Prints & Photographs Bring $1.8 Million At Bonhams & Butterfields

SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES, CALIF. - Fine prints and photographs from estates, trusts, and private and institutional collections brought nearly $1.8 million at Bonhams & Butterfields recently during an auction simulcast between San Francisco and Los Angeles. More than 430 print lots were sold, with more than 80 percent sold overall by lot.

The prints session opened with Old Master works followed by Nineteenth Century and Modern prints. Early on in the sale, an engraving after John James Audubon titled "Summer or Wood Duck," 1834, from the Havell edition of The Birds of America, sold for more than three times its estimate, bringing $23,900. That same price was paid for Warhol silkscreens offered much later in the day. Two versions of "Mao" (F/S 11.92 and 11.98) sold for $23,900 each.

A Joan Miró portfolio of eight lithographs titled "Lithograhe III," 1977, each signed and numbered, sold for $29,875, tying the sale's top price. All but one of the offered Miró lots found buyers in the spring sale, bringing above-estimate prices, indicative of the very strong current market. Other Mirós included two beautiful aquatints, "L'Egyptienne," 1977, which brought $14,340, and "La Metamorphose," 1978, which sold for $22,705.

A signed and numbered Marc Chagall lithograph "Bouquet à la Tour Eiffel," 1958, sold above estimate for $29,875 while several lots of images after Chagall by Charles Sorlier saw competitive bidding. Clients vied for a pair of lithographs from the Jerusalem Windows series, each more than tripling estimates: "The Tribe of Simeon, from the Jerusalem Windows," 1964, brought $9,560, while "The Tribe of Dan," from the Jerusalem Windows, 1964, sold for $10,158.

Extraordinary interest and aggressive bidding came from United Kingdom buyers for lots by the artists Stanley William Hayter and Bridget Riley. Of the 12 Hayter lots offered, the complete portfolio of "Paysages urbains," reached the highest bid and exceeded its high estimate selling at $6,573.

Of the 12 Rileys offered, it was the untitled group from her "Fragments" series, silkscreens printed on plexiglas, that more than tripled the auction estimates - with "untitled (Fragment 6)" fetching the highest at $16,730. Nine lots of Alexander Calder images were on the block; "La Memoire Elementaire," 1976, the complete suite brought $22,705.

Three-dimensional pieces included a strong selection of Picasso glazed terre de faïence ceramic works, with as many as 35 lots dedicated to the stamped and numbered pieces totaling more than $125,000. The Picasso collections were lead by a silver repoussé plate "Visage Larvae," 1955-56, with an inscribed signature, which brought $23,303.

The 1960 after Picasso color collotype "L'Arlequin et sa Compagne," with a conservative estimate of $2/3,000, saw aggressive bidding and sold for $29,875. Auction records indicate that it is the first time this print has come on the block.

Fine photographs included the estate of the late art dealer Holly Solomon and lots sold to benefit the Laguna Art Museum's Collections Fund. The session brought more than $330,000 for the 107 lots sold and featured Brett Weston's portfolio of 15 gelatin silver prints titled "Hawaii, Leaves, Lava," 1978-80. Each image was signed and dated on the mount, and the portfolio brought $11,950.

A pair of iconic Horst P. Horst gelatin silver prints, "Round the Clock," and "Mainbocher Corset," each depicting his usual fashion plate images sold above estimate. Sir Winston Churchill's formal pose captured by Yousuf Karsh in 1941 sold for $8,963, while prints of Native Americans, Twentieth Century celebrities and others sold to collectors after competitive bidding. Ruth Bernhard's classic "Torso with Hands," 1952, sold for $4,780; "Dan & Fred, The Body Shop, Los Angeles," 1984, a familiar Herb Ritts' image, sold for $5,676.

Edward S. Curtis's 1904 "Cañon de Chelley, Arizona, Navaho," sold for $11,950, while "Flathead Camp on the Jocko River," a circa 1910 warm-toned platinum print, sold for $7,170. "Desert Cactus," 1976, a duo-toned gelatin silver print by Richard Misrach, brought $6,573 and a bidder paid $6,573 for a classic O. Winston Link 1956 print (printed later), a composite depicting three modes of transportation - cars parked at a drive-in movie theater, the image of a jumbo jet onscreen and a steam-spewing locomotive crossing in the background.

All prices quoted include the buyer's premium. For more information, www.bonhams.com.