Edward S. Curtis's "The
North American Indian" fetched $607,500.
Swann Sells
Priciest Lot Ever in Record $1.4 Million
Auction
NEW YORK CITY - A week of Photographs auctions in New York began
at Swann Galleries on October 2, where the top lot of the week, a
nearly complete set of Edward S. Curtis's magnum opus, "The North
American Indian," with magnificent photogravures printed on
delicate Japanese tissue, sold for $607,500. It was the highest
priced item ever sold at Swann, and the $1.4 million sale total
was also the highest for a Swann Photographs auction.
"This auction demonstrated that New York is clearly still the
center of the photography market, and that great material will
continue to perform strongly-even in uncertain times," said Daile
Kaplan, Vice President, and Director of Photographs at Swann
Galleries.
Less than 30 sets of The North American Indian, a lavish
publication issued between 1907 and 1930, were produced on
tissue, and nearly all are in private or institutional
collections. This set, acquired by well-known collector
Christopher Cardozo, was sold by the Trustees of the Moore
Memorial Library in Greene, N.Y. "The library hopes to complete a
$3.5 million renovation and expansion by 2004, in honor of the
library's 100th birthday. Interestingly, in May 1977, Swann was
the first auction house to offer a complete set of The North
American Indian on Japanese tissue, which brought $55,000.
Among other rare and highly desirable works sold was Herbert
Bayer's modernist masterpiece, "View from Pont Transbordeur,
Marseilles," an apparently unique oversize silver print, 1928,
brought $68,500. "Best known for his pioneering contributions as
a graphic designer and typographer at the Bauhaus, Bayer was also
recognized for his visionary environmental design projects in the
United States. His work as a photographer, though integral to
photographic history and aesthetics, is perhaps the least
appreciated part of his oeuvre, simply because his camera images
have rarely been seen," said Kaplan.
Also of special note was an albumen print by famed Philadelphia
artist Thomas Eakins depicting sculling champions Barney and John
Biglin on the Schuykill River, circa 1871. The study for Eakins's
iconic painting, "The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake,"
realized $51,750.
Among documentary highlights were a handsome sixth-plate
daguerreotype of a dignified Native-American man in Euro-American
dress, wearing a peace medallion on his breast, late 1840s, that
sold for $7,475; an album entitled "Greece, the Holy Land, &
Lebanon, Beersheba to Dan," with 69 albumen prints by Frank Mason
Good, 1880s, $9,200; Walter H. Lucas's photographic chronicle of
the native people in the Marshall, Caroline, and Ocean Islands,
New Hebrides, and North Queensland, printing-out paper prints,
1890s, $7,475.
Also, a group of 11 albums containing more than 500 photographs
of life on Indian reservations, printing-out paper prints,
1900s-10s brought $11,500; and an album of Irving Underhill's
architectural views of New York City's landmark buildings and
residences, including three three-part panoramas and
approximately 75 medium-format photographs, silver prints,
1900s-20s sold for $25,300.
Thomas Eakins albumen print, circa 1871, $51,750.
Significant modern images included Paul Strand's Wall Street,
platinum/palladium print, 1915, printed 1976-77, selling for
$9,775, and the first edition of his Mexican Portfolio, I.
Photographs of Mexico, with 18 (of 20) varnished photogravures,
N.Y., 1940, $10,925.
Frantisek Drtikol's Female nude with skull, a unique bromoil
print, 1921, which originally belonged to Czech avant-garde
designer Ladislav Sutnar, fetched $7,475; Imogen Cunningham's
"Two Callas," a silver print, 1929, printed before 1977, signed
on the mount, $9,775; and Margaret Bourke-White's Industrial
study, warm-toned silver print, circa 1930, that fetched $8,050.
Doris Ulmann's Roll, Jordan, Roll, with text by Julia Peterkin,
and 90 hand-pulled photogravures after Ulmann's photographs, one
of 350 signed, New York, 1933, a classic of Photographic
Literature, sold for $17,250.
Portfolios issued with original photographs included Roman
Vishniac's "The Vanished World," with 12 selenium-toned silver
prints of Jewish life in eastern Europe and Russia, one of 25,
N.Y., 1977, bringing $25,300; and Eudora Welty, 20 Photographs,
silver prints from her 1930s-40s negatives, with a signed
presentation booklet, Palaemon Press Limited; Mississippi, 1980,
selling for $11,500.
Finally, among contemporary works, Luis Gonzales Palma's "La
Muerte Reyna" [Death Regnant], liquid silver emulsion on wood
with metal, signed, housed in a Plexiglas(r) shadowbox, 1989,
brought $6,900.
All prices quoted include buyer's premium.
