In the world of book collecting association copies are highly sought after, and our upcoming auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature has some fine examples. One particularly interesting association copy is a rare first edition of Henry Roth’s first novel Call It Sleep, 1934. 

Lot 339: Henry Roth, Call It Sleep, first edition, inscribed to Lawrence I. Fox, New York, 1934. Estimate $15,000 to $25,000.

The book itself is a rare and storied text, even before the association. Roth’s debut novel, which tells the tale of a young Jewish immigrant growing up in New York’s Lower East Side in the early 20th century. Call It Sleep received immediate critical acclaim, with positive reviews in multiple publications. However, despite the attention, the book sold poorly and went out of print for almost thirty years until the 1960s, when critics hailed the text as an overlooked masterpiece, leading to successful sales of a 1964 paperback edition. 

Due to a combination of factors, Roth had largely abandoned writing in the period between the initial publication of Call It Sleep and the book’s return to prominence in the 60s, leading to what has become literary legend as the longest writer’s block in history. He began writing in earnest again in the late 60s, though he wouldn’t publish again until a 1979 autobiographical piece Nature’s First Green, titled after a line in Robert Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” Roth’s follow-up novel, A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park, was published a full sixty years after the debut of Call It Sleep. 

The copy in our auction is inscribed to Lawrence I. Fox, who served as the trustee of the Henry Roth Literary Properties Trust, and to whom A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park is dedicated. Fox is a longtime book collector and has served for years as legal counsel to the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America. Mr. Fox donated the book to the ABAA to be auctioned to benefit the Elisabeth Woodburn Educational Fund and the Benevolent Fund.

For more information on Call It Sleep and many other association copies included in our 19th & 20th Century Literature auction, check out the complete catalogue.

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With an almost two hundred year history, the Dutch East India Company (known in Dutch as Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), was the dominate force in European trade and navigation of Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries. A run of lots in our upcoming Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books auction come from a private collection of maps of Southeast Asia specifically related to trade in the region. The crown jewel of this collection is a vellum manuscript map of the Java Sea by official VOC cartographer Isaak de Graaf. 

Lot 32: Isaak de Graaf, a fine manuscript map of the Java Sea, ink and watercolor on vellum, Amsterdam, 1743.
Estimate $180,000 to $220,000.

Isaak de Graaf (1668-1743) was the official cartographer of the VOC during the first half of the 18th century, following his completion of a VOC-commissioned atlas of Africa and Asia. His instructions for his role as official cartographer role were to “… correct, improve and amplify the charts for the fleet so that the ships, in service both outward and homeward-bound and in the Indies, might have the best indications, and sail the safest routes so that their voyages may prosper and come to safe completion.”

Surviving VOC manuscript charts are incredibly scarce; old charts were often destroyed when new maps were drawn. This map may also be one of the last produced by de Graaf, who died in September of 1743, the same year experts have dated the Java Sea map to.

The map includes coastal profiles, reef delineations and extensive soundings. It was almost certainly used aboard a ship engaged in trade out of Batavia.

The area depicted in this particular map constitutes what is now a large part of Indonesia and is roughly bounded by the 2nd parallel north, 9th parallel south, 104 degrees east longitude and 120 degrees east longitude. In this way, the map demonstrates the particular focus of Dutch navigation out of Batavia (now Jakarta) and the areas that would have immediately fed into that central port. The map includes coastal profiles, reef delineations and extensive soundings. It was almost certainly used aboard a ship engaged in trade out of Batavia, where VOC ships arrived to deposit cloth, silver and ivory, and load up with cargo like pepper, nutmeg, mace and cloves from the nearby Spice Islands.

While rare, VOC manuscript charts often provide unique insight into history. Another vellum shipboard map by de Graaf, held in the collection of the National Library of Australia, was used last year to help identify the remains of a VOC ship, the Diemermeer, which wrecked off the coast of the Banana Islands, Sierra Leone, in 1747. 

For more maps related to trade in Southeast Asia, take a look at lots 33 through 40 in our online catalogue.

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With the presidential primary election in full swing, we’re all up to our eyeballs in satirical columns and cartoons. In the spirit of the season, we thought we’d look at some punchy political art of the past by James Gillray included in our upcoming auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books. 

James Gillray, an English caricaturist and printmaker from Chelsea, London, published most of his pieces over the course of an almost 20-year period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Trained at the Royal Academy of Arts, Gillray greatly admired the work of his satirical predecessor William Hogarth, whose work he studied in depth. 

Lot 283: James Gillray, The Plumb-pudding in danger, hand-colored etching, London, 1805. Estimate $8,000 to$12,000.

This historically important etching satirizes the “insatiable appetite(s)” of Napoleon Bonaparte and William Pitt, with Napoleon helping himself to Europe while Pitt slices off the entire Western Hemisphere. 

Lot 279: James Gillray, Democracy, hand-colored etching, London, 1800. Estimate $1,200 to $1,800.

A copy of this Gillray print resides in the collection of The British Museum. Each of the scenes in the eight panels on this piece is described on the museum’s website, showing the great amount of detail that went into each of these small images.

Lot 278: James Gillray, British Tars, towing the Danish Fleet into Harbour, hand-colored etching, London, 1807. Estimate $800 to $1,200.

Another incredibly intricate etching from Gillray, this is yet another send-up of William Pitt, for whom the pictured rowboat is named, and Napoleon, who according to The British Museum can be seen “In the smoke…caper[ing] in impotent rage, sword in hand, his feathered bicorne flying upward from his head.” 

Gillray continued to produce his complex and colorful etchings, taking on political subjects from King George III to the French Revolution, as well as social satire. His works were printed by Miss Hannah Humphrey, a print shop owner with whom he lived for most of his career. In 1806 his eyes began to fail him, and he fell into depression, producing his last print in 1809. He would continue to live with Humphrey, who cared for the artist until his death in 1815. Gillray would go on to be considered a forefather of modern political cartooning. 

More works by James Gillray can be seen here, and make sure to take a look at our complete catalogue for more satirical etchings. 

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For collectors, a study can be a prized acquisition because it is both a work of art and a source of insight into an artist’s process. Our upcoming auction of American Art includes two studies by artists with very different styles–however, both pieces make for a fascinating look into the artists’ work and interests. 

Lot 75: Charles Sheeler, New York #3 – Study, gouache, 1950. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000.

Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) was among the foremost early American modernist artists. Born and educated in Philadelphia, he was heavily influenced by Cubism after a visit to Paris in 1909. In the following decades, Sheeler became increasingly involved in the New York art scene, working with Alfred Stieglitz, exhibiting in important exhibitions such as the 1913 Armory Show and developing his Precisionist visual style.

This study (seen above) is characteristic of Sheeler’s work around 1950, which reduced objects and buildings to colorful, planar forms. The scene portrays an abstracted Rockefeller Center, with attention paid to the shadows on 30 Rockefeller Center (at left) and the International Building (center). Around this time, Sheeler both painted and photographed Rockefeller Center repeatedly. This study relates both to his oil painting of the same subject, New York No. 1, which is held in a private collection, and to his 1950 photograph, Rockefeller Center. 

Lot 3: Sanford Robinson Gifford, Study of the Parthenon, oil on canvas, 1869. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823–1880) was a second-generation Hudson River School painter, who carried on the landscape tradition of Thomas Cole along with contemporaries such as Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt. In addition to memorializing American vistas, Gifford traveled to Europe to depict foreign scenery on two occasions, first from 1855 to 1857 and again from 1868 to 1869.

The recently discovered study included in our auction (seen above) relates to a painting of the same subject, Ruins of the Parthenon, in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Corcoran Collection, 2014.79.20). Gifford painted the ruins both en plein air and after sketches made during a visit to Greece in 1869. The Parthenon was largely destroyed in 1687 following a massive explosion, having been used as a gunpowder magazine by the Ottoman Turks. Restoration of the structure began in the mid-1970s and continues today. 

To see more works by prominent American artists, including a pair of studies by Winslow Homer, take a look at our complete catalogue. 

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It will be warm and sunny here in New York for our American Art auction tomorrow, but some of the top lots of the sale feature the Big Apple draped in falling snow. Artist Guy C. Wiggins is best known for his winter scenes of the city, which incorporate the delicate movement of snowflakes in various urban scenes. 

Lot 43: Guy C. Wiggins, Fifth Avenue Storm, oil on canvas board. Estimate $30,000 to $50,000.

Guy C. Wiggins (1883-1962) was born in Brooklyn to an artistic family. His father, Carleton Wiggins (1848-1942) was an accomplished painter and provided Guy’s early training. Later, Wiggins junior became the youngest member of the summertime Old Lyme Art Colony in Connecticut, painting alongside his father and Childe Hassam, among others (by 1915, Carleton Wiggins has settled in Old Lyme permanently). Wiggins also studied at the National Academy of Design in New York, where his teachers included William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri. Like Hassam, Wiggins combined the traditions of French Impressionism, from the likes of Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, with a bold, American style, influenced by his National Academy instructors Chase and Henri.

Lot 45: Guy C. Wiggins, Winter Along Central Park, oil on canvas, 1930s. Estimate $30,000 to $50,000.

Wiggins was extremely popular in America throughout the first half of the 1900s, aided by his approachable style and strong artistic pedigree. At the age of only 20, he was the youngest artist to have a work included in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When he started painting snowy, New York City winter scenes in the mid-1910s his popularity surged. Wiggins claimed to have been trying to paint a summer landscape and when he was unable to progress, he looked out the window of his studio on a winter day and decided to paint the row of buildings across the street blurred by the snow storm.

Lot 44: Guy C. Wiggins, Cafe in the Snow, oil on canvas. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

In the 1920s, he moved to Connecticut and purchased a gentleman’s farm outside of Old Lyme, though he continued to keep a studio in New York for the next couple of decades. In 1920, Wiggins established an eponymous art school in Connecticut, teaching in New Haven during the “off-season” and in Old Lyme during the summer. In 1937, he relocated his art school year-round to Essex, Connecticut, and would invite important artists such as George Luks, Eugene Higgins and Bruce Crane as visiting instructors during the summers. Wiggins died at age 79, while on vacation in St. Augustine, Florida, and is buried in Old Lyme.

To see more art featuring New York City scenes, as well as other works by important American artists, check out the complete catalogue. 

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Lot 15: Arthur Szyk, Le Livre d’Esther, limited edition, with 19 color plates, custom bound by Kerstin Tini Miura, Paris 1925. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

When it comes to private collections hitting the auction block, individual lots are fascinating but it can also be incredibly rewarding to consider the scope of a collection as a whole, as well as the story behind it. Next week our Book Department will offer The Esther Salinas Collection of Fine Illustrated & Color Plate Books for auction. Lovingly assembled over the course of 50 years by Dr. David Salinas, PhD, of California, the collection is named in honor of his mother, Esther Benyakar Salinas, a Sephardic-Jewish immigrant who came to the United States from Macedonia in 1913. 

Lot 194: Luigi Mayer, Views in Egypt, with 48 color aquatint plates, London, 1801. Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.

Dr. David Salinas identifies as a lover of all forms of picture books, from children’s books and comics to fine illustrated editions with resplendent lithographs, etchings and mezzotints, like many of the books present in this collection. He began collecting in 1968, combing used bookstores and establishing long-standing friendships with book dealers up and down the California coast. 

Lot 105: Asbjørnsen and Moe, East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Old Tales from the North, with 25 tipped-in color plates by Kay Nielsen, first English trade edition, London, 1914. Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.

Dr. Salinas named the collection for his mother, Esther Benyakar Salinas. Born to a Sephardic-Jewish family in Monastir, Macedonia in 1895, Esther immigrated to America in 1913 and married Issac Salinas. The beloved mother of six children was an inspiration to others through her kindness and perseverance. 

Lot 153: John Pierpont Morgan, Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains, first edition, two volumes, 158 chromolithographed plates, New York, 1904-11. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

The collection reflects Dr. Salinas’s wide-ranging interests, with intricately embellished editions of the Bible, Western and Eastern fairy tales and fables, as well as illustrated classic literature by Goethe, Shakespeare, Cervantes and many others. 

The sale is divided into several sections covering Dr. Salinas’s wide range of interests. Take a look through each section to discover the many highlights.  

• Classic Literature (Lots 1-97)
• Fables & Fairy Tales (Lots 98-146)
• Art Books (Lots 147-176)
• Travel, Landscape & Color Plate Books (Lots 177-211)

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Visual art and literature often share a symbiotic relationship, and tomorrow’s auction of The Esther Salinas Collection of Fine Illustrated & Plate Books features two excellent examples of creative pursuits coming together. In the 1780s London alderman John Boydell began commissioning England’s finest artists to create an illustrated edition of William Shakespeare’s plays. The project was extensive: in addition to building a printing house, type foundry and ink factory specifically to facilitate the publication, Boydell opened The Shakespeare Gallery to exhibit the original paintings commissioned for the project.

Lot 78: William Shakespeare, The Dramatic Works,
9 volumes with 96 copper engravings, published by John and Josiah Boydell, London,
1802. Estimate $5,000 to $7,500.

It took ten years for the complete nine-volume edition of William Shakespeare’s The Dramatic Works to be published in 1802. According to Colin Franklin’s Shakespeare Domesticated, “No Printing Press . . . ever produced a work in nine large volumes in folio so uniformly beautiful.” A year later, in 1803, Boydell released a two-volume elephant folio of all of the engravings based on the paintings completed for the project. 

Lot 79: A Midsummer Night’s Dream from John & Josiah Boydell’s A Collection of Prints from the Pictures Painted for the Purpose of Illustrating the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare by the Artists of Great-Britain, two volumes bound in one, with 97 engraved plates, London, 1793-[1805]. Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.

Lot 79: Hamlet from John & Josiah Boydell’s A Collection of Prints from the Pictures Painted for the Purpose of Illustrating the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare by the Artists of Great-Britain, two volumes bound in one, with 97 engraved plates, London, 1793-[1805]. Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.

While a combination of events, including the French Revolution, ultimately conspired to cause Boydell to lose the money he had invested in the undertaking and close the gallery, many scholars note that the project was instrumental in the history of English art, as it paid both the painters and engravers who participated incredibly well and paved the way for the success of English history painting. Recently, Professor Janine Barchas of The University of Texas at Austin spent time digitally recreating Boydell’s The Shakespeare Gallery as part of her project “What Jane Saw,” a look into two art exhibitions attended by writer Jane Austen. Boydell’s Shakespeare remains a highly important text, sought by academics and collectors alike.  

For a look at more images of Boydell’s Shakespeare, as well as illustrated editions of many other classics, peruse the complete catalogue of The Esther Salinas Collection. 

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Normally an editorial cartoon from the early 20th century would not make the threshold for a Swann auction, but we found this pair from the Saturday Globe too timely to pass up.  They both deal with the immigration issue, a hot topic in the current presidential race. The pair are offered as lot 239 in our June 21 auction of Printed & Manuscript Americana.

Lot 239: From a pair of issues of the Saturday Globe with color cartoons on the immigration issue, Utica, NY, 27 August 1904. Estimate $200 to $300.

The first uncredited cartoon (seen above) is dated 1904, with a caption reading “A Crying Need for General Repairs: American Labor Calls Uncle Sam’s Attention to the Inefficiency of his Immigration Restriction Wall.” It depicts an unsavory group of immigrants pouring over (and through) a border wall, including a stereotypical Italian with a stiletto between his teeth, and a bearded man (apparently Jewish) preparing to descend the ladder. Meanwhile, an American laborer pleads to Uncle Sam for protection against the horde.

Lot 239: From a pair of issues of the Saturday Globe with color cartoons on the immigration issue, Utica, NY, 18 April 1908. Estimate $200 to $300.

The second (seen above), by W.A. Carson, is dated 1908 and titled “Columbia aroused at last! She proposes to scourge the anarchist brood from her shores.” A whip-wielding Lady Liberty chases an angry-looking group of immigrants back to Europe. They leave behind bombs and pistols as they flee, though they retain their stilettos and red flag.

While the examples above are lamentably xenophobic, there are of course always instances of similar cartoons, posters and propaganda which demonstrate a much more inclusive bent. 

Lot 267: Rosa Brothers Grocery & Market Calendar with colorful depiction of Portuguese-American immigration, chromolithograph, 1928. Estimate $100 to $150.

In this 1928 calendar from Rhode Island-based Rosa Brothers Grocery & Market, the symbolic female figures of Portugal and America reach out to shake hands in front of the Statue of Liberty. Two images of emigration steamers are stamped above the lithograph.

Lot 148: Howard Chandler Christy, I Am an American!, charcoal and pastel on board, 1941. Sold January 2016 for $40,000.

And we can’t forget a popular lot from our Illustration Art auction earlier this year, the maquette for the iconic I Am an American! by patriotic artist Howard Chandler Christy. It was created to celebrate “I Am an American Day” on May 18th, 1941. The event took place in Central Park, where native-born Americans and those who had attained citizenship through naturalization gathered and recited an oath of allegiance to the United States. Congress eventually moved the holiday to September and renamed it “Constitution and Citizenship Day.”

Be sure to check out our complete catalogue for a host of other historical political materials, including presidential campaign items.

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Every now and then we have an item come in that seems tailor-made for a Swann auction. In Tuesday’s sale of Printed & Manuscript Americana we offer the diary kept by J. Mortimer Lichtenauer, an art student in Paris in the late 1800s. The diary is both an excellent manuscript item and a peek into a community that included many artists whose work now regularly appears in our auctions. 

Lot 59: J. Mortimer Lichtenauer, diary of an American art student in Paris, 125 manuscript pages, Paris, 13 October 1897 to 23 April 1898 (detail). Estimate $800 to $1,200.

Joseph Mortimer Lichtenauer (1876-1966), the son of a New York investment advisor, went on to a long career in art and became a member of the Salmagundi Club. Parisian training was considered essential for a serious artist in this period, and Lichtenauer was constantly surrounded by other painters – French and American, students and masters. When the diary opens, he was in attendance at the famed Académie Julian, where his instructors were Jean-Paul Laurens and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant. He soon left for a rented studio with friends Arthur R. Friedlander and Augustus M. Gerdes, who both went on to modest success. They solicited useful advice from American expatriate William Turner Dannat, while other artists he met included Cadwallader Washburn (“…a very clever student”, 16 March), Louis Vaillant and Carolus-Duran. He also marveled that “that demi-God Whistler” lived a few doors away (10 March).

Lot 59: J. Mortimer Lichtenauer, diary of an American art student in Paris, 125 manuscript pages, Paris, 13 October 1897 to 23 April 1898 (detail). Estimate $800 to $1,200.

Perhaps the best-remembered artist he actually saw was Henry Ossawa Tanner of Pennsylvania: “I eat my lunch now at the American Club. Today Tanner, a half negro and a credit to his race, I saw there. This young fellow has just been honored by having the French government buy the picture he exhibited in last spring’s salon. The Raising of Lazarus I believe is the subject of his composition” (23 October 1897).

Lot 59: J. Mortimer Lichtenauer, diary of an American art student in Paris, 125 manuscript pages, Paris, 13 October 1897 to 23 April 1898 (detail). Estimate $800 to $1,200.

Lichtenauer also discusses current affairs. The jingoistic march to the Spanish-American war is traced at length. The anti-Semitic Dreyfus Affair which was then roiling France was also of great interest to Lichtenauer as a Jewish-American. He notes with alarm the student mobs outside Émile Zola’s house chanting “Long live the Army! Death to the Jews!” (20 January). On a more personal note, his efforts to join the American Art Association became mysteriously stalled, and he wrote that “Hartshorne on the committee, being a Jew-hater, I suspect is at the bottom of all this” (9 December). Friends in the club soon expedited his application. Art, however, is at the heart of the diary – an articulate young man struggling to understand his craft while surrounded by brilliant competitors.

A Parisian training was considered essential for a serious artist in this period

Lichtenauer’s paintings can be found in the collections of museums like the Brooklyn Museum and Smithsonian American Art Museum. He also painted several notable murals in New York, including works in the auditorium of Washington Irving High School and in the Shubert Theater. 

Lichtenauer’s diary is just one of many intriguing manuscript items in the auction, along with the diary of an Englishman’s trip to K featuring a buffalo hunt, a Navy diary kept aboard the sloop of war USS Vincennes, and several Civil War diaries. For additional manuscript material and much more, take a look at the complete catalogue. 

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In the summer heat, it’s hard to imagine performing acrobatic feats and superhuman demonstrations. At Swann we get our exercise vicariously by investigating some of the circus posters from our August 3 Vintage Posters auction.

Lot 335: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, designer unknown, 1932. Estimate $700 to $1,000.

In the days before radio and television, posters were a circus’s sole form of advertisement. Because they might only be in a town for a single day, a troupe could not rely on brand recognition the way a permanent institution might. Circuses outsourced the design and manufacture of their posters to printing houses located throughout the mid-Atlantic. A printing house could use the same lithograph print numerous times for any number of companies. The images featured generic tricks and animals, so often the same stock image would be used by two different troupes simultaneously, each having added their own identifying details such as names of performers and the title of the circus.

Lot 332: The Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth, designer unknown, 1896. Estimate $1,200 to $1,800.

For example, The Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth is based on a black and white lithograph from 1890, currently housed at the Library of Congress. The compelling image could be endlessly customized by changing the color of the horses, the outfits of the riders, or the background.

Barnum & Bailey: The Tremendous Rush For First Place, circa 1900. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL. Tibbals Digitial Collection.

Barnum & Bailey: Terrific Four Horse Roman Standing Race, 1889. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL. Tibbals Digital Collection.

Hagenbeck-Wallace: Three 4-Horse Chariots, date unknown. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL. Tibbals Digital Collection.

A circus commissioned a specialty poster if they needed to promote an act or performer unique to their troupe. These often featured lifelike portraits of the performers and acts and were more expensive to produce. Once the circus finished, the printing house could edit and reuse the image. For example, Sells-Floto Circus / Rose Millette, 1932, was originally intended to promote another performer, May Wirth, in 1913. The image of May Wirth and, later, Rose Millette, was so iconic at the time that it continued to be used through the 1960s.

Lot 352: Sells-Floto Circus / Rose Millette, designer unknown, 1932. Estimate $700 to $1,000.

May Wirth, The Greatest Bareback Rider of All Time, circa 1919. National Library of Australia.

Cole Bros.: Jennie O’Brien Famous Equestrienne, date unknown. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL. Tibbals Digital Collection.

Cole Bros.: Kay Hanneford Famous Equestrienne, date unknown. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL. Tibbals Digital Collection.

As radio and television gained traction, it became less important to have sensational new posters, and circus companies instead emphasized the traditional and familiar aspects of the circus. For more vintage posters, step right up to our full catalogue.

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One of the most invigorating sections of our 3 August Vintage Posters sale is the tremendous selection of war propaganda. We examine how these posters changed as the first world war came to a close.

During World War I the U.S. military commissioned posters with striking images and simple statements to galvanize young men to join the fight abroad. They portrayed enlistment as patriotic, featuring valiant American soldiers destroying inhuman foes who threatened allegories of freedom and justice.

Lot 166: Destroy This Mad Brute/ Enlist, H.R. Hopps, circa 1917. Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

After the armistice was signed, however, a new angle was needed to recruit during peacetime. Because the U.S. was not actively fighting, posters could no longer depict a patriotic battle and had to search for other means of attracting young men.

The Army and Navy advertised to men looking to learn a trade. Combating the lethargy of a postwar public, posters from this period highlight a fulfilling and lucrative career path begun by enlisting.

Lot 154: Navy Rifle Range, J. William Cromwell, circa 1917. Estimate $800 to $1,200.

They also engendered a sense of family and manhood that ostensibly could not be found anywhere but the Army and Navy.

Lot 135: The U.S. Army Builds Men/ Enlist Today, circa 1919. Estimate $500 to $750.

Lot 156: It Takes A Man To Fill It/ Join The Navy, Charles Stafford Duncan, 1918. Estimate $1,500 to $2,000.

The Poster, a contemporary monthly periodical, commented on the alternative approach taken by the U.S. Marines: “Looking for a ‘scrapper,’ [they] put forth the travel and adventure idea” (23). James Montgomery Flagg’s design of a jaunty marine flirting with danger on the back of a leopard was just cheeky enough to encourage thrill-seeking enlistment—“after all, travel, adventure, [and] new experiences form the strongest magnet for drawing men into the Marine Corps” (27). 

Lot 165: Travel? Adventure? Answer—Join the Marines!, James Montgomery Flagg, circa 1918. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

The message was that in order for young men to see the world and find themselves in the process, they would have to enlist. Travel? Adventure? Answer—see our complete catalogue for more exciting posters.

Special thanks to Sarah Shelburne from Vintage Posters for her help with this post.

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Among the works representing the second half of the twentieth century in our upcoming August 3 Vintage Posters sale are two works by the graphic artist and designer Tadanori Yokoo, who has been called “the grandmaster of Japanese pop-psych art.”

The Museum of Modern Art commissioned Yokoo to design the promotional image for their seminal 1968 exhibition of twentieth century posters from the museum’s collection. The New York Times described the show as “a landmark presentation that helped define the medium for scholars, graphics specialists and collectors.” For this golden opportunity, he created Word Image, with no typography within the image to distract the viewer. Using mouths and one large eye he perfectly evokes the concept of “word” and “image.” He employs the rays of the rising sun, one of his favorite and recurring motifs, but here, makes the colors red, white and blue for America rather than the traditional Japanese red and white.

Lot 462: Tadanori Yokoo, Word Image, 1968. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

Swann set an auction record for the artist in 2013 with a poster featuring the same blue and red sun rays, colorfully titled Having Reached a Climax at the Age of 29, I Was Dead, 1965, which sold for $52,800. Another Yokoo, The Aesthetics of the End, 1966, sold in the same auction for $10,800. Copies of both posters are currently in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Tadanori Yokoo, Having Reached a Climax at the Age of 29, I was Dead, 1965.
Sold May 13, 2013, for $52,800, an auction record for the artist.

Also on offer in the August 3 auction is Yokoo’s Takeda Cosmetics for Men, a 1974 advertisement. The poster shows bathers from Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s The Turkish Bath, 1863, tinged in blue and awaiting the arrival of a space ship over the sea.

Lot 464: Tadanori Yokoo, Takeda Cosmetics for Men, 1974. Estimate $500 to $750.

Tadanori Yokoo retired from graphic design in 1981 and began a new career as a painter and designer. In 2012 he donated much of his personal collection to the Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art (previously the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art), in Japan. Additionally, he collaborates with designer Issey Miyake, maker of the popular Bao Bao bag. For more Japanese posters, check out lots 462 to 468 in our catalogue.

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Swann Galleries’ August 3 sale of Vintage Posters finished the 2015-2016 season for the house, breaking three auction records in the process.

Lot 2: Alois Hans Schram, Jubilæums – Ausstellung / Wein, 1898.
Sold August 3, 2016 for $3,750, a record for the poster.

Alois Hans Schram’s Jubilæums – Ausstellung / Wein, 1898, was bought for a record $3,750, breaking its previous record, also set by Swann in 2013, by over one thousand dollars.

Lot 380: Designer unknown, Learn What You Need! / Use What You Learn!, 1924.
Sold August 3, 2016 for $4,000, a record for the poster.

An American work incentive poster, Learn What You Need! / Use What You Learn!, designer unknown, went to a private collector for $4,000, a record for the work.

Lot 482: Francois Gos, Zermatt / Matterhorn, 1904.
Sold August 3, 2016 for $5,750, a record for the poster.

A beautiful travel poster by Francois Gos, Zermott / Matterhorn, 1904, surpassed its auction record with $5,750.

Lot 216: Group of 35 Soviet propaganda posters, 1930-1934. Sold August 3, 2016 for $18,750.

The top lot in the sale was a group of 35 Russian propaganda posters, grossing $18,750 after a fierce bidding war. War posters continue to receive strong interest in the market.

The next sale of Vintage Posters will be October 27, 2016. View full results here.

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Last year Swann Galleries saw 95 records and first appearances across 31 sales with some of our departments even breaking their own records. Treasures ranging from previously unknown works to never-before-seen prints went to institutions, collectors and dealers alike.

Faith Ringgold, Maya’s Quilt of Life, acrylic on canvas, fabric, 1989. Sold September 15, 2015 for $461,000, an auction record for the artist.

We started the 2015-16 auction season on a high note by handling The Art Collection of Maya Angelou on September 15, 2015. The auction totaled over one million dollars, and sold 98%. The top lot was Maya’s Quilt of Life, 1989, a vibrant story quilt by Faith Ringgold, commissioned by Oprah for Dr. Angelou on her birthday. The quilt brought in $461,000, nearly doubling the high estimate of $250,000.

Norman Lewis, Untitled, oil on canvas, circa 1958.
Sold December 15, 2015 for an auction record of $965,000.

The sale was handled by our African-American Fine Art department, the only one of its kind in the United States since its inception in 2006. The department is doing groundbreaking work to push auction prices and raise awareness of previously unknown or under-acknowledged African American artists from the 19th century to today. This year they set 17 records and first appearances at auction with artists such as John Biggers, Frank Bowling, Melvin Edwards and Barkley L. Hendricks. Norman Lewis’s Untitled, circa 1958, topped sales for the entire year, selling for $965,000 on December 15, 2015.

William Shakespeare, Macbeth, first edition of Sir William Davenant’s adaptation, London, 1674.
Sold April 12, 2016 for $30,000.

On October 27, 2015, the Early Printed Books department set the record for the highest price paid for a first edition of Sir William Davenport’s 1674 adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth at $20,000, only to break that record six months later with another copy on April 12, 2016, at $30,000.

Egon Schiele, Schlafender Mann, watercolor, pencil and black crayon, 1910.
Sold September 24, 2015 for $905,000.

The Prints & Drawings department bookended the season with astounding sales. On September 24, 2015, a moody Egon Schiele watercolor, Schlafender Mann, sold for $905,000 in the 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings sale. On June 9, 2016, in the department’s specialized sale of American Art, Sanford Robinson Gifford’s 1896 canvas, Study of the Parthenon, was purchased by an institution for $269,000. The department set high prices throughout the year for artists such as Albrecht Dürer, M. C. Escher, Gustav Klimt, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt van Rijn.

Sanford Robinson Gifford, Study of the Parthenon, oil on canvas, 1869. Sold June 9, 2016 for $269,000.

William Faden, The North American Atlas, 42 engraved maps on 48 sheets, 1777.
Sold December 8, 2015 for $341,000, an auction record.

Two standout atlases passed under the hammer of our Maps & Atlases department: the department’s top lot was William Faden’s 1777 The North American Atlas, showing detailed battle plans from the Revolutionary War. With 42 maps, it is one of the most complete examples of the atlas, and sold for $341,000 on December 8, 2015. William Faden made a General Atlas in 1796, believed to have inspired another grand coup by the department, Mahmud Raif Efendi’s Cedid atlas tercümesi, 1803 or 1804, a collection of 25 hand-colored maps that sold May 26, 2016 for $118,750. This was only the twelfth recorded complete example of what may be the first folio world atlas published in the Muslim world. According to our records, this atlas had never before been offered at auction.

Mahmud Raif Efendi, Cedid atlas tercümesi, 25 hand-colored maps, 1803 or 1804.
Sold May 26, 2016 for $118,750.

Previously unknown edition of the Bay Psalm Book, The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New-Testament…, 1693.
Sold February 4, 2016 for $221,000.

Our Printed & Manuscript Americana department’s biggest sale was a previously unknown seventh edition of The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New-Testament, 1693, more commonly known as the Bay Psalm Book. The first edition of the Bay Psalm Book was the first book to be printed in what is now the United States. After a few editions, printing of the Bay Psalm returned to England, and was previously thought to have remained there until the eighth edition. This copy, apparently the first American edition after forty years of printing abroad, sheds new light on the history of this significant book. It sold for $221,000 on February 4, 2016.

E. Simms Campbell, A Night-Club Map of Harlem, pen and brush, 1932. Sold March 31, 2016 for $100,000.

A funky guide to speakeasies topped our annual sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana: E. Simms Campbell’s A Night-Club Map of Harlem, pen and brush, 1932, sold March 31, 2016 for $100,000.

Sally Mann, Candy Cigarette, silver print, 1989. Sold October 15, 2015 for $215,000.

Netting over one million dollars in each of three auctions, our Photographs & Photobooks department saw outstanding sales by artists such as Richard Avedon, Dorothea Lange, Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz and Garry Winogrand. Of note were the October 15, 2015 sale of Sally Mann’s Candy Cigarette, silver print, 1989, for $215,000, and Ansel Adams’s masterpiece Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, silver print, 1941, which sold February 25, 2016 for $221,000. Daile Kaplan, Swann Galleries Vice President and Director of Photographs and Photobooks, said, “As the appeal of photographic imagery has grown, Contemporary Art and Poster collectors have contributed to strong results for both 19th- and 20th-century photographic prints and albums. Their participation underscores the growing cultural relevance of photography as a crossover art form, and demonstrates how exceptional historical images are drawing collectors from related fields.”

Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, silver print, 1941, reprocessed 1948; printed early- to mid-1950s
Sold February 25, 2016 for $221,000.

In our category of Illustration Arts on November 24, 2015, a Kelmscott Press 1896 edition of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer with 87 woodcut illustrations by Sir Edward Burne-Jones sold for $62,500, crowning the department’s lots for the season.

Shortly after, Howard Chandler Christy’s original 1941 study for the iconic I Am an American! billboard fetched $40,000 on January 28, 2016, an auction record for any drawing by the artist. The department offers favorites such as Charles Addams, Arthur Getz, Edward Gorey and Al Hirschfeld. Following its winter success, we will be adding a fall auction to their roster.

Howard Chandler Christy, I Am an American!, charcoal and pastel on board, 1941. Sold January 28, 2016 for $40,000, an auction record for any drawing by the artist.

The growing Contemporary Art department is already handling blockbuster artists such as Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Alex Katz, Sol LeWitt, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Cy Twombly, James Turrell and Andy Warhol, and setting records. A screenprint by Roy Lichtenstein claimed the top lot this year: Sweet Dreams, Baby!, 1965, sold May 12, 2016 for $125,000.

Roy Lichtenstein, Sweet Dreams, Baby!, color screenprint, 1965.
Sold May 12, 2016 for $125,000.

Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon, first edition, 1869. Sold November 10, 2016 for $22,500.

John D. Larson, our 19^th & 20^th Century Literature Specialist, handled the Lawrence M. Solomon Collection on November 10, 2015. The sale was rife with rare titles, many of which had never previously been seen at auction. One of these was a first edition of From the Earth to the Moon, 1869, by Jules Verne, which sold for $22,500. Other records included the first English edition of Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte-Cristo, 1846, at $47,500, and the first printing of the first American edition of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera, 1911, for $35,000. Another sale from the department on May 18, 2016, saw an auction record for Feodor Dostoyevsky’s classic novel Crime and Punishment, first American edition, 1886. The book brought $11,875.

Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, first American edition, first printing, in first issue variant dust jacket, New York, 1911. Sold November 10, 2016 for $35,000.

Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, Champions du Monde, 1930. Sold May 10, 2016 for $75,000.

The first Graphic Design sale from the Vintage Posters department topped their lots for the year, selling an Adolphe Mouron Cassandre design, Champions du Monde, 1965, for $75,000 on May 10, 2016.

Anne and Margot Frank’s copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Aus Grimms Märchen), signed and inscribed by Anne Frank, with Margot Frank’s ink owner stamp,
Vienna, 1925, inscription Amsterdam, circa 1940.
Sold May 5, 2016 for $62,500.

The Autographs department had the honor of offering the first major piece of Anne Frank material to come to auction in over 20 years. Anne wrote her and her sister Margot’s name in their copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Aus Grimms Märchen), and left it behind in a building in Amsterdam before the family was forced into hiding. The book was purchased on May 6, 2016, by the Museum of World War II in Massachusetts. The director of the museum, Kenneth Rendell, said, “From an educational standpoint, the book is a fabulous addition to the museum, which already has one of the best Holocaust collections. This is a piece that will add significantly to the experience of the museum.”

The 2016-17 season at Swann will host strong players in every category, including a rare Albrecht Dürer chiaroscuro print, rediscovered drawings by Dr. Seuss, Beatles memorabilia, and important private collections: mountaineering literature and Californiana; prints by Camille Pissarro; and Art Nouveau posters by Alphonse Mucha and his circle.

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Three examples of Georges Braque’s famous birds will be available in the 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings sale at Swann Galleries on September 22. The artist’s depictions of birds so vividly represent questions at the heart of 20th century art that they began to be synonymous with Braque himself.

Lot 384: Georges Braque, L’Oiseau et son ombre III, color aquatint and etching, 1961. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

At the center of Cubism is the question of how to convey a three-dimensional object in a two-dimensional image, and the differences between reality and representation. Art changes the nature of things from real, functional objects into theories and representations. Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, who together invented Cubism, added words to their canvases, both painted and clipped from newspapers—a word, like an artwork, is a representation of an object and not the object itself. By confusing representation with reality, Braque and Picasso asked their audience to consider the veracity of the world around them. Beginning in the 1930s, Braque used birds repeatedly to serve as a surrogate of this concept: to remind the viewer that what they are seeing is not real, almost as a mantra is used in meditation.

Lot 386: Georges Braque, Quatre oiseaux, color lithograph, circa 1950. Estimate $2,500 to $3,500.

In Braque’s Studio series, the bird is a trick—are we supposed to believe there really a ghostly bird floating by, or is it a representation of a pre-painted bird on a canvas against the wall? This kind of illusion, which brings into question the very nature of art, is a sort of combination of Cubist philosophy and the surrealist works of René Magritte. Over the years Braque began to drop the studio setting and focus on just the image of the bird, which represented his artistic quest on its own.

Lot 387: Georges Braque, Oiseaux, color lithograph, 1962. Estimate $1,500 to $2,000.

Braque’s birds became iconic; a symbol of peace, hope and even perseverance in the aftermath of World War II. Duncan Phillips, founder of the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, was so enamored with a 1956 Braque bird that he asked the artist permission to use it as the logo for his museum. The resulting sculpture, commissioned from Pierre Bourdelle, still soars on the façade of the building and graces the museum’s visitor tags.

The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Photo from Google Maps.

The designer Yves Saint Laurent, who drew inspiration for his couture creations from popular culture throughout the 20th century, used the birds as a stand-in for the artist. Nearly all of his pieces that include “tribute to Georges Braque” in the title have at least one abstracted bird shape.

Yves Saint Laurent, Evening Ensemble in Tribute to Georges Braque, 1988. Denver Art Museum. Photo Alexandre Guikinger.

Yves Saint Laurent, Wedding Dress in Tribute to Georges Braque, 1988. Denver Art Museum. Photo Alexandre Guikinger.

Over the course of the 20th century, the Braque bird has represented the nature of art, hope for the future, and finally the artist himself. For more works by Braque and others, see the full catalogue.

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Over one dozen works by innovative Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo will be available in our September 22 sale of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings.

Tamayo was an artist of Zapotec descent living in Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century. Though he fraternized with Diego Rivera and the famous Mexican muralists, their styles were too large and political for his tastes—he preferred more intimate art. In the 1920s, he moved to New York City, where he was deeply influenced by modern art movements, especially the work of Henri Matisse, whom he met at a party, as well as Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. He also taught Helen Frankenthaler while she attended The Dalton School.

Lot 312: Rufino Tamayo, Mujer con Sandía, color lithograph, 1950.
Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Tamayo combined traditional Mexican styles with avant-garde European trends in a way no one before him had done: he did so without romanticizing his Zapotec ancestry. Instead, he blended both schools to produce a result unlike anything else in the art world at the time.

Lot 313: Rufino Tamayo, Mujer, color lithograph, 1964. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Tamayo represented Mexico in the 1950 Venice Biennale, as well as at Documenta II in Kassel, Germany, in 1959. He worked mainly in prints, loading up the surfaces with thick impasto and incorporating other materials into the pigment. The additions became too much for the flimsy, conventional paper and he began to press his own paper onto which he could add more materials and textures. The resulting object was as much sculpture as print, and gave the appearance of pre-Columbian stone reliefs. In 1974 he invented a technique called “Mixografía,” a process which involves a number of steps and materials, including carving burnt wood and molding plasticine.

Lot 320: Rufino Tamayo, Busto en Rojo, mixografía, 1984.

His subjects are formally simple, but technologically inventive, and possessing a visual depth beyond what one would expect of a simple figure against a colored background. Some of these pieces are reminiscent of works by Jean Dubuffet.

Lot 318: Rufino Tamayo, Los signo existen, portfolio with text and 6 color lithographs, 1973. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

There are two museums in Mexico named after him: the Rufino Tamayo Museum of Pre-Hispanic Art in Oaxaca, and the Rufino Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City. His personal collection, which he donated, form the core of their holdings.

For more works by Rufino Tamayo and Latin American artists, visit the full catalogue.

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As auctioneers of works on paper, we often get asked about the differences between all the many methods of printmaking and what to look for with each. The following guide is illustrated by examples offered in our September 22 auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings:

Etching, aquatint, engraving and drypoint fall under the umbrella of intaglio printmaking. Many prints incorporate more than one of these methods, with the common thread being that the artist incises the image into a metal plate that is then filled with ink and put though a printing press. An example is Martin Lewis’s Boss of the Block. The distinct lines in the composition are etching, while the more solid grey and black fields are aquatint.

Lot 182: Martin Lewis, Boss of the Block,
etching and aquatint, circa 1939. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

In etching, the image is drawn into an acid-resistant ground such as wax on the surface of a metal plate; acid bites the revealed areas to produce well-defined grooves for inking.

Lot 182: Martin Lewis, Boss of the Block (detail), etching and aquatint, circa 1939. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

The aquatint gets its name from the soft wash of the finished print. The artist applies a fine layer of powdered resin in the designed shape to the surface of the plate; acid bites the texture of the resin, resulting in fields of tone with darker values the longer the plate is bathed in acid.

Lot 182: Martin Lewis, Boss of the Block (detail), etching and aquatint, circa 1939. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

Engraving is the oldest intaglio method in Western art. The image is carved directly into the metal plate with a burin, or chisel, resulting in thick grooves. This method was utilized by master printmakers as far back as Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer. Its history is additionally tied to the spread of religious ideas, as it was the most effective medium to reproduce images for some time.

To create a drypoint print, the image is drawn directly into the metal plate with a needle, resulting in less precise lines than etching. Evident in Max Beckmann’s Liegende, drypoint usually has a fuzzy, bleeding quality, contrasting with etchings and engravings’ sharp lines.

Lot 432: Max Beckman, Liegende, drypoint, 1922.
Estimate $5,000 to $8,000.

On intaglio prints, the ink will be slightly raised because it comes from the grooves of the plate. There will also be a plate mark, or small depression in the paper, surrounding the image as a result of the metal plate being run through a press.

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Lithography was invented in Germany in the late eighteenth century. The name litho refers to the treated limestone that the artist uses to create the image. With a greasy or oil-based crayon, the artist draws the image onto a smooth surface. The stone is chemically treated to repel ink so that pigment will only remain where the crayon has touched.

Lot 394: Henri Matisse, Etude pour la Vierge, Tête voilée, lithograph, 1950-51. Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

Lithographs do not have plate marks and often must be viewed under magnification to determine whether they are original. This Matisse example illustrates the tactile feel of many lithographs, showing the crayon texture as a result of the artist’s hand drawing fluidly on the plate. Lithographs were used primarily for advertising and were not seen to have artistic merit until the end of the nineteenth century, when artists embraced the medium as a way to distribute their work and increase their income.

Lot 394: Henri Matisse, Etude pour la Vierge, Tête voilée (detail), lithograph, 1950-51. Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

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Like lithography, screenprinting had a commercial function and was not considered an artistic technique until much later, when the Pop movement adopted it. In screenprinting, the artist stencils the outline of the image over a screen, through which ink is then pushed. Screenprints generally have thick, smooth fields of ink with hard edges.

Lot 283: Ralston Crawford, Grey Street, color screenprint, 1940. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

Ralston Crawford’s Grey Street illustrates this extremely well. The thick areas of ink have a reflective sheen to them, most visible in raking light.

Lot 283: Ralston Crawford, Grey Street (detail), color screenprint, 1940.
Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

For more examples of these and other methods of printmaking, check out the full catalogue.

Other posts in this series include:

What is an After Print?

What is an Edition?

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The September 22 auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings at Swann Galleries features a stunning array of nineteenth-century artworks. Such is the caliber of the selection that it is possible to trace the evolution of art history from the early nineteenth century to the dawn of the twentieth using only examples from the sale.

Lot 1: John Constable, The Ruins of Netley Abbey, etching and drypoint, circa 1825. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Ruins of Netley Abbey is an early example of John Constable’s compositions of ruined English abbeys. Only two impressions of this moody print have come to auction in the last 30 years.

Lot 5: Honoré Daumier, Le Ventre Législatif, lithograph, 1834. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

A run of political cartoons by Honoré Daumier prove surprisingly fresh. These scathing caricatures landed the artist in prison and gave the French working class a glimpse into the foibles of the bourgousie. La Ventre Législatif  is a scarce, early work from the master, and the current impression is richly inked.

Lot 12: Jean-François Millet, Les Becheurs, etching, 1855-56. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Lot 14: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Environs de Rome, etching, 1866. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

Etchings by Jean-François Millet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot show a shift in French art towards the beginnings of Impressionism: works like Les Becheurs and Environs de Rome celebrate the lives of ordinary, hardworking people and the beauty of wild landscapes caught in a single moment in time. The current impression of Les Becheurs is a warm toned fourth state. Works by Corot, the mentor of Camille Pissarro, provide a direct link to the development of Impressionism in the 1870s. This highly detailed third state impression of Environs de Rome is an excellent example.

Lot 36: James A.M. Whistler, Riva, No.2, etching, 1879-80. Estimated $10,000 to $15,000.

We can see the parallel development of American tastes in a run of works by James A.M. Whistler. Riva, No. 2 is one of the 12 etchings done on his 1879 trip to Venice commissioned by the Fine Art Society in London. This warm, detailed impression is the first of two states before cancellation; only approximately 30 were printed.

Lot 53: Edouard Manet, L’Exécution de Maximilien, lithograph, 1868. Estimate $50,000 to $80,000.

A major rarity in the sale is a large lithograph by Edouard Manet showing L’Exécution de Maximilien, a favorite scene of the artist. Four other canvases depicting the scene are currently in the collections of museums around the world. The composition makes a direct reference to an earlier masterpiece; Francisco José de Goya’s 1814 oil painting The Third of May 1808, Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Lot 59: Pierre-August Renoir, Le Chapeau Épinglé (2e planche), color lithograph, 1898. Estimate $30,000 to $50,000.

Lot 76: Claude Monet and George W. Thornley, La côte rocheuse, lithograph, before 1892. Estimate $15,000 to $20,000.

Pierre-August Renoir brings us finally into Impressionism with his airy, blissful scenes reflecting the leisure activities of a growing working class. Dazzling works by Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas and Berthe Morisot round out the sweet scenes of quotidian life, while a run of prints from a collaboration between Claude Monet and lithographer George W. Thornley are infused with the elusive and shimmering light of Monet’s iconic Impressionist oil paintings.

Lot 92: Paul Cézanne, Les Baigneurs (grande planche), color lithograph, 1896-98. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

No sale offering Impressionist prints would be complete without works by pillars of the movement, Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne. Les Baigneurs is based on an earlier painting currently in the collection of the Barnes Foundation. The current large third state impression of this important lithograph is graced by exceptionally vivid blues.

The sale continues into the twentieth century with dazzling works by Marc Chagall, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso. For more incredible works, check out the full catalogue.

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Hold on to your cats in hats– a rare original watercolor of a rediscovered Dr. Seuss story will be available at our September 29 sale of Illustration Art.

Lot 95: Dr. Seuss, Tadd and Todd, ink and watercolor, 1950.
Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

Tadd and Todd is a recently re-discovered tale by Theodor Geisel, the real name of beloved author Dr. Seuss. Largely forgotten after its appearance in Redbook in 1950, the story was given a second life by Seuss scholar Charles D. Cohen who gathered seven obscure Seuss works and published them in The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories with Random House in 2011. This original illustration depicts the crux of the tale wherein Tadd, the reluctant twin who longs for uniqueness, struts his newfound look of dyed red hair, a flower betwixt the toes of one bare foot, and balancing a curious collection of animals and other accoutrements.

Lot 95: Dr. Seuss, Tadd and Todd, ink and watercolor, 1950.
Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

In his introduction to The Bippolo Seed, Cohen notes that these lost stories demonstrate a transitional period in Dr. Seuss’ oeuvre in which he shifts from prose to the rhythmic rhyming style for children for which he is now known. This work provides a rare glimpse into Dr. Seuss’ illustration process. For example, it is possible to see the many shades of watercolor pigment that make up what appears, in the final version, to be a plain wall. We get a peek into the production and publication process as well; the clipping notes are still visible, as is the publisher’s note on the verso.

Lot 95: Dr. Seuss, Tadd and Todd (verso), ink and watercolor, 1950.
Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

Oh, the drawings you’ll find when you visit our full catalogue!

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Nigel Freeman, the Director of the African American Fine Art department at Swann, talks about a monumental piece in our upcoming October 6 auction.

Three Solid Questions is the first work by Al Loving to be offered at auction that was part of his important solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1969. The exhibition included only six works: four large assemblages of shaped canvases, and two cube-shaped canvases. Three Solid Questions was purchased off the exhibition wall by the current owner.

The enormous triptych is an example of the hard-edge abstraction popular in the late 1960s and early 70s.

Lot 79: Alvin D. Loving, Jr., Three Solid Questions, acrylic triptych, 1969. Estimate $120,000 to $180,000.

Loving was the first in a group of African-American artists whose work was shown at the Whitney during the 1970s, including Frank Bowling, Frederick Eversley, Melvin Edwards and Alma Thomas.

For more information about the sale, check our some more highlights or visit our full catalogue.

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