This Season’s Successes: Winter-Spring 2024 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.

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 below!

Artists of the WPA

Claude Clark, Drafting, oil on thin board, circa 1940-41. Sold for $17,500 in January 2024.
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California (variant), silver print, 1936 (printed circa 1990s). Sold for $16,250 in January 2024.

The Subculture Sale

Robert Frank, Seminal publisher Barney Rosset’s copies of the first French and English editions of Frank’s The Americans, 1958. Sold for $12,500 in February 2024.
Andy Warhol, Andy Warhol / The Velvet Underground and Nico, letterpress poster, 1966. Sold for $15,000 in February 2024.

An American Century: The Collection of Dr. James & Debra Pearl & Fine Photographs

From left to right: Ansel Adams, Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, silver print, 1927; printed 1973-77. Sold for $35,000 in February 2024. Irving Penn, Breton Onion Seller, London, from the Small Trades series, silver print, 1950-51. Sold for $35,000 in February 2024.

Vintage Posters & Graphic Design

Akseli Gallen-Kallela, BIL – BOL, 1907. Sold for $62,500 in February 2024.
Alphonse Mucha, Documents Décoratifs, complete portfolio with 72 plates, 1902. Sold for $22,500 in February 2024.

Autographs

Torquato Tasso, autograph manuscript signed, “Torq Tasso,” fair copy of his poem, “La Fenice,” in Italian. circa 1586. Sold for $106,250 in June 2024.
Benjamin Franklin, autograph letter signed to diplomat Arthur Lee Arranging a meetings about MA Governor’s alleged treason, Sold for $27,500 in June 2024.

19th & 20th Century Art

Henry Moore, Figure Studies, watercolor, ink, wash, wax resist, pastel, pencil, gouache and crayon on wove paper, circa 1948. Sold for $37,500 in March 2024.
Pablo Picasso, Fleurs, color crayons on cream wove paper, 1959. Sold for $81,250 in March 2024.

Printed & Manuscript African Americana

Victor H. Green, The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, 1958. Sold for $35,000 in March 2024.
Broadside for Ira Aldridge’s performance of Shakespeare–and Jim Crow, letterpress broadside, 1840. Sold for $27,500 in March 2024.

African American Art

Hughie Lee-Smith, Ball Player, oil on linen canvas, 1970. Sold for $341,000 in April 2024.
Benny Andrews, Time for Church, oil with painted canvas, lace collage and staples on cotton canvas, 1999. Sold for $203,000 in April 2024.

Fine Books

Miguel de Cervantes, El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, third Madrid Cuesta edition, Madrid, 1608. Sold for $106,250 in April 2024.
William Milligan Sloane, Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, New York, 1896. Sold for $45,000 in April 2024

Old Master Through Modern Prints

Maurits C. Escher, Circle Limit IV (Heaven and Hell), woodcut on Japan paper, 1960. Sold for $93,750 in April 2024.
Winslow Homer, Perils of the Sea, etching, 1888. Sold for $93,750 in April 2024.

Modern & Post-War Art

William Grosvenor Congdon, The City, oil and gouache on board, 1949. Sold for $47,500 in May 2024.
Fritz Koenig, Quadriga, bronze, 1959. Sold for $81,250 in May 2024.

Tennis & Sports Posters: Collection of the Schwartz Family & Tennis Corporation of America

Roger Broders, Monte – Carlo, circa 1930. Sold for $12,500 in May 2024.
Edward Penfield, Western Lawn Tennis Tournament / Kenwood Country Club. 1896. Sold for $11,250 in May 2024.

Focus on Women

Dr. Lora Genevieve Dyer, Very Large Archive including Journals, Letters, Photographs, and More. 1899-1954. Sold for $32,500 in May 2024.
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, inscribed first edition, Philadelphia & New York, 1960. Sold for $62,500 in May 2024.

Contemporary Art

Lynne Drexler, Bluescape, oil on canvas, 1961. Sold for $87,500 in June 2024.
Andy Warhol, Life Saver, color screen print on Lenox Museum Board, 1985. Sold for $87,500 in June 2024.

Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books

Robert John Thornton, New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus Comprehending … the Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature, 1794-1806. Sold for $45,000 in June 2024.
Claes Janszoon Visscher; after Hessel Gerritsz, Nova XVII Provinciarum, Germaniae Inferioris Tabula, Leonis Effigie, Accurate Delineata, 1630. Sold for $27,500 in June 2024.

Illustration Art: Featuring Highlights from the Collection of Jules Feiffer

Frank Miller, “The Blind Leading the Blind.” comic book page appearing in the Spectacular Spider-Man, ink over pencil on board, February, 1979. Sold for $60,000 in June 2024.
Kay Nielsen, The Nightingale, unpublished illustration, watercolor, gouache and graphite, circa 1924. Sold for $20,000 in June 2024.

Printed & Manuscript Americana

The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi, first edition, Palmyra, NY, 1830. Sold for $185,000 in June 2024.
Frederick Douglass. Oration Delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester. 39 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers. 1852. Sold for $87,500 in June 2024.
Browse the Fall 2024 Season & Consign with Swann
July 15, 2024
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Category: 19th & 20th Century Literature
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