2023: Year in Review

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 the April sale of Fine Photographs, the collection of Norman Dolph in the June sale of Contemporary Art, and works from the estate of artist Will Barnet in the September auction of American Art. The house also welcomed two new specialists into the fold: Corey Serrant joined Swann as the associate director of LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History, as well as serving as a specialist for the African American Art department; and Skye Lacerte has stepped into the role of specialist for the Illustration Art department.

Browse below for a look at some of the year’s highlights.

Books & Manuscripts

Autographs

From left to right: George Washington, Autograph Letter Signed as President, 1790. Sold March 2023 for $30,000; Georgia O’Keeffe, archive of 47 items to her travel agent, 1958-68. Sold October 2023 for $112,500; and Albert Einstein, archive of 19 letters signed to aspiring Romanian physicist Melanie Serbu, 1938-48. Sold October 2023 for $112,500.

19th & 20th Century Literature, and Art, Press & Illustrated Books

Literature from left to right: Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, first edition, in the rare dust jacket, entirely unrestored, London, 1925. Sold March 2023 for $30,000; Edgar Allan Poe, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, two volumes, first edition, from a printing of perhaps only 750 copies, Philadelphia, 1840. Sold October 2023 for $20,000.
Gustav Klimt, Das Werk von Gustav Klimt, number 74 of 300 copies, Vienna, 1918. Sold June 2023 for $68,750.

Americana

From left to right: Inscribed carte-de-visite portrait of early photographer James Presley Ball, albumen photograph, circa 1870. Sold March 2023 in Printed & Manuscript African Americana for $125,000; Papers of the Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary, including diaries, correspondence, lecture notes, and more, bulk 1877-1920. Sold September 2023 for $57,500.

Early Printed Books

Shakespeare, King Lear; Othello; and Anthony & Cleopatra, extracted from the First Folio, London, 1623. Sold May 2023 for $185,000.

Maps & Atlases

Vincenzo Coronelli, set of engraved gores for Coronelli’s monumental 42-inch terrestrial globe, circa 1688-97. Sold December 2023 for $21,250.

Illustration Art

John Ford Clymer, U.S. Troops’ Triumphant Return to New York Harbor, promotional illustration, presumably for an annual calendar, for National Life and Accident Insurance Company, circa 1944. Sold December 2023 for $62,500.
Charles Monroe Schulz, The Peanuts Gang, complete set of 13 drawings for sheet metal panels on the Wilbur Avenue Pedestrian Bridge, “Snoopy Bridge,” of Tarzana Elementary School, Los Angeles, CA, 1971. Sold June 2023 for $50,000.

Specialty Sales

Focus on Women

From left to right: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Family Archive of Photographs and Letters. Sold June 2023 for $60,000; Fanny Stevenson, Archive of Photographs and Letters, circa 1866-1904. Sold June 2023 for $25,000.

LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History

From left to right: Keith Haring, Silence = Death, color screenprint, 1989. Sold June 2023 for $81,250; Hugh Steers, In the Paper, oil on canvas, 1989. Sold June 2023 for $68,750.

Fine Art

Prints & Drawings

From left to right: Edward Hopper, East Side Interior, etching, 1922. Sold March 2023 for $75,000; Maurits C. Escher, Coast of Amalfi (Composition), woodcut, 1934. Sold November 2023 for $293,000.

American Art: Featuring Works From the Estate of Will Barnet

Works by Will Barnet from left to right: Double Portrait, charcoal on vellum, circa 1990. Sold for $11,250; Final Study for “Atalanta,”, watercolor, color pencils and pencil on vellum, 1975. Sold for $11,250.

African American Art

Works by Winfred Rembert from left to right: Jeff’s Pool Room, dye on carved and tooled leather, circa 2015. Sold April 2023 for $149,000; Doll’s Head Baseball, dye on carved and tooled leather, circa 2006. Sold April 2023 for $149,000.
Sam Gilliam, Untitled, acrylic and metallic paint on draped polypropylene fabric, 1979. Sold October 2023 for $197,000.

Modern & Post-War Art

From left to right: Jim Dine, 9 Little Flesh Paintings, acrylic with clear acrylic glaze on canvas, 1960. Sold May 2023 for $37,500; Esteban Vicente, Harmony, oil on canvs, 1984. Sold November 2023 for $68,750.

Fine Photographs

Roger Fenton, Valley of the Shadow of Death, salted paper print, 1855. From the collection of Stephen White. Sold April 2023 for $22,500.
From left to right: Helmut Newton, Rue Aubriot (i), Yves St. Laurent, Haute Couture Collection, Paris, silver print, 1975, printed 2000s. Sold April 2023 for $37,500; Julia Margaret Cameron, Maria Spartali, albumen print, 1868. Sold October 2023 for $32,500.

Vintage Posters

From left to right: William Addison Dwiggins, The Architect & the Industrial Arts / 11th Exhibition of Contemporary American Design, 1928. Sold May 2023 for $20,000; Aldo Mazza, Scienza per Tutti, 1909. Sold August 2023 for $16,250; Emil Cardineaux, Palace Hotel / St. Moritz, 1920. Sold November 2023 for $15,000.
Browse the Winter/Spring 2024 Season and Consign with Swann
December 19, 2023
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