70 Years of Auctions

This year marks Swann's 70th, and today we celebrate the anniversary of our first auction, held on March 27, 1942. Consisting of Books and Autographs, that first sale offered about 370 lots, and the first lot sold for $1.50. The top lot, a journal written by a soldier of the Fourth Regiment in the Indian War in 1816, brought $52.

At the time, Swann had only three employees, including Benjamin Swann, founder of the company and auctioneer for that first sale.

As we approach our April 4 sale, which is sale number 2274, and continue our anniversary year, we look forward to the next 70 years of auctions at Swann, and thank our loyal clientele and dedicated staff.

Avedon's Santa Monica Beach

Among the truly stellar highlights in Swann's April 4 auction of 19th & 20th Century Photographs & Photobooks is Richard Avedon's Santa Monica Beach #2, California, September 30, 1963, a silver print with Avedon's signature, in ink, on recto, 1963.


This image appears in the classic Avedon photobook, Nothing Personal, which features remarkable text by his childhood friend, the author James Baldwin. The book is a dynamic blend of Avedon's penetrating portraits and Baldwin's tough, lyrical prose that examines America and Americans at a crossroads. There are period images of Civil Rights leaders, politicians on the left and the right, a man born into slavery, saluting Nazis, Allen Ginsberg and the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

Avedon's penultimate photograph, which was taken on Santa Monica beach, offers a loving, tender finale to what is otherwise an uncomfortable, jittery visual narrative. The woman and child depicted here grasp each other as they gaze out over the open ocean. The advancing wave and implied expanding space beyond come across as both menacing and promising. Baldwin's beautiful text crystallizes the moment, which is a personal commentary about the political tumult of the 1960s: "For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock […] The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out." 


The image, so unlike the white-ground, stark portraiture associated with Avedon, seems somehow closer to the photographer's personal eye, while never straying from his overarching vision and rare ability to both capture a compelling portrait and the deep, extraordinary essence of his subject. 


This unique print is quite rare, and, to our knowledge, has never appeared at auction before.

Swann at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show

Swann is proud to be a sponsor of the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, running now through Sunday at Pier 94 on the west side of Manhattan.

We are sponsoring a seminar taking place tomorrow, Saturday, March 24 from 11AM to 12PM, on ART WITH DESIGN. The talk features Darryl Carter, Diane McManus Jensen and Vicente Wolf on how to personalize your environment and effectively incorporate art with your design.  Find out how to display collections and include art pieces without losing warmth.

We produced a special brochure for the event:

Ansel Adams in Color!

Two lots of Polaroids by Adams will be offered in Swann's upcoming April 4 sale. One, a group of 4 studies of trees, shown.

Known for his attention and passion for the technical aspects of print making, Ansel Adams became a consultant for Edwin Land and the Polaroid Corporation in 1948. He tested film and products for the ensuing 35 years, memorably noting in his posthumously published autobiography that, "Many of my most successful photographs from the 1950's onward have been made on Polaroid film. One look at the tonal quality of the print I have achieved should convince the uninitiated of the truly superior quality of Polaroid film." Adams’s influence extended beyond the camera, in recruiting other well-known and important photographers to use Polaroid cameras and be incorporated into what became a landmark collection.

These small-format Polaroids represent two qualities not often associated with Adams: a small scale and color. Adams felt somewhat constrained by the color process, feeling he could exert little control over what he saw. Nonetheless, he wrote extensively about the process, describing his successes and experiments. These small studies also reflect Adams’s interest in expanding his notion of landscape photography by incorporating more details. And indeed, by focusing on the intimate, the whole, those broad, sublime landscapes, become clearer.

Ansel Adams, triptych with three color studies: Rusted Metal, Leaves & Red Rock.

In this group of photographs, Adams seems to be considering the interplay between color, dimension and contrast. "Color, physically or psychologically considered,” he wrote, “is extremely complex. While we have good reason to believe all persons with normal vision see colors the same way, the significance of colors may vary with each individual." Here, greens, oranges and blues layer, showcasing the texture and richness of Adams’s subjects.

Thursday's Top Lots: The Eric C. Caren Americana Collection

This past Thursday Swann held the second of three sales devoted to the collection of Eric C. Caren, a collection of paper material that spans the entirety of US history and beyond, from the first American newspapers to anti-war posters and press photographs.

A Briefe Relation of the Discovery and Plantation of New Englad, first edition, London, 1622.

 The top lot was a scarce 1622 pamphlet titled A Briefe Relation of the Discovery and Plantation of New England, which sold for $55,200.  Another highlight was a 1789 issue of the Gazette of the United States, which brought $31,200. It features the first printing in any form of the Bill of Rights.

Original manuscript indictment of Margaret Scott for the practice of witchcraft, Salem, 17 September 1692.

 Amid much attention from the media in Massachusetts, an original indictment from the Salem Witch Trials sold to MA collector for $31,200. 

Act to establish the Post Office, Philadelphia, 1794.

Among the day’s surprises were the act to establish the United StatesPost Office, estimated at $2500-3500, but sold for $10,800; and a groupof press photos of the first aerial circumnavigation in 1924, estimated at $200-300, but sold after heated bidding for $2,160.

Hitchcock Posters from a Filmmaker's Collection

Among items from the estate of acclaimed film director and producer Gary Winick are 40-plus movie posters, most for classic Hitchcock films.

From well known Hitchcock titles such as The Birds, Psycho and Vertigo, to lesser known films like I Confess, The Paradine Case and Under Capricorn, there are wonderful images featuring the biggest stars of the day.

Other classic films include The Misfits, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Au Revoir Les Enfants.

The posters, as well as photographs, prints and drawings and movie memorabilia from the Winick collection will be auctioned on April 4.

Last Week's Top Lots: 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings

Last Thursday's sale of Prints & Drawings did very well, setting several print records and two notable artist records. Among the morning session's prints, paintings & livres d'artiste by Jean-Émile Laboureur, an etching, Bar en Pennsylvanie, set a record for a print by the artist, selling for $14,400. A watercolor by Kahlil Gibran sold for $22,800, setting an auction record for the artist.

Jean-Émile Laboureur, Bar en Pennsylvaie, etching, 1914.

The top lot for the sale as a whole was a Picasso print, Tête de Femme (Portrait stylisé de Jacqueline), a linoleum cut on paper, 1962, which brought $64,800. 

Pablo Picasso, Tête de Femme (Portrait stylisé de Jacqueline), linoleum cut, 1962.

 A scarce self-portrait by Edvard Munch, titled Selbstbildnis mit Weinflasche, a lithograph, set an auction record for the print at $57,600. From an edition of 30, the image is based on Munch's same-titled oil painting from 1906.

Edvard Munch, Selbstbildnis mit Weinflasche, lithograph, 1930.

(Poster) Art Is Everywhere

Swann President and Poster Specialist Nicholas Lowry came across a small, unexpectedly excellent show of travel posters at Grand Central this past weekend. 


He shares: "On a trip upstate this weekend I was caught unawares when I saw this exhibition advertised on the large LCD screens in Grand Central Stations main atrium. Forgoing some last-minute food shopping that I had planned to do I went to visit the small Transport Museum store and was amazed at the exceptional exhibition of what were almost entirely original art work and studies for posters for the London Underground. This is well worth a 10 to 15 minute visit!"


The show, The Art of the Poster: A Touring exhibition from the London Transport Museum, will be on view through July 8. For more information, go to: http://mta.info/mta/museum/whatsnew.htm

IFDA Event: Home Trends in Auction & Art with Vicente Wolf & Daile Kaplan

Daile Kaplan (left) with interior decorator and speaker Vicente Wolf,
and Claudia Giselle Tejeda, President of IFDA New York

On February 23 Swann partnered with the International Furnishings & Design Association (IFDA) on an event featuring home design guru Vicente Wolf and Swann's Photography Department Director Daile Kaplan discussing how home trends relate to auctions and art.

Vicente Wolf, Daile Kaplan, moderator Kara Marmion, IFDA's VP of Programs, 
and Nicholas Lowry

The well-attended event featured an introduction by Swann President Nicholas Lowry, slide shows that illustrated the use of art in interior design and a lively Q&A session. For more photos, visit the Facebook page for the IFDA's New York Chapter.


Check out these videos from the event: