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February 18, 2021
Author: W K

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swanngalleries

Specializing in rare books, fine art and everything in between.
President & principal auctioneer: @nicholowry

Our sixth annual LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & Hi

Our sixth annual LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History auction is scheduled to take place on Thursday, August 22, and will feature an exciting selection of fine art, illustration, posters, ephemera, photography, manuscripts and archives from the expansive range of the LGBTQ+ community. ⁠
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Pictured above: Lyle Ashton Harris, Untitled (Renee’s Back), large-format Polaroid, 1998-99.

In celebration of Ernest Hemingway’s birthday (a

In celebration of Ernest Hemingway’s birthday (albeit belated), we are proud to present a sneak peek of an exciting find, a photo album compiled by a fellow Red Cross volunteer, Percy D. Johnson, who served in the Ambulance Service with Hemingway during the First World War. It contains unpublished images of Hemingway and his fellow volunteers from the time they shipped overseas, through their service in Italy, and includes an image of the injured Papa in his Milan hospital bed. This album, brought to light for the first time, will be offered in our upcoming October 2024 Fine Books Sale. Happy Birthday Ernest!

Auctions in Review⁠ In the 2024 Winter-Spring se

Auctions in Review⁠
In the 2024 Winter-Spring season, Swann Galleries continued to provide high-quality auctions of unusual and rare material. Several single-owner collections were featured, including Illustration Art: Featuring Highlights from the Collection of Jules Feiffer, Tennis & Sports Posters: Collection of the Schwartz Family & Tennis Corporation of America, and An American Century: The Collection of Dr. James & Debra Pearl & Fine Photographs.⁠
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We bid farewell to our longtime Prints & Drawings director Todd Weyman, and ushered in a new era for our restructured Fine Art Department. Take a look at some of this season’s highlights at the link in our bio!

The top lot and the highlight of our June 27 Print

The top lot and the highlight of our June 27 Printed & Manuscript Americana sale: an 1830 First Edition Book of Mormon.⁠
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Sold to a dealer for $185,000, this rare first edition broke the previous auction record—the Orson Pratt copy was sold by Swann in 2007 for $180,000. This record-breaking sale is also the fourth-highest price ever realized for an Americana lot at Swann.⁠
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Swann has been the leading auction house for Mormon books, selling 13 copies of the first edition over the past two decades, and prices have increased dramatically just in the past three years.

The Swann Staff Art Show opens today! Join us from

The Swann Staff Art Show opens today! Join us from 5 to 7 PM for a Swann Salon celebrating the works of our incredible staff. ⁠

Cindy Sherman's iconic Untitled Film Stills is a c $Cindy Sherman's iconic Untitled Film Stills is a collection of 70 black-and-white photographs in which the photographer herself poses as an actress portraying different archetypal female film characters. ⁠ ⁠ Sherman's gaze is fixed away from the viewer in each of the photographs in her series, adding elements of ambiguity and voyeurism to her work, prompting viewers to consider how women may be perceived in mass media and culture. ⁠ ⁠ This 1979 silver print photograph, Untitled Film Still #52, was the highlight of our May 16 Fine Photographs sale, sold \ for $125,000.$

The Shelf Sale is back on Thursday, July 18. Previ

The Shelf Sale is back on Thursday, July 18. Previewing Monday, July 15 through Wednesday, July 17 — 12PM to 5PM⁠
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Learn more at the link in our bio.

Our upcoming Vintage Poster Sale on August 8 offer

Our upcoming Vintage Poster Sale on August 8 offers a wide range of posters from across the globe spanning the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries. Featured genres include travel posters, rare and collectible posters for international events such as the Exposition Universelle and the Exposition de Charleroi, and an assortment of entertainment posters advertising extravaganzas such as circuses and magic shows. ⁠
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Pictured above: (Left) Leonetto Cappiello, Absinthe Gempp Pernod, 1903. (Right) William H. Bradley, Victor Bicycles / Overman Wheel Co., 1895.

Happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸⁠ ⁠ Pictured h

Happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸⁠
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Pictured here is Robert Rauschenberg's 'American Flag, Enough is Enough,' silver print, 1980.

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?"⁠
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Pictured here in slide two is a copy of Frederick Douglass's Oration Delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, 1852. Sold in our latest sale of Printed & Manuscript Americana for $87,500.⁠
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The first separate printing was after its appearance in Frederick Douglass' Paper. In 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to give the traditional Independence Day speech in his hometown of Rochester, New York. He delivered one of the most scalding pieces of oratory in the American canon.⁠
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"Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? . . . This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn" (pages 14-15).⁠
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The most famous passage appears on page 20: "What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour."

Coming to auction this August is Hugh Steers' 1992

Coming to auction this August is Hugh Steers' 1992 work 'By the Phone.' Estimate $7,000 to $10,000.⁠
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The HIV/AIDS epidemic impacted a generation of gay men who witnessed an inextricable loss of life and set into motion the birth of a new LGBTQ+ movement. Steers was one of the visual artists diagnosed and taken by complications from the virus at the beginning of his career. After Steers’ positive diagnosis of HIV in 1985, his artworks from the late 1980s and early 1990s symbolize opposing ideas of the fragility of life and heroism, queerness and piety, illness and life. Learn more about Steers at the link in our bio.

Autographs begins closing today at noon! Visit t

Autographs begins closing today at noon!

Visit the link in our bio to browse and bid.

AUCTION CLOSING TOMORROW: Bidding for Autographs b

AUCTION CLOSING TOMORROW: Bidding for Autographs begins closing tomorrow at 12PM ET. ⁠
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Visit the link in our bio to browse the catalogue and bid. ⁠
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Pictured here: ⁠
1. Lot 20: Janis Joplin, illustrated autograph letter signed to Peter De Blanc, including a self-portrait, 30-31 July 1965. Estimate: $4,000 to $6,000.⁠
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2. Lot 161: A.A. Milne and Christopher Robin, 'Now We Are Six,' first trade edition, signed by both author and son. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.⁠
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3. Lot 166: Torquato Tasso, autograph manuscript signed, his poem: “The Phoenix,” 1586. Estimate: $50,000 to $75,000.⁠

As a specialized auction house, Swann has the uniq

As a specialized auction house, Swann has the unique ability to connect collectors with their specific interests. This is especially true for aviation collectors; the auctions from our books and manuscripts department bring tangible pieces of history, from photographs of meet-ups among early aviation enthusiasts to autographs by industry pioneers, into eager aerophiles’ hands. At the link in our bio is a selection of material that is sure to enrich any collection.⁠
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Pictured here:⁠
1. Photo album of the Harvard Boston Aero Meet, the first major aviation meet in the United States, 66 photographs, 1910. At auction June 27, 2024. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.⁠
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2. Amelia Earhart, a photo from a group of images of events around her crash on Ford Island, 1937. Sold June 2, 2022 for $1,250.⁠
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3. M. Rol & Co, Photographers, Wilbur Wright demonstrating his Model A to French Aviators, silver print, 1908. At auction June 27,2024. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.⁠
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4. Photo archive from an early lead designer for Glenn Curtiss, 1913-25. At auction June 27, 2024. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.⁠
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Pictured here is a carte-de-visite portrait of Gen

Pictured here is a carte-de-visite portrait of General Gordon Granger, the man who proclaimed the end of slavery on Juneteenth.⁠
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Gordon Granger (1821-1876) served with distinction in several Civil War battles and on 10 June 1865, was given command of the Department of Texas. Nine days later, he arrived in Galveston and posted his famous General Order No. 3: ⁠
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"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection therefore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."⁠
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This carte-de-visite was featured in our Printed & Manuscript African Americana sale in March.

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