Title: 100 FINE PHOTOGRAPHS
Date: February 19, 2009
Time: 1:30 PM
Exhibition: Sat., February 14, 10-4
Mon., February 16, 10-6
Tues., February 17, 10-8
Wed., February 18, 10-6
Thurs., February 19, 10-noon
Contact Person: Daile Kaplan
dkaplan@swanngalleries.com

Daile Kaplan, Swann Galleries Vice President and Director, Photographs, said, “This sale featured a range of diverse materials, several of which set auction records in this transitional economic climate. Rare 19th-century photographically illustrated albums by Bedford and scarce American prints by Jackson and Curtis performed strongly, as did icons of classical photography, such as Mike Disfarmer, Dave Heath and Minor White.”

Highlights included Francis Bedford's suite of 3 albums, Photographic Pictures Made By Mr. Francis Bedford During the Tour in the East, London, 1862, which sold for a record $132,000 (top); Claude-Joseph Désiré Charnay's album, Cités et ruines Américaines, Mitla, Palenque, Izmal, Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, 1862, which sold for $60,000 (second illustration); Dave Heath's silver print, Vengeful Sister, Chicago, 1956, which sold for a record $19,200 (third illustration); William Henry Jackson's mammoth albumen print, Grand Canon of the Colorado, circa 1883, which sold for $16,800 (fourth illustration); and Minor White's silver print, Moon & Wall Encrustations, Pultneyville, New York, 1964, which sold for $15,600 (bottom).