October 26, 2020Books & Manuscripts
Fine Books & Manuscripts: November 2020 Highlights
Featuring Major Works by Jane Austen & Charles Dickens, Autographs & Manuscript Items from John Hancock, Igor Stravinsky & more
Browsing Tag
19th and 20th century literature
The 2010s brought Swann a number of notable moments including memorable sales, the establishment of two new departments, and the celebration of the 75th anniversary of our first sale. Here we take a look at some of favorite highlights from the last ten years.
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…
The 2017-18 auction season at Swann Galleries was replete with record prices and rediscovered paintings, offering works created as early as the fifteenth century and as recently as last year.…
Science fiction ruled on May 15 at our auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature. Selections from the Estate of Stanley Simon, featuring 84 rare and first editions of cornerstones…
Stanley Simon of New York City was a passionate life-long collector of sci-fi, thriller and fantasy first editions. His paramount collection of almost 100 first editions, nearly all of them signed,…
At Auction May 15 Cornerstones of science fiction from the Estate of Stanley Simon form the backbone of our May 15 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature; of special…
A very formal letter by Charles Dickens to Lord Robert Grosvenor was a highlight of our March 22 auction of Autographs. The letter, dated July 9, 1838, was…
According to our Literature specialist John D. Larson, there are five first editions of Fahrenheit 451 of interest to collectors. As with all important modern first editions, a set of criteria…
In our diamond anniversary year, we offered a star-studded roster of 30 auctions, setting nearly 100 records and introducing countless items to the market, including a previously unknown photograph of Harriet…
Our auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature on November 14 offered a veritable library of scarce first editions and inscriptions by authors from the last two centuries. More than…
Children’s literature is a perennially popular genre. We were all children once, and the antics of Willy Wonka and imagination of Max shaped our early lives in a way that…
The spring 2017 season at Swann Galleries marked the 75th anniversary of our first auction. On March 27, 1942, Benjamin Swann held an auction dedicated to rare and antiquarian books.…
First editions and inscribed copies filled the shelves at our May 16 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature. The sale broke several auction records and encompassed a variety of genres,…
Brothers George and Isaac (who often went by his middle name of Robert) Cruikshank were famed early nineteenth-century caricaturists. Their work appears in two of our sales this season, 19th…
Swann is honored to commemorate the legacy of Marlene Dietrich by offering for the first time select items that have touched her life and that of her family. Our May…
It’s hard not to judge a book by its cover when it is encased in a fine Cosway-style binding. Two of these sumptuous decorative tomes will be coming to auction…
One of the highlights in our November 10 sale of 19th & 20th Century Literature is a scarce first edition of The Prophet, signed by its author, Kahlil Gibran, in…
Through her poignant writing and tragic story, Anne Frank has become a source of inspiration for millions. Two of our upcoming auctions feature items related to Frank, including Anne and Margot’s…
Topping our June 19, 2014 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature was a first American edition of Herman Melville’s seminal Moby-Dick, which brought $40,000 against a pre-sale estimate of $18,000…
To celebrate the life and literary oeuvre of James Joyce on the international holiday that is Bloomsday, we are looking back on some of the many editions of James Joyce’s…
Thanks to John D. Larson, Swann’s 19th & 20th Century Literature Specialist, for contributing this post: It’s a fine thing (call it geographic serendipity) to share a similar address with someone who…
Decadent! Erotic! Phantasmagoric! Fin-de-siècle grotesqueries! Gents and ladies disporting themselves, occasionally with a zealous attention by attending friends from the animal kingdom! The provocative work of Austrian artist Franz von…
