Swann’s Thursday, March 20 auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana finished at $1,116,969, one of the best sales of the year so far and one of the best since…
“I was amazed & astonished at the youthful appearance and the profound and eloquent speech. . . . I knew I would never forget him.” Featured in the March 20,…
A distinguished collection of historical treasures, encompassing liberation movement manuscripts, cultural artifacts, military memorabilia, and entertainment ephemera, illustrates the remarkable journey and achievements of African-American pioneers across two centuries.
Punks, goths, mods, beatniks, club kids, and hippies: a shortlist of an endless supply of social factions that make up the fabled “underground.” In the grander societal context, they are…
2024 was an eventful year for Swann that brought about exciting changes, including the reorganization of our Fine Art Department, which saw Nigel Freeman step in as the head of…
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…
Swann’s March 21, 2024 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana proved once again to be a success among institutions and collectors alike. The sale brought $967,061, closing well within…
This civil rights rally was held in Columbus, OH, a few months after the March on Washington and just as the congressional fight for the Civil Rights Act approached the…
One of our largest African Americana auctions to date includes important documentation of the abolition movement, catalogues and posters for exhibits by leading Black artists, previously unseen Black Panther material, and material on Black-owned businesses.
Nicholas D. Lowry shares his picks for The Subculture Sale. Bidding open now through February 8.
Swann Galleries continued to offer exceptional auctions of quality material in 2023. The year featured several collections, including a special selection of 100 works from the Stephen White collection in…
Winter/Spring 2023 Brings a Record-Breaking Season for the Books & Manuscripts Department Books and manuscripts had a standout winter/spring season at Swann. “As a company whose origins are as a…
The March 2023 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana brings $1.3M making it the highest-grossing sale for the category and the third-largest sale for Swann’s books and manuscripts department.
Spring has just about sprung, and Swann Galleries’ resident Americana specialist, and director of the house’s books and manuscripts department, is sharing a selection of lots from the 2023 auction schedule that will put you in the spirit for the season.
Our March 30 Printed & Manuscript African Americana sale will offer an outstanding manuscript broadside of the 13th Amendment ending slavery, signed by the Vice President and 111 congressmen. It…
2022 was a historic year for Swann in more ways than one. The house celebrated its 80th year of auctions, bringing with it the 70th anniversary of the first photography…
The winter-spring auction season at Swann is a masterclass in marathon training, and the 2022 iteration proved no different with 20 auctions held between late January and the middle of August.
Offerings from the Collection of Civil Rights Attorney Jack Greenberg in our March 24 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana Our March 24 Printed and Manuscript African Americana auction…
Our March 24 Printed Manuscript & African Americana sale will feature important material, from slavery through the civil rights era, as well as noteworthy literature and music, including iconic cornerstone…
As we close out another successful year at Swann we look back at our record-filled sales.
The New Deal not only established a great legacy, but a greater generation of artists whose works defined the American spirit.
This past summer Swann held its first auction devoted to works by women. We are pleased to annouce another edition of this sale, to be held in June 2022, once again spearheaded by Devon Eastland, our Early Printed Books Specialist, but offering a wide assortment of material
Early Printed Book, Archives, Vernacular and Fine Art Photography, Among other Material, Draws Interest Among Collectors The house’s inaugural Focus on Women sale on Thursday, July 15, 2021 brought $333,893…
What You Need to Know on Auction Day This auction will be held live and conducted remotely. There will not be bidding in the room, though we accept order bids,…
With the arrival of baseball’s Opening Day, spring is truly here. Swann does not handle baseball memorabilia in the traditional sense, leaving the encapsulated gem-mint rookie cards and game-worn jerseys to…
Our March 25, 2021 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana brought interest from collectors and institutions alike, as well as buyers both new and familiar from across the globe.…
Any piece of oratory by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a part of the nation’s heritage, but the speech offered in our March 25, 2021 sale of Printed &…
“Surely you are not going to shut the door in my face!” Since the establishment of the Printed & Manuscript African Americana sale in 1996, Swann has offered a selection…
Featuring material relating to Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Phillis Wheatley, Katherine Dunham, Kool Lance, and more.
In a year that was unlike any in our lifetimes, Swann’s specialists and staff proved to be as resilient and innovative as ever, bringing forward new and safe ways to…
Our Thursday, May 7, 2020 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana was held live online and was conducted remotely. “This was a strong auction regardless of the circumstances. The…
Among the highlights will be an 1836 autograph book with inscriptions by noted early African-American orators Moses Roper and Peter Williams. The large section on slavery and abolition will include several runaway broadsides and a miniature printing of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (the only one produced in pamphlet form) intended for soldiers to distribute among the freedmen in the south. Military papers include material written by African-American soldiers, including a Civil War letter and a Spanish-American War diary.
Here we take look at letters, postcards and greeting cards from Romare Bearden to his longtime friend and collaborator Harry Henderson, as well as touch on the 2005 sale of Henderson’s art collection that made the establishment of our African-American Fine Art Department possible.
The value of diaries on the market is largely driven by historical content and the quality of the writing. What could your diary be worth?
On June 8, 1961, a journalist for The Protestant Hour, a long-running and widely syndicated weekly radio program out of Atlanta, sat down with four leaders of the Atlanta Student Movement to discuss their work in nonviolent direct action. Two reel-to-reel tapes were created as a result of the interview.
Bibliophiles of every denomination—Americana, autographs, art books, archives, atlases, ephemera, literature, maps—can find their niche at Swann Galleries. Originally founded in New York as a book auction house, we hold regular specialized sales devoted to books, printed material and manuscripts.
A Record for The Negro Travelers’ Green Book Among Printed & Manuscript African Americana at Swann Our Printed & Manuscript African Americana on Thursday, March 28 saw a sell-through rate of 90%, a record for the category. Enthusiastic bidding was seen across all…
At Auction March 28 Complete Catalogue A highlight is volume one, issue one of the Mirror of Liberty, July 1838–the first African-American periodical–edited by David Ruggles, and believed to be…
Institutional purchases dominated the buying field at our auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana on March 29. The top lots of the auction were almost entirely manuscripts, archives, early…
New findings in our March 29 auction of Printed & Manuscript African-Americana clarify information behind iconic portraits of Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton. Ensconced in a wicker…
On March 29 we will offer Printed & Manuscript African Americana, an array of material that encompasses a wide range of the African-American experience, from letters by Frederick Douglass to his…
From the catalogue for our March 30 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana. The sale will feature a run of 16 lots of letters and ephemera from Mount Vernon…
Among the highlights of our March 2014 auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana is an extraordinary archive of letters written by George Washington Carver between 1925 and 1937. The…
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal” declares the extraordinary document brought forth by our founders on July 4, 1776. But as we…
Among the highlights of our 15th annual auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana is an incredible archive comprising James Amos Porter’s African-American Art History Reference materials. The lot contains…
