Records & Results: Images & Objects: Photographs & Photobooks

On Thursday, April 20, our sale ofImages & Objects: Photographs & Photobooks set multiple records for early and modern works, with 71% of works offered finding buyers.

Lot 34: Edward S. Curtis, Red Cloud, Oglala, platinum print, 1905. Sold April 20, 2017 for $32,500, a record for the work.

Nearly all of the offered lots by Edward S. Curtis sold above or within the estimate in this sale. Highlights included a striking portrait of Red Cloud, Oglala, 1905, which sold for $32,500, a record for the work, above a high estimate of $9,000. The Scout, Apache, 1906, a dramatic orotone in the original frame depicting a Native American silhouetted on a horse, more than doubled its high estimate of $12,000 to sell for $27,500, a record for an orotone of the image; another orotone in its original frame, An Oasis in the Badlands, 1905, was purchased by a collector for $21,250, above a high estimate of $15,000.

Lot 10: Eadweard Muybridge, 60 plates from Animal Locomotion, collotypes, 1887. Sold April 20, 2017 for $45,000.

Bastions of the art of photography performed well, with the highest price in the sale going to a group of 60 plates from Eadweard Muybridge’s seminal Animal Locomotion, 1887. Ansel Adams’s iconic Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941, printed circa 1976, went for $42,500. Five of the six works offered by New York-based vernacular photographer Weegee (née Arthur Fellig) found buyers, led by Coney Island, 1940, at $13,750.

Lot 160: Toni Frissell, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, silver print, 1957. Sold April 20, 2017 for $12,500.

The cover lot for the sale was an unusual version of Toni Frissell’s breathtaking A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1957—the image was printed in reverse, with the notation “This is backwards” on the verso ($12,500).

Lot 209: Robert Frank, Sick of Goodby’s, Mabou, silver print, 1978. Sold April 20, 2017 for $32,500.

Works from the last 50 years performed exceptionally well, with high prices going to Robert Frank’s Sick of Goodby’s, Mabou, 1978, and Zuma #9, 1978, by John Divola ($32,500 and $10,000, respectively). Both offered works by Peter Hujar far surpassed their high estimates: a trio of portraits of Robert Wilson, Ann Wilson and Sheryl Sutton, 1975, reached $27,500, above a high estimate of $12,000, while the striking 1985 Shack, Queens, more than doubled its high estimate of $6,000 to sell to a collector for $13,750. A suite of five photographs by Duane Michals, titled Narcissus, 1985, soared past its high estimate of $9,000 to sell after rapid bidding for $26,000, a record for the work.

Lot 205: Duane Michals, Narcissus, suite of 5 photographs, silver prints, 1985. Sold April 20, 2017 for $26,000, a record for the work.

The next sale of Photographs & Photobooks at Swann Galleries will be held on October 19, 2017. Now accepting quality consignments.

Browse the catalogue for full results.