NEW YORK CITY – Doyle’s auction of Prints & Multiples on April 29 presented a wide range of works spanning the Seventeenth Century to the present day. With competitive bidding, the sale totaled a successful $876,406 against an estimate of $664,700-979,500, sold 85 percent by lot and 93 percent by value.

Highlighting the sale was a Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) monumental ceramic “Vase Azteque aux Quatre Visages” that achieved $78,125 to a buyer in the United States, nearly reaching the high end of its $60/80,000 estimate. The jug was conceived in 1957, 11 years after Picasso first fell in love with creating ceramic works at the Madoura pottery factory in Southern France. Depicting four different faces, the form derives from Moche Peruvian culture and is among the largest of the 663 different editions created by the artist. Price cited includes buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. Watch for a longer review of the sale in a future issue.