E-Photo
Issue #210  12/21/2014
 
Swann Auction Brings in $1,447,240, with 34% Buy-In Rate
Nick Brandt's Lion Before the Storm I sold for $35,000.
Nick Brandt's Lion Before the Storm I sold for $35,000.

Swann Galleries' sale on October 17 totaled $1,447,240, with a 34% buy-in rate. Roy DeCarava's self-titled portfolio with 12 photogravures, 1950–79, printed 1991, was the top lot at $57,200.

The rest of the top lots in order were:
• Marc Ferrez album of Rio de Janeiro, $37,500.
• Nick Brandt, Lion Before the Storm I, archival pigment print, 2006, $35,000
• Susan Meiselas, group of four silver prints from the Carnival Strippers series, 1973–75, $23,750 (an artist's record)
• Ruth Bernhard, Balancing, silver print, 1971, printed 1970s, $23,750
• Lalla Essaydi, Converging Territories #10, oversized chromogenic print, 2003, $22,500 (an auction record)
• Alexander Gardner, group of 40 plates from Sketchbook of the Civil War, albumen prints, 1862–65, printed 1866, $21,250
• Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, silver print, 1941, printed 1972, $21,250
• BAM Photography Portfolio I, with 11 photographs by artists including Richard Avedon and Cindy Sherman, 1993-2000, printed 2000, $21,250
• Ruth Bernhard, With Turban No. 1, silver print, 1971, $21,250
• Leni Riefenstahl, presentation portfolio with 10 photographs relating to Olympic gold medalist Marjorie Gestring at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, $20,000
• Hiroshi Sugimoto, Time Exposed, portfolio with 50 plates, 1991, $20,000 (an auction record)
• Horst P. Horst, Still Life — N.Y., platinum palladium print, 1937, printed 1980s, $20,000

Daile Kaplan, Vice President and Director of Photographs & Photobooks, said, "The extraordinary breadth of photographs in our sale saw a broad range of collectors in turn, whose discerning buying resulted in records for five artist's works."

The fall sales totaled $19,843,428, a bit under $2 million more than fall of 2013, though the spring 2014 sales were about $9 million behind the spring 2013 sales, which had more and lots better material.

Coming up: Sotheby's December sale of "175 Masterworks to Celebrate 175 Years of Photography". That auction set some records--and how! More next issue.