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.

Labels: , , , , ,