The Most Famous Private Press Book

The Kelmscott Chaucer is considered the finest Arts and Crafts era publication,
and the pinnacle of private press publishing

Perhaps the most famous of the private presses, the Kelmscott Press at Hammersmith was the creation of master craftsman William Morris. At a time when the printed page and book production in general was suffering, he believed that the high standards of the past could be re-awakened and re-created to achieve complete harmony of type and illustration; for each book to be seen as a complete object of beauty. 

Text was printed in red and black Chaucer and Troy types. The large woodcut illustrations
by Sir Edward Burne-Jones were redrawn by Robert Catterson-Smith and cut by W.H. Hooper and W. Spielmeyer.

The press produced 53 books between 1891 and 1898. Both the first and final titles of the press are being sold in a small, select collection in Swann's February 23 auction of Private Press & Illustrated Books, as well as their crowning achievement, The Kelmscott Chaucer. Morris’s aims and aesthetic inspired the birth of several other English presses such as the Ashendene, Doves, Eragny and Vale presses, each of which are also represented in the sale.

A dedication copy of Aragny Press's Songs by Ben Jonson,
one of only ten printed on vellum, is another sale highlight.

William T. Williams Painting Comes to Auction

Swann's February 16 auction of African-American Fine Art will feature the first painting by celebrated artist William T. Williams to come to auction. The monumental 1971 acrylic on canvas, titled Eastern Star, was bought from the artist's first solo gallery exhibition in New York by the current owner.


This large and exciting work is an excellent example of Williams's unique abstract vision--an elegant, layered Minimalist abstraction, infused with the geometries of jazz and non-Western cultures.


Williams was born in Cross Creek, North Carolina, attended Pratt Institute and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and earned an M.F.A. from Yale University. In 1969 he participated in The Black Artist in America: A Symposium, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 


Williams's abstract painting achieved early institutional recognition when the Museum of Modern Art, New York, purchased his 1969 painting Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F, Part II. His paintings were also included in such important exhibitions as the Studio Museum in Harlem's Inaugural Show, the Whitney Biennial and New Acquisitions at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1970, both the Jewish Museum, New York, and the Menil Collection, Houston, commissioned paintings.


In addition to his long career as a painter, Williams has taught at Brooklyn College for more than 40 years.

Is this the world's first ski poster?

Ernest Haskell's Truth / Xmas, New York, 1896. 

Skiing for sport began in the mid 19th century in Northern Europe, although the activity as a means of transport and hunting dates back thousands of years. Americans caught on in the early 20th century, and by the late 1920s the country was in love with the sport, with winter resorts in full swing--kicking off what is known as the Golden Age of American Skiing.


Ernest Haskell's 1896 poster advertising the magazine Truth, which depicts a lovely lady skiing downhill, is the earliest American ski poster, predating the first American book on skiing by nearly 10 years.

Theodore A. Johnsen's The Winter Sport of Skeeing, was the first American ski book.
It was published in 1905.

Haskell's design has a similar head start on the first European posters for the sport, which are generally believed to be promotional images for the French winter resort town of Chamonix, from the early 1900s.

Chamonix / Mont Blanc, after Abel Faivre, circa 1985.

If you have an example of an earlier ski poster, send us an email: blog@swanngalleries.com

Happy Birthday, Max Roach!

Today Max Roach, jazz musician, activist, educator and collector, would have turned 88.  Swann is proud to offer several works from the artist’s estate in our upcoming February 16 sale of African-American Fine Art, including a sriking group of portraits of Roach by David Hammons & Bruce Talamon. The screenprints were sent to the artist by Hammons & Talamon as potential album artwork, though it is unknown whether or not they were ever used.

David Hammons & Bruce Talamon, Untitled (Max Roach Album Art), group of 4 color screenprints, 1977. Estimate $50,000 to $75,000. At auction February 16.

Max Roach was born in North Carolina but grew up in Brooklyn, New York. His early exposure to music came through the church, but he found himself drawn to the drums from a very early age. He was still a teenager when he began to play with such jazz masters as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Coleman Hawkins. Before the age of 30, he had already become one of the seminal drummers of the 20th century, whose breakthroughs influenced several subsequent generations. His early successes as a sideman led him to even great achievements as a bandleader in his own right starting in the 1950s.

Always among the most socially engaged of jazz artists, Roach was an inspiring figure both to the Civil Rights movement and to the Black Power movement that developed in the 1960s. His “We Insist! Freedom Now Suite” (1960) was one of the most powerful artistic statements to come out of that milieu and is consistently cited as one of the key recordings in the history of jazz music. His collaborations with other artists ran from classic jazz combos to full orchestras; vocal choruses and inventive string ensembles, including the Uptown String Quartet and the Double Quartet with his daughter Maxine; large all-percussion groups, improvisational duos with avant-garde adventurers such as Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp and Anthony Braxton and major dance productions with such figures as Alvin Ailey and Bill T. Jones. His theatrical partnerships embraced playwrights as diverse as William Shakespeare and Amiri Baraka, Sam Shepard and Wole Soyinka.

Roach’s contributions went well beyond the strictly musical. Ever cognizant of the exploitation of black musicians, he was never hesitant to speak out against injustice. He was a leading businessman, co-founding (with Charles Mingus) the Debut Records label, operating his own publishing and production companies (Milma, MR Productions), even organizing alternative festivals and venues to assure the fair treatment of participating musicians. He was a dedicated teacher, serving from 1972 on the music faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and generously sharing his insights and experiences via lectures and public appearances worldwide. An adventurous creator, a tireless performer, an articulate spokesman, a passionate educator, Roach was recognized as one of the great American artists and received numerous honors and awards, including the MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” grant.

Bill Hunt: The Photo World's Impresario

On December 7, Swann and Aperture Foundation hosted a talk and booksigning with photography collector, curator and educator Bill Hunt in honor of his book, The Unseen Eye. Hunt and Swann's Photography Director Daile Kaplan had a lively and entertaining conversation that touched on various topics including the first photograph Hunt ever bought, his inclusion of 19th century images in the collection, and what he calls "the best picture in the world."


Click below to watch a recording of the talk.


Bill Hunt Talk Ver 3 from Number 44 Productions on Vimeo.

Henry Ossawa Tanner at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

A circa 1918 Untitled (Dusk Scene of a Flooded River and Nearby Town)  oil on cardstock by Tanner brought $33,600 in Swann's October 8, 2009 auction

Later this month, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts will launch an exhibition devoted to Henry Ossawa Tanner Modern Spirit--it runs from January 28 to April 15, then moves on to the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. 

Adoration of the Golden Calf, oil on canvas, circa 1895, sold for $72,000 on February 17, 2009

Tanner was one of the first African-American students at the Pennsylvania Academy, and the exhibition explores his life and career, including, as the Academy describes it, "the pioneering African-American artist’s upbringing in Philadelphia in the years after the Civil War; the artist’s success as an American expatriate artist at the highest levels of the international art world at the turn of the 20th century; Tanner’s role as a leader of an artist’s colony in rural France; his modernist invigoration of religious painting deeply rooted in his own faith; Tanner’s depictions of the Holy Land and North Africa interpreted through comparison with contemporary French orientalist painting and photography; and the scientific and technical innovations of the artist’s oeuvre."

Seated Arab, oil on wood panel, circa 1895-99, sold for $72,000 on October 4, 2007 

Swann has offered several significant paintings by the artist since we began conducting sales of African-American Fine Art, and among the excellent 19th-century highlights in our upcoming February 16 auction is a posthumous circa 1905-10 etching, Gateway in Tangier (below).

Gateway in Tangier, etching, circa 1905-10, signed and numbered by the artist's son,
is among the highlights of Swann's next auction of African-American Fine Art

Yesterday's Top Lots: The Complete Poster Works of Roger Broders

The December 15th sale was the first time the complete work of a single poster artist has come to auction. The Complete Poster Works of Roger Broders offered 100 lots - nearly every poster he designed - all from one private collection. The sale beat more than a dozen prices for Broders posters sold in the United States, set three world records, and two others, considering today's exchange rate. The strong prices could be justified, in part, by the work's spectacular condition.

Roger Broders, Dunkerque, circa 1930.

The top lot of the sale was Dunkerque, a poster designed for the railway and the local tourist office of Chemin de Fer du Nord. Swann's specialists were only able to find two other instances of this poster coming to auction. It sold for $19,200.

Roger Broders, Monte-Carlo, 1930. Sold for $18,000.

Monte-Carlo, 1930, was created to promote the Monte-Carlo Country Club's glamorous amenities and membership, and is one of Broders's most masterful posters. The grandeur of the perspective and depth of field, combined with the way the bright Riviera sunlight silhouettes the figures in the foreground, make it a poster to remember.

Roger Broders, Sur la Côte d'Azur, circa 1931.

Another very desirable poster that did well in the sale was Sur la Côte d'Azur. Bringing $11,400, the sale more than doubled the previous auction record for this image.

Tuesday's Top Lots: Important Photobooks & Photographs

Important Photobooks & Photographs sold well in Tuesday's auction, with several records set and strong interest in some very interesting pieces. The top lot of the sale, Andrew J. Russell's United States Military Rail Road Photographic Album earned a record $156,000, making it the photography department's top lot of the year. The album depicts the railroads, battlefields and landscapes of the Civil War.

Andrew J. Russell, United States Military Rail Road Photographic Album, 107 albumen prints, 1863-64.

Among the photobooks was Edwin Hale Lincoln's beautiful Wild Flowers of New England Photographed From Nature. A first edition of this eight-volume set containing 400 photographic plates, it brought $108,000--another auction record.

Edwin Hale Lincoln, Wild Flowers of New England Photographed From Nature, one of only perhaps 50 copies, Massachusetts, 1910-14.

Contemporary art also did well. Aaron Siskind's portfolio Viterbo Broom, containing 18 abstract photographs, sold for $48,000. It was the portfolio's first time at auction. 

Aaron Siskind, Viterbo Broom, portfolio containing 18 photographs, 1967.

The top lot among individual photographs was a striking Peter Beard photograph. Fayel Tall / El Molo Bay, Lake Rudolf, a mixed media silver print with applied blood and feather in Beard's signature style, attracted several bidders and brought $36,000.

Peter Beard, Fayel Tall / El Molo Bay, Lake Rudolf, 1987, printed 1997.

Thursday's Top Lots: Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Historical Prints, Ephemera

Thursday's sale of Maps, Atlases, Natural History & Historical Prints and Ephemera went wonderfully, with successful sales of several very important maps, illustrated books, and prints.

David Roberts, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, 2 titles in 6 volumes, London, 1842-49.

The top lot of the auction was David Roberts' beautiful illustrated book The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Published in London between 1842 and 1849, it brought a strong $33,600.

Fry-Jefferson, A Map of the most inhabited part of Virginia containing the whole Province of Maryland, London, 1775.

Among the maps, A Map of the most inhabited part of Virginia containing the whole Province of Maryland took the top spot, selling for $28,800.

Groups lots of maps also did very well in this sale. In particular, a group of over 22 maps concerning the growth of California during the 1920s and 1930s went for $16,800 - the result of two very interested parties, who drove the price well above the estimate of $400 - $600.

John James Audubon, Barnacle Goose, London: Havell, 1836.

Decorative graphics and Natural History prints also sold well. John James Audubon's Barnacle Goose, Plate CCXCVI from his mammoth portfolio Birds of America, a historical benchmark of ornithological illustrations, sold for $5,040.

Thursday's Top Lots: Americana & Ocean Liner Memorabilia

Thursday’s sale of Printed & Manuscript Americana /Ocean Liner Memorabilia saw an unusually high number of registered bidders. The American Revolution and Civil War sections of the Americana sale attracted the strongest interest, and led to some impressive results.

Thomas Houseworth & Co., Pacific Coast Scenery (detail), San Francisco, 1872.

A scarce and important 1872 album of California photographs by Thomas Houseworth, estimated at $2,000 to $3,000 due to condition problems, nonetheless brought $21,600 in a fierce battle between eight telephone bidders.

Gazette of the United States, first newspaper printing of the Bill of Rights (detail), New York, 3 October 1789.

Two lots tied for the position of top lot in this auction: the first newspaper printing of the Bill of Rights, and an archive of military correspondence from King George’s War each brought $24,000.

Photograph of Eugene Victor Debs from an archive of personal letters to his nephew, 1893-1925.

Two important lots were won by institutions. A group of letters by Socialist leader Eugene Debs went to Indiana State University for $6,720. A large collection of Muhlenberg family correspondence from the 1820s and 1830s went to Dickinson College in Pennsylvania for the same price.

"Titanic" Plan of First Class Accommodation, December 1911.

The top lot among the Ocean Liner Memorabilia was the Plan of First Class Accommodation for the “Titanic.” The extremely rare deck plan sold for $7,200.