2019 Spring Season in Review A season of firsts. The 2019 spring auction season at Swann Galleries delivered an impressive range of sales, rife with auction premiers and record prices. We started our season off in January with an auction of Fine Illustrated Books & Graphics, which set a record for Sonia Delaunay’s Ses Peintures, Ses Objects, Ses Tissues Simultanés, Ses Modes, at $13,750. Our March sale of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings offered Property from the Ismar Litmann Family Collection of German Expressionism and European Avant-Garde. Later that month our popular African Americana sale boasted the record price for any copy of a Green Book, at $27,500, while our African-American Fine Art sale in April brought 12 record prices for key market players. Vernacular photography was the clear favorite in our February and April photographs & photobooks auctions with eighteenth- and twentieth-century images of India and South America commanding top prices. To follow that up, in May our Old Master Through Modern Art sale brought our first dedicated selection of Latin American Art, which established a record for any print by Diego Rivera, and our 19th & 20th Century Literature saw appearances by rare James Bond titles. Finally, we held our first ever Pride Sale in June, which delivered the top price for a photograph by Peter Hujar, at $106,250. Here’s a look at some of our favorite highlights from the season, and a few records: American Art Attilio Salemme, Rivalry, oil on canvas, 1945. Sold June 13 for $21,250, a record for the artist. Victor Pierson, group of 10 Mexican cowboy and horse riding scenes, watercolors, circa 1870. Sold June 13 for $7,500, a record for the artist. African-American Fine Art Emma Amos, Let Me off Uptown, oil & photo transfer on canvas with metallic paint, glitter, collage and African fabric boarders, 1999-2000. Sold on April 4 for $125,000, a record for the artist. Kermit Oliver, Dusk, acrylic on board, 1972. Sold on April 4 for $112,000, a record for the artist. Sonya Clark, Albers #1, cotton thread & combs, 2013. Sold on April 4 for $9,100, an auction debut for the artist. Autographs Joseph Brant, Mohawk Chief, ALS, writing with news after pledging support to King George III against the American rebels, 1776. Sold on March 21 for $35,000, a record for a letter from Brant. Author’s copy of Doubloons by Charles B. Driscoll, containing over 500 drawings, signatures and sentiments in margins and elsewhere by authors, illustrators and other admirers of pirate mythology, 1930s-40s. Sold for $4,750. Books Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books Illuminated Prayer Book in Latin and French on vellum, with 35 miniatures, France, 1530s-40s. Sold on March 7 for $42,500. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, El Ingenioso Hildalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha … Nueva Edición, first Ibarra edition, Madrid, 1780. Sold on March 7 for $11,875. Fine Illustrated Books & Graphics Sonia Delaunay, Ses Peintures, Ses Objets, Ses Tissues Simultanés, Ses Modes, 20 pochoir plates, Paris, 1925. Sold on January 29 for $13,750, a record for the work. 19th & 20th Century Literature A selection of Ian Fleming first editions offered on May 14.The Man with the Golden Gun, first edition, first state with the golden gun on the front cover, London, 1965. Sold for $11,050.Thunderball, first edition, first issue, with dust jacket, presentation copy inscribed by Fleming to friend, C.D. Jackson, who was posthumously revealed to be a CIA agent, London, 1961. Sold for $16,250.Goldfinger, first edition, inscribed to Sir Henry Cotton, MBE, London, 1959. Sold for $25,000.Casino Royale, first edition, first impression, in unrestored first state dust jacket, London, 1953. Sold for $18,750. Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera, first American edition, first printing, in original dust jacket, New York, 1911. Sold on May 14 for $12,500. Contemporary Art Franz Kline, Untitled, aquatint & etching, 1957-60. Sold on May 16 for $27,500, a record for any print by the artist. Illustration Art Al Hirschfeld, Paul Robeson as Othello, illustration for the 1943 revival, published in The New York Times, August 9, 1942. Sold on June 4 for $68,750. Miriam Troop, Rain on Laundry Day, oil on canvas, cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, published June 15, 1940. Sold on June 4 for $40,000, an auction debut for the artist. Maps & Atlases Lewis Evans, A General Map of the Middle British Colonies, proof copy, annotated, signed & dated by Evans, Philadelphia, 1755. Sold on June 6 for $125,000. Photographs & Photobooks Album with 105 photographs of street scenes in Bombay, Delhi and Agra, albumen prints, 1870s. Sold on February 21 for $30,000, a record for the album. Album with 118 photographs, 16 attributed to Martín Chambi, depicting different regions of South America, silver prints, 1920s. Sold on April 18 for $58,750, a record for images by Chambi. Dorothea Lange, Korean Child, silver print, 1958, printed 1960s. Sold on April 18 for $20,000, a record for the image. Printed & Manuscript African Americana Victor H. Green, The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, 1958. Sold on March 28 for $27,500, a record for any edition of the Green Book. Printed & Manuscript Americana Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, upon Plates taken from the Plates of Nephi, third European edition, Liverpool, 1852. Sold on April 16 for $41,600, a record for any European Book of Mormon. William Farrar Smith, manuscript diary of an expedition to blaze a trail from San Antonio to El Paso, February to May 1849. Sold on April 16 for $47,500. Prints & Drawings Property from the Ismar Littmann Family Collection of German Expressionism and European Avant-Garde. Max Pechstein, Sommer I, woodcut with hand watercolor, 1912. From the Ismar Littmann Family Collection. Sold on March 5 for $81,250, a record for the work. Latin American Art Diego Rivera, Zapata, lithograph, 1932. Sold on May 2 for $45,000, a record for any print by Rivera. Vintage Posters Joséphine Baker / Freterskan Fran Tropikerna / La Sirène des Tropiques, 1927. Sold on February 7 for $9,750. Charles Loupot, Wanneroil / Huile du bon Chauffeur, 1926. Sold on May 23 for $22,500. The Pride Sale Peter Hujar, David Wohnarowicz: Manhattan-Night (III), silver print, 1985. Sold on June 20 for $106,250, a record for the artist. Harvey Milk, autograph letter signed, as acting Mayor of San Francisco, March 7, 1978. Sold on June 20 for $11,250, a record for an autograph by Milk. Fall Auction Schedule. How to Consign. Share Facebook Twitter July 1, 2019Author: Kelsie JankowskiCategory: Swann Tags: 19th and 20th century literature African-American Fine Art Al Hirschfeld American Art Attilio Salemme autographs Book of Mormon books Charles B. Driscoll Charles Loupot contemporary art David Wojnarowicz Diego Rivera Don Quixote Dorothea Lange Early Printed Books Emma Amos Fine Illustrated Books & Graphics Franz Kline Gaston Leroux Green Book Harvey Milk Ian Fleming Illuminated Manuscripts illustration art Ismar Littmann James Bond Joseph Brant Josephine Baker Kermit Oliver Latin American Art Lewis Evans Maps & Atlases Martin Chambi Max Pechstein Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Miriam Troop Peter Hujar Photographs & Photobooks Printed & Manuscript Americana Printed and Manuscript African Americana Prints & Drawings Property from the Ismar Littmann Family Collection Sonia Delaunay Sonya Clark The Phantom of the Opera The Pride Sale Vernacular Photography Victor H. 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