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.
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.
Henry Ossawa Tanner, Flight into Egypt, oil on canvas, circa 1910. Sold October 5, 2017 for $341,000.
Thomas Jefferson, Letter Signed, to Major-General Nathanael Greene, Richmond, February 1781. Sold March 22, 2018 for $35,000.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Missionary archive of Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond, Minnesota, 1833-93.
Sold September 28, 2017 for $112,500.
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.
Special Collections
Georges Dorival, Vers le Mont – Blanc, group of three posters, 1928. From the Collection of Gail Chisholm. Sold March 1, 2018 for $13,750.
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.
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.
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