: A presentation copy of Photo-Secession: A Collection of
American Pictorial Photographs, New York, 1904, brought
$19,550 at Swann Galleries' recent auction of Photographic
Literature and Photographs.
This early American publication, illustrated with seven
photogravures after photographs by Steichen, White, Käsebier,
Stieglitz, Coburn, Adamson and Keiley, was signed and inscribed
by Alfred Stieglitz to Charles H. Caffin, a noted art critic of
his day, of whom Stieglitz said, he "was the only art critic who
was utterly honest and who took the trouble to look at every
picture before making up his mind."
Other highlights among a large selection of photographic
literature included St Memin Collection of Photographs,
illustrated with 62 salted paper prints by Gurney & Son of
the engravings of St Memin, N.Y., 1862, which sold for $3,220;
Julia Margaret Cameron's Alfred, Lord Tennyson and His
Friends, exquisitely illustrated with a frontispiece and 25
photogravures after Cameron's photographs, first edition, one of
400, London, 1893, $4,140; Man Ray's Photographs
1920-1934 Paris, Hartford and New York, 1934, $2,760; and a
rare first Italian edition of Robert Frank's Gli
Americani, Milan, 1959, $2,300.
Among the Nineteenth Century photographs were two works by
pioneering British photographer William Henry Fox Talbot,
"Patroclus," salted paper print from a calotype negative, 1843,
$5,750, and "Windsor Chapel, East End of St George's," salted
paper print from a calotype negative, circa 1845, $8,050; as well
as a single leaf of four albumen prints attributed to American
painter and photographer Thomas Eakins, depicting the Crowell
children and their friends, 1880s, $5,980.
Turn-of-the-century photographs included Eugene Atget's "Boutique
de l'Epoque, Empire 21, Faubourg, St Honore, Paris," albumen
print, 1902, a rare allegorical self-portrait in which the
photographer, along with his camera and tripod, is reflected in
the elegant shop's window, $6,900.
"A Son or the Desert - Navaho," Edward S. Curtis, 1904,
platinum print, $20,700.
Many portraits of Native Americans by Edward S. Curtis,
included "Cañon del Muerto," orotone, 1903, $7,475; "Vash
Gon-Jicarilla," platinum print, 1904, $9,775; "A Son of the
Desert-Navaho," platinum print, 1904, $20,700; "A Zuni Governor,"
platinum print, 1905, $19,550; and "A Walpi-Hopi," platinum print,
1921, $16,100.
There were important European Modernist photographs such as
Frantisek Drtikol's "Nue," pigment print, 1921, $29,900; André
Kertész's "Chez Mondrian," silver print, 1926, printed 1970s,
$5,060; and Brassaï's "Cage of Wild Beasts" ferrotyped silver
print, 1932, $10,925.
Other highlights ranged from Alfred Eisenstaedt's "First Lesson
at Truempy Ballet School," Berlin, silver print, 1930, printed
1980s, $5,060; to Edward Weston's "Yucca and Granite, Wonderland
of Rocks, Joshua Tree National Monument," silver print, 1937,
$9,775; Weegee's "The Critic," silver print, 1943, $6,900; and
Art Sasse's "Einstein's Birthday Joke," silver print, 1951,
$5,980.
Finally, among various contemporary images were Emmet Gowin's
"Edith, Danville, Virginia," silver print, 1969, $5,520; Helmut
Newton's "Tied up Torso, Ramatuelie," silver print, 1980, $6,670;
and William Eggleston's "Greenwood Moose Lodge," dye-transfer
print, 1981, and Richard Misrach's "Salton Sea (with campers),"
chromogenic print, 1984, printed 1989, each $8,050.
All prices include the buyer's 15 percent premium.
