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RICH ARRAY OF WORKS FROM THE DAWN OF PHOTOGRAPHY TO THE PRESENT
IN SWANN GALLERIES' AUCTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS & PHOTOGRAPHIC LITERATURE ON OCTOBER 22

NEW YORK-Swann Galleries' October 22 auction of Photographs & Photographic Literature features impressive works ranging from the earliest days of photography through images by modern masters, and including many items of interest to collectors of historic Americana.
The sale opens with a selection of rare salted paper prints by William Henry Fox Talbot, whose exploration of the negative/positive process became the foundation for modern photography. There are an elegant Untitled study of lace, circa 1845, reproducing a unique photogenic drawing (estimate: $6,000 to $9,000); The Woodcutters, circa 1845, depicting two men at work near a woodshed ($5,000 to $7,500); a portrait of Talbot's daughter ($3,000 to $4,500); and a group of five images represented in his book, Sun Pictures in Scotland, 1844 ($18,000 to $22,000).

Other early highlights include a group of 125 plates from Eadweard Muybridge's seminal Animal Locomotion series, 1887 ($35,000 to $45,000); and an Untitled silver print by Man Ray, circa 1922, after his original rayograph of objects on a mesh screen ($18,000 to $22,000).
Examples of historic Americana in the sale include Civil War photographs; western landscapes; and a suite of 29 cabinet cards of Native Americans published by the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories with images by Alexander Gardner, C.M. Bell, W.H. Jackson, Vannerson, and others, albumen prints, circa 1870s ($25,000 to $35,000).
Swann is at the forefront of the Edward S. Curtis market, and this auction offers a luminous orotone of The Vanishing Race, 1904, in an original Curtis frame ($8,000 to $12,000); as well as his portrait of A Son of the Desert, large-format photogravure on vellum, 1904 ($8,000 to $10,000).

Swann also specializes in works by Lewis Hine, who is represented by vivid silver prints including Fresh Air for the Baby, N.Y., East Side, 1910 ($6,000 to $9,000); African-American Orphan, Washington, D.C. , 1906, printed 1920s ($9,000 to $12,000); and a variant of the well-known Powerhouse Mechanic, circa 1926 ($8,000 to $12,000).

Another aspect of the American social landscape is captured in photos related to crime, including a rare album with albumen prints of numerous crooks, California, 1885-1892 ($3,000 to $4,500); an album titled Mysteries of Life, containing Los Angeles Police Department photographs, 1917-42 ($2,000 to $3,000); and mug shots of notorious criminals such as Al "Scarface" Capone, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, and John Dillinger.
The auction also offers exquisite scenes of nature, notably Ansel Adams's sublime landscape Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, 1944, printed 1978 ($30,000 to $40,000), and his student Harry Callahan's Chicago, a graphic filigree of bare trees against a pale sky and snow-covered ground, 1950, printed early 1970s ($15,000 to $25,000).

There are two groups of gold-chloride-toned photomicrographs by Wilson A. Bentley, circa 1903-10, one of snow crystals and the other of windowpane frost ($5,000 to $7,500 per group). Minor White approached the same subject in his Frosted Window, Rochester, New York [Beginnings] , silver print, 1962 ($8,000 to $12,000), from the collection of his student Jack P. Franks that are in the sale.
Finally, there are photographs of fashion and cult icons, including a poignant mural-sized chromogenic print of Marilyn Monroe by Bert Stern from "The Last Sitting," 1962, printed 1990 ($18,000 to $22,000); David Bailey's glamorous Jean Shrimpton, 1963-64 ($8,000 to $12,000), Richard Avedon's nude portrait of Rudolf Nureyev, Paris, France, 1961, printed 1999 ($30,000 to $40,000); and six of Diane Arbus's down-to-earth portraits of artists Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Lee Bontecou, Claes Oldenburg, and Agnes Martin taken for a story on "The American Art Scene" in Harper's Bazaar, 1966 ($20,000 to $30,000 each).

The auction will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 22.

The photographs will be on public exhibition at Swann Galleries on Saturday, October 17, from
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Monday, October 19 through Wednesday, October 21, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Thursday, October 22, from 10 a.m. to noon.

Illustrated catalogues are available for $35 from Swann Galleries, 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, and may be viewed online at Consulter le lien