How do you assess your rare book collection and know if it’s right for sale at auction? At Swann Galleries, we receive many inquiries from folks wondering what to do…
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…
Devon Eastland, specialist for our Focus on Women auction, touches on the special nature of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and the differences between Brontë’s female characters and those in Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield.
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…
Devon Eastland shares her picks for the October 12, 2023, sale of Early Printed books. Gothic Novels If you’ve read through our offerings for the October 12, 2023, sale, you…
One of the best-known modern Romanian historians, Nicolae Iorga, has the distinction of being one of the few scholars of his day or before to document the lives of educated…
One of the best-known modern Romanian historians, Nicolae Iorga, has the distinction of being one of the few scholars of his day or before to document the lives of educated…
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…
Cartwright, Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with Other Poems (1651): Books owned by Mary Kemeys Sarah Lindenbaum is an independent scholar currently working on a book about the life and library of 17th-century female…
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.
Nineteeth Century America When thinking of autographs, the first thing to come to mind is famous signatures—John Hancock, Babe Ruth, Walt Disney, etc. Inscribed names with looping letters and distinct…
Middle Ages Through the Seventeenth Century When thinking of autographs, the first thing to come to mind is famous signatures—John Hancock, Babe Ruth, Walt Disney, etc. Inscribed names with looping…
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 October 13, 2022 sale of Early Printed Books at Swann Galleries was the highest-gorssing auction of books in the auction house’s history at $1.1 million.
Swann Autographs specialist Marco Tomaschett shares the ins and outs of starting your own rare autograph collection If you’re new to autograph collecting, bearing in mind a few things while…
In our 80 years as a company, Swann has always been an auction house dedicated to niche markets with specialists who are experts in their respective fields, but often our…
In this year’s Focus on Women sale, we are pleased to offer several interesting epistolary novels written by women.
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.
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
An astonishing single owner sale of Contemporary Artists’ Books, many known only via institutional copies, includes an abundance of deluxe issues produced in impossibly small limitations often out of the…
Trolling ne plus ultra Gatsby in the Original Jacket Even those with but a passing familiarity with the rare book trade will likely be aware of the fabulous sums obtained…
When I was an undergraduate, I only knew George Parker Winship’s name because of the series of lectures delivered in his honor at the Houghton Library. The topic of one…
Including autographs by Kurt Cobain, Pancho Villa, Mark Twain, as well as pristine first editions featuring Virginia Woolf and others; fine art books featuring Robert Indiana and Gustav Klimt.
Ahead of Swann’s first auction dedicated to the accomplishments of women on July 15, senior specialist and curator of the sale, Devon Eastland, sat down with author, historian and collector…
As collectors and institutions turn their focus to the important contributions of women, Swann is pleased to feature their work at auction. We are seeking consignments that highlight the stories of all those in the community who identify as women in the fields of activism, art and design, community, education, entertainment, health and wellness, science and innovation, sport, and work. The auction will feature first editions, handwritten manuscript material, archives, and works on paper by historically significant poets, novelists, scientists, journalists, photographers, playwrights, performers and beyond.
Bibliographers, cataloguers, and scholars rely upon the veracity of a book’s imprint—that is, the publication information provided by the printer on the title page, and includes the following: city of…
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…
Any experienced cataloger, scholar, collector, or reader of early printing is accustomed to discovering an array of random objects within the pages of books. Even though some of these tidbits may have fallen out of ancient beards, today we celebrate and study them and put them into categories. Devon Eastland, senior specialist for early printed books, provides a handy glossary for these curious items found within various books.
As a bibliophile expands their collection, they gain a feel for auction house and bookseller’s catalogues, which often include terminology that may seem arcane. However, every character in a complex catalogue entry is used to describe the object being sold. For early printed books, some of the most essential things a specialist must note are the size of the book, its collation, and its condition. In order to understand how a book is described, some knowledge of bookbinding fundamentals is helpful. Here, Devon Eastland, our senior specialist for early printed books, dives into how a book is sewn.
With the 2020 auction season on the horizon, we sat down with the newest addition to our books and manuscripts department, Devon Eastland, senior specialist for early printed books, to discuss all things books and material culture.
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.
First editions of all of Jane Austen’s major novels, over 20 inscribed first editions by Graham Greene, autographmaterial from Walt Whitman, Napoleon and Princess Diana.
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.
