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Harold Porcher Explores Mexican Muralists & Their Impact on the WPA
The Whitney Museum of American Art’s recent exhibition, Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945, was a comprehensive evaluation of post-revolution art in Mexico and the...
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‘Saturday Evening Post’ Covers Pop in Swann Winter 2021 Illustration Art Sale
Swann Galleries opened the winter/spring 2021 season with a robust sale of Illustration Art. The auction saw record prices for several works, as well as auction debuts from artists. Original artwork...
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Fine Books & Autographs: February 2021 Auction Highlights
Lot 23: Frederick Douglass, autograph letter signed, recruiting help for his paper after schism with Garrison, Rochester, 1851. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000. At Auction February 25, 2021 Browse...
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First Auction of Artists of the WPA at Swann Establishes Four Records
The Artists of the WPA were on display in our February 4, 2021, auction. The multi-departmental sale was headed by Harold Porcher, the house’s director of Modern and Post-War Art, and featured...
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19th & 20th Century Art: March 2021 Auction Highlights
Lot 315: Francis Picabia, Sans titre (Le Rêve), watercolor, pencil, charcoal, brush and ink, circa 1930-32. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000. At Auction March 4, 2021 Browse Catalogue Lot 294: Egon...
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A Brief History of Guinness Posters & Alice in Guinnessland
Left: John Gilroy, Guinness for Strength, 1937. Estimate $700 to $1,000. Right: John Gilroy, My Goodness My Guinness, 1938. Estimate $700 to $1,000.To be offered in our February 18, 2021 sale of...
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As Seen on TV: Vintage Posters
Missing our Poster Auction Exhibitions? An easy way to see the posters Swann has to offer, right from your couch. Jennifer De Candia, our vintage poster department administrator, takes us on an “As...
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Fine Photographs: March 2021 Auction Highlights
Lot 282: Irving Penn, Tulip/Tulipa: China Pink, New York, pigment print, 2006. Estimate $25,000 to $35,000. At Auction March 11, 2021 Browse Catalogue Lot 13: Camera Work, Steichen Supplement,...
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Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road,’ Off the Rails
John Larson on the cinematic history of Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ An immediate success upon its publication in 1957, Jack Kerouac’s second book, On the Road, has maintained a central position in...
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Ship’s Papers, Passports, and Privateers: Marco Tomaschett on Collectible...
Water vessels played a critical role in shaping the early history of America. That U.S. maritime history is brief relative to some other nations is an advantage, because many artifacts are still...
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Claude Monet & George William Thornley: A Printmaking Partnership
At the end of the nineteenth century, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro rediscovered lithography as a medium both to recreate their artistic conceptions on paper and simultaneously...
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Artist Record for H.A. Volodimer in Winter 2021 Sale of Vintage Posters
Our winter 2021 offering of Vintage Posters on February 18 saw the highest recent sell-through rate of the house’s large biannual sale in the category, “This is particularly gratifying under the...
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Printed & Manuscript African Americana: March 2021 Auction Highlights
At Auction March 25, 2021 Browse Catalogue Lot 198: Frederick Douglass, carte de visite with his signature on verso, albumen photograph by Samuel M. Fassett, 1878. Estimate $15,000 to $25,000....
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New Auction Record for Frederick Douglass Autograph Set in Winter 2021 Sale...
The house closed out February 2021 with an exceptional sale of Fine Books & Autographs, which saw a 90% sell-through rate and exceeded the total high estimate, bringing in $522,632. The auction...
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Dorothea Lange & Photography as a Tool for Social Change
Dorothea Lange‘s iconic photographs from her time documenting for the Farm Security Administration, as well as her international travels, resonate through the decades since. Here we provide insight to...
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5 Portrait Photographers To Inspire Your Collection
Photography is a particularly compelling medium for making portraits. The possibility to render oneself or another in this representational medium is relentlessly appealing, and in any given sale, we...
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Artist Profile: Peter Hujar
Peter Hujar was a leading figure in the vibrant downtown New York art scene of the 1970s and 80s. He chronicled the unfolding of public LGBTQ+ life from the time of the Stonewall Riots to the...
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Early Printed Books: April 2021 Highlights
At Auction April 8, 2021 Lot 18: Book of Hours, Use of Utrecht, illuminated manuscript, circa 1435-1445. Estimate $15,000 to $25,000. Early Printed Books Browse Lots 1 to 142 Lot 42: Everard Digby,...
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Early Women Cartoonists of The New Yorker
The New Yorker debuted in 1925 amid the country’s post-World War I economic boom and on the heels of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in 1920, marking a social...
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Early Black-Owned Business Ephemera
“Surely you are not going to shut the door in my face!” Since the establishment of the Printed & Manuscript African Americana sale in 1996, Swann has offered a selection of ephemera from...
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