with looted art is a continuous and growing concern. It’s a fascinating question of  how thousand-year-old antiquities can cause current international incidents and affect modern-day legislation. Waxman paints an honest portrait of the damaging lengths that the Western world has gone through in order to fill their museums and sate the appetite of collectors, and it’s scary to know that these primitive and violent means of acquiring antiquities continues today. I appreciate when authors acknowledge and connect the art world with the current political climate, and this book helped to examine my own patriotism and reassess how ownership should be viewed in the context of both ancient and recent history.

Jessica Feldman, Cataloguer, Prints & Drawings

Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere, 2017.

Little Fires Everywhere was an enthralling read from start to finish, I couldn’t put it down! It centers on an enigmatic artist Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl, who settle in an affluent suburb of Cleveland and rent a house from the Richardson family. The lives of the two families become dangerously intertwined, and when a mysterious photo of Mia is discovered hanging in an art museum on a class trip, uncovering the secrets behind it threatens to upend both families forever. Bonus: Hulu is adapting this into a series which will be produced by (and starring) Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.

Keavy Handley-Byrne, Associate Cataloguer, Photographs & Photobooks

Charlie Jane Anders, All The Birds In The Sky, 2017.

This book combined several of my interests: for one, I’ve always been interested in, and romantic about, witchcraft and its relationship with nature. For another, as a photographer, growing and changing technology has always been fascinating to me. All The Birds In The Sky is a story about magic and technology growing and changing alongside each other. Laurence and Patricia, the two protagonists, are on opposite sides of a conflict involving the magic of nature and humans’ technological advancement; they have known each other since they were children. The novel features two-second time machines, philosophical fowl, ecoterrorism and venture capitalism run amok to form a great escape into a world of magical realism.

Lauren Kristin, Digital Content Coordinator

A.J. Angulo (Editor), Miseducation: A History of Ignorance-Making in America and Abroad, 2016.

This compilation of fiercely investigated essays walks through the ways that ignorance has been legalized, mythologized, nationalized and globalized. The authors develop their arguments underneath the umbrella of “agnotology,” a term coined by Robert N. Proctor, which is the study of culturally- or politically-induced doubt, especially in cases of disingenuous data within published science. The book outlines disempowerment strategies throughout social strata, beginning with details of anti-literacy laws in the Antebellum South. An incredibly important read, I picked this book up in a chance encounter at the library.

Marco Tomaschett, Specialist, Autographs

David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861, 1976.

I’m currently reading David M. Potter ‘s The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861, which details America’s growing sectionalism in the years leading up to the Civil War. One can see interesting parallels to trends in today’s America: rather than northern-southern sectionalism, we have a rural-urban disparity provoking similar Congressional conflict.

Sarah Shelburne, Cataloguer & Administrator, Vintage Posters

Laura Lippman, What the Dead Know, 2007.

I picked up this well-worn book at a secondhand store a few months ago. Much like many items that come through Swann, this book has clearly had a full life and needed to be rediscovered by someone who would appreciate it all over again. I’m only a few chapters into it so far, but I’ve already hit an unsolved murder, a car crash, an excessive description of breakfast food and a lot of thinly veiled angst/foreshadowing, so it pretty much hits all the high points of what I’m looking for in a subway read! It’s going to be a good commuting companion to and from Swann this summer.

And check out what we were reading last year.

The post Specialists in the Field: Summer Reading List 2018 appeared first on Swann Galleries News.

Sheila Gibson Stoodley, author of The Hot Bid, interviewed our President & Principle Auctioneer Nicholas D. Lowry about the most expensive travel poster ever sold.

Sheila’s blog, The Hot Bid showcases intriguing and delightful lots coming up at auction. She is an experienced writer and editor who specializes in luxury, travel, art, antiques, collectibles, food, medicine, history, design and interiors. She also keeps a portfolio on MediaBistro.

L.M.S./Best Way, a 1928 poster by Adolphe Mouron (A.M.) Cassandre. It was sold at Swann in November 2012 for $162,500, an auction record for any travel poster.

Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, L.M.S. / Best Way, 1928.

Sheila: Cassandre did so many great travel poster designs. Why is this one so sought-after?

Nicholas: The easiest way to sum it up is it’s the only poster of his that had a limited edition run. The fewer there are, the more collectors want it.

Cassandre did designs along these lines for two different train company clients, both of whom rejected them. Why did they say no?

The story is a little bit murky. In 1927, he did a painting for a French railway that was similar. It was not accepted and there’s no record as to why. The British railway line L.M.S didn’t want it either, so Cassandre printed it in a small run.

Cassandre, Nord Express, rejected design for the French railway, 1927. Courtesy of Rietveld Academie.

That’s quite a move for a poster artist, to print the thing himself. Why did he do it?

Because the poster is great. I think he was very, very proud of it.

Why might the train companies have hesitated to go ahead with this design?

We’re looking at it with 20/20 historical hindsight, but what we love about it now is it’s a unique view of a train. The train companies might have asked, ‘Dude, where is the train going?’ It could have been too abstract for them.

Why does the poster take this unusual square-ish shape?

This is the standard size British poster format, for the hoardings [billboards] at a British train station. Had the British railway accepted the poster design, they had to be able to use it in their system. The French version, which I’ve only seen as a photo in a book, is quite close to this. You look at them and you could base a game on picking out how they’re different from each other. It’s not at all obvious.

Cassandre printed 50 of these posters. Do we know how many survive?

No one has done a census of them, but I’d have to imagine there’s probably ten to 25. Some are in institutions, which will never sell them. There can’t be more than 25 in private hands.

How many have you seen or handled?

We’ve only handled one. I have seen three others. A different organization has offered it for sale four times. Twice, it was the same piece.

How did you arrive at the estimate of $70,000 to $100,000?

In 1990, the poster sold at auction for $60,500, and in 1997, one sold for $57,500. In the decade and a half since the 1997 sale, there had been more poster auctions. Cassandre’s name was more known, his stock was rising, and his talent was known more.

Cassandre’s signature and edition number.

Cassandre numbered these posters like you would a limited edition print. Was that an unusual practice for 1928?

It’s more than unusual, it’s singular. Posters are never numbered. For his Normandie ship, no one knows how many were done, but it was probably in the thousands. This one, because it was privately printed, signed and numbered, is more like a Picasso lithograph.

You were the auctioneer that night. What do you remember about selling the poster?

Without looking anything up, I remember it was not bought by someone who I thought would buy it. We know who the big collectors are, and the big dealers who feed the big collectors. We know whose toes to tickle, and it went to someone else. It was such a rarity that people outside the expected circle were participating. It was bought over the internet and remains our largest purchase online to date.

Do you remember when you knew you had a record?

It’s too long ago to say, but it was clearly a groundbreaking moment both for the artist and for the poster market as a whole. $162,500 is real money. I don’t think I thought this at the time, but it really showed that posters had come of age. It showed how deep the market was.

What factors drove the poster to its record price?

Rarity, but you can have something that’s rare and ugly. This is rare, and it’s extraordinary, and it’s by Cassandre. It’s a trifecta. Cassandre is still the gold standard for machine age Art Deco design, and this poster is incredibly attractive. It’s great.

How long do you think the record will stand?

I don’t think anything else is out there that could challenge it. What you haven’t asked me is what its estimate would be if it came up today. Since 2012, everything has changed. That sale was after the crash in 2008. Now the economy is booming. If the poster came up again, I think the estimate would be $100,000 to $150,000, and I have to think it would sell for substantially more. I’m almost certain that it would set the record again, depending on its condition. The one we sold was not in great condition. It had a grade of B+/B — not a proud condition grade. If it were in better shape, the estimate might be $120,000 to $180,000.

You can follow The Hot Bid on Instagram and follow the author on Twitter.

Swann Galleries is on Instagram and Twitter, and Nicholas Lowry is on Instagram and Twitter as well.

Nicholas Lowry has appeared several times on The Hot Bid. Read past entries in which he talks about a 1938 London Transport poster by Man Ray that ultimately sold for $149,000, a trio of Mont Blanc posters from 1928, a mid-1930s German travel poster featuring the Hindenburg, a 1968 MoMA poster by Japanese artist Tadanori Yokoo, an I Want You 1917 World War I recruiting poster that introduced the modern concept of Uncle Sam, and an Alphonse Mucha poster featuring Sarah Bernhardt.

The post The Hot Bid Interviews Nicho on Cassandre’s “Best Way” appeared first on Swann Galleries News.

At Auction October 4

Preview a few of the highlights scheduled for our upcoming selection of fine art by African-American masters:

Charles White, Nobody Knows My Name #1, charcoal & crayon on board, 1965. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000.

Charles White, Solid as a Rock (My God is a Rock), linoleum cut, 1957-58. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

William H. Johnson, On a John Brown Flight, color screenprint & pochoir, circa 1945. Estimate $50,000 to $75,000.

Complete Catalogue Coming Soon

For more information on the sale, contact a specialist in the African-American Fine Art Department.

Consign with Swann

The post A Look Inside the Catalogue: African-American Fine Art appeared first on Swann Galleries News.

At Auction October 16

The offerings in this characteristically diverse sale of Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books range from incunabula to early twentieth-century works on rocketry and space flight.

Incunabula

Titus Livius, Las Quatorze Decadas, Zaragoza, 1520. Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

Jean de Mandeville, Reysen und Wanderschafften durch das Gelobte Land, Augsburg, 1488. Estimate $15,000 to $25,000.

Giovanni Boccaccio, De las mujeres illustres en roma[n]ce, Zaragoza, 1494. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

Travel Books

José González Cabrera Bueno, Navegación Especulativa, y Práctica, Manila, 1734. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.

Juan de la Concepción, Historia General de Philipinas, Manila & Sampaloc, 1788-92. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.

More Highlights & Complete Catalogue Coming Soon

For more information on the sale, contact Specialist Tobias Abeloff in the Books department.

Consign with Swann

The post A Look Inside the Catalogue: Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books appeared first on Swann Galleries News.

Featuring The Holzer Collection of Lincolniana

At Auction September 27

Preview some of the highlights from our September offering of Printed & Manuscript Americana.

Abraham Lincoln

John C. Wolfe, Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, oil on board in period wooden frame, circa 1860s. Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

Franklin H. Brown, State Sovereignty, National Union: Abraham Lincoln, from a Photograph by Hesler, Chicago, 1860. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Presidential Campaigns

Clay and Frelinghuysen, flag banner, circa 1844. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.

American Revolution

Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, Fishkill, NY, circa December 1776. Estimate $25,000 to $35,000.

Mormonism

Portrait of a young man believed to be Frederick Granger Williams Smith, son of Joseph Smith, sixth-plate hand-tinted daguerreotype, circa late 1850s. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

Latin Americana

Francisco Loubayssin de Lamarca, Historia tragicomica de Don Henrique de Castro, the probable first edition of the first novel set in the Spanish New World, Paris, 1617. Estimate $15,000 to $25,000.

Complete Catalogue Coming Soon

For more information on the sale contact a specialist in the Printed & Manuscript Americana department.

Consign with Swann

The post A Look Inside the Catalogue: Printed & Manuscript Americana appeared first on Swann Galleries News.

Marco Tomaschett at the Morgan Library

For our first Specialists in the Field segment of 2018, Autographs Specialist Marco Tomaschett discusses his recent visit to The Morgan Library’s newest exhibition, The Magic of Handwriting: The Pedro Corrêa do Lago Collection, featuring nearly 150 examples of letters, sketches and manuscripts spanning more than 800 years. Here’s what he had to say:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, concluding portion of an Autograph Letter Signed, to his father, Leopold Mozart, [Mannheim], 7 February 1778.
Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago. Courtesy of The Morgan.

The pieces that were selected for the exhibition from Corrêa do Lago‘s vast and mesmerizing collection include letters, music, drawings, signatures and handprints by some of the most culturally significant figures of Western civilization. With a background in philosophy, I was especially enraptured by the group of items by philosophers, including a letter from one of my heroes, Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Each item in the exhibition is presented with the same degree of attention and respect, but some of the pieces are of staggering value to the autographs market: for instance, the manuscript of mathematical calculations by Albert Einstein, or the autographs by the three greatest composers of Europe: Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Given the influence of the figures represented in the exhibition, surely anyone can find something that touches one’s life in some way.

Opening night at the Morgan!

Future Queen Victoria, Autograph letter signed, at age 7, to her uncle Prince Frederick, the Duke of York and Albany, Tunbridge Wells, 16 August 1826.
Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago. Courtesy of The Morgan.

Sigmund Freud, Autograph invoice signed, to Roy Grinker, on a personal correspondence card, Vienna, 30 June 1934.
Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago. Courtesy of The Morgan.

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Lauren Kristin at Narcissus Garden by Yayoi Kusama

Communications Digital Content Coordinator Lauren Kristin shares their most recent venture to Rockaway! 2018.

Fort Tilden entrance at Beach 169th Street. Photo by Lauren Kristin.

Rockaway! is an ongoing public arts project conceived by Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1, in collaboration with Patti Smith, artist and resident of the region. In partnership with Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy and the National Park Service, Rockaway! draws continued public attention to remaining damages wrought by superstorm Sandy, as well as remarkable community efforts to rebuild, demonstrating the dual fragility and resilience of the locale.

Sculptures by an unknown artist in the backyard of the Rockaway Artists Alliance gallery. Photo by Lauren Kristin.

Fort Tilden, the location for Rockaway! exhibitions, is a former U.S. Army Coast Artillery Post that was built as an emergency fortification during World War I. It is incorporated by Gateway National Recreation Area, which became the first urban national park in America in 1972 and contains over 27,000 acres situated across three boroughs and New Jersey. This is the fifth Rockaway! installation since Sandy ravaged the region in 2012.

Narcissus Garden by Yayoi Kusama, 2018. Photo by Lauren Kristin.

This year’s exhibition is an installation of Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus Garden hosted by the Rockaway Artists Alliance. A looped projection of the artist’s short film Self-Obliteration played in the gallery portion, alongside photos of her 1960s performances, while the actual installation of Narcissus Garden was put up in a former train garage located behind RAA gallery.

Defunct machinery at the installation site for Narcissus Garden – a former train garage. Photo by Lauren Kristin.

The first public exhibition of Narcissus Garden was an unofficial installation at the 1966 Venice Biennale, in which the artist dressed in a gold kimono and sold the spheres for 1,200 lire, or about $2 each. Kusama’s performance–perceived paradoxically as both self-promotional and critical of commercialized art–is now seen as a seminal point in the arc of her career, as it signaled her movement into the realm of political actions and public installations. Journalist and noted art director Steven Heller recalled in The Atlantic, “I’d never met anyone as self-promotional as Kusama.”

Kusama was born in 1929 in the provincial city of Matsumoto, Japan, and worked in a factory sewing parachutes as a teenager during World War II. She went on to graduate from Kyoto Municipal School of Arts in 1949, despite familial discouragement regarding her pursuit of the arts. In her autobiography Infinity Net she describes a desire to leave her hometown for France or the United States, as well as her efforts to do so; she wrote directly to the president of France, Georgia O’Keefe and Kenneth Callahan with characteristic audacity.

View from the font of the installation, Narcissus Garden, 2018. Photo by Lauren Kristin.

Eventually, Kusama was sponsored by a relative to come to Seattle, and soon after moved to New York. Her first east coast show was in 1959. Though she soon developed a following and showed extensively, she remained financially dependent on her parents’ support from abroad. By 1966 her paintings had burst through their borders as her chosen media evolved from collage to sculpture and installation. In the following years she distanced herself from galleries and instead incited performances she called “naked happenings,” in which she painted nude bodies with polka dots in tourist hotspots until authorities arrived. In her film, Kusama’s Self-Obliteration, she could be described as an absurdist, painting red polka dots onto the surface a pond, only to have them float away in the water.

Letter to Richard Nixon, 1968. Courtesy of Phaidon.

The publicity Yayoi Kusama received in 1960s New York briefly surpassed that of Andy Warhol. However, her parents ultimately withdrew their financial support, unhappy with the rumors they heard of their daughter’s activity in the United States. In 1970, a crestfallen Kusama withdrew to Tokyo, where she later entered a mental hospital. Her work was essentially underground for the next two decades.

“Know Hope,” in Narcissus Garden by Yayoi Kusama.
Photo by Lauren Kristin.

Now, at 89 years old, Yayoi Kusama is an internationally recognized fixture in the art world. Narcissus Garden was created well before social media, but like many of the other pieces in her oeuvre, they are exhibitionist by nature and thus well-suited to share on such platforms. While wandering through the “garden” a few visitors were meditative, but most, including myself, crouched like Narcissus, often with phones, peering at our own bulbous reflections.

Narcissus Garden by Yayoi Kusama. Photo by Lauren Kristin.

Yayoi Kusama, Two Pumpkins, cast resin multiples, 2013. Sold May 22, 2018 for $4,000.

Lauren Kristin is the Digital Content Coordinator in Swann Galleries’ Communications Department.

The post Specialists in the Field: Rockaway! 2018 appeared first on Swann Galleries News.

At Auction October 25

Complete Catalogue Coming Soon

Preview some of the vibrant travel posters coming up in our October catalogue:

Railroads

Philip Zec, LMS By Night Train to Scotland, 1932. Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

Adolph Treidler, New York, The Wonder City of the World, 1927. Estimate $5,000 to $7,500.

Andrew Johnson, North Berwick, It’s Quicker by Rail, circa 1930. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.

Sascha Maurer

Sascha Maurer, World’s Fair New York, Straight to the Gate, Pennsylvania Railroad, 1939. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Sascha Maurer, Atlantic City, Pennsylvania Railroad, circa 1940. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

Art Deco

William Welsh, Summer Resort in Pullman, 1935. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Roger Broders

Roger Broders, Sur la Cote d’Azur, circa 1931. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Ocean Liners

Albert Sebille, French Line, Hâvre, Plymouth, New York, 1922. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

For more information on the sale, contact a specialist in the Vintage Posters department.

Consign with Swann

Our specialists accept consignments on a rolling basis. For a complete list of consignment deadlines and upcoming auctions, check our Schedule.

The post A Look Inside the Catalogue: Rare & Important Travel Posters appeared first on Swann Galleries News.

At Auction November 8

Complete Catalogue Coming Soon

Preview some of the items that will be available in our November 2018 catalogue of Autographs:

Artists, Authors & Musicians

Jacob Lawrence, illustrated greeting card signed, 1960. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Joan Miró, illustrated autograph note signed, to MoMA Director of Exhibitions & Publications, 1959. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Mark Twain, autograph letter signed, explaining that the target of his new book is Mary Baker Eddy, not followers of Christian Science, 1902.

Charles Dickens, autograph letter signed, accepting a birthday party invitation in the voice of a Martin Chuzzlewit character, 1843. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

Gustav Mahler, autograph letter signed, arranging a meeting during his historic visit to New York, circa 1908. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

Politicians

Winston S. Churchill, photograph portrait signed, 1950s. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

Samuel Houston, autograph letter signed, to Gideon Welles, suggesting an “America first” foreign policy and looking to Andrew Jackson for guidance, 1852. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Civil War

Robert E. Lee, autograph letter signed, to the colonel of the Kanawha Valley volunteers, boosting troop morale, 1861. Estimate $15,000 to $25,000.

Additional Highlights

Carl Gustav Jung, typed letter signed, to a colleague, stating that he employed the “association method” at a time when he “felt insecure and understood little about dreams,” 1948. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

Orville Wright, photograph signed & inscribed. Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.

For more information on the sale, contact Specialist Marco Tomaschett in the Autographs department.

Consign with Swann

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