2022: Year in Review

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 auction to be held, not only at Swann, but in the United States; the top-grossing season in the house’s history for the spring of 2022; a selection private collections were offered, including the complete collection of bibliophile Ken Rapoport and special collections of Edward Hopper and MC Escher; and a farewell to Christine von der Linn, who paved the way for Swann’s Illustration Art department among other exciting moments.

Here we look back at our record-filled sales.

Visual Art at Swann
African American Art, Contemporary Art, Modern & Post-War, Photography, and Prints & Drawings

From left to right: Norman Lewis, Untitled (Abstraction in Orange), oil on canvas, 1967. Sold October 6, 2022, for $437,000; Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California (Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age 32), silver print, 1936. From the Collection of Romana Javitz. Sold October 20, 2022, for $305,000; Alma Thomas, Reflections, oil on canvas, 1960. Sold December 1, 2022, for $557,000.
Winfred Rembert, Winfred Rembert and Class of 1959, dye on carved and tooled leather, 1999. Sold October 6, 2022, for $233,000.
From left to right: M.C. Escher, Relativity, lithograph, 1953. Sold November 3, 2022, for $81,250; Whanki Kim, Untitled, oil on canvas, circa 1970. Sold November 17, 2022, for $60,000.

Fine Photographs: Celebrating 70 Years of Photographs at Swann

February marked the 70th anniversary of dedicated fine art photography auctions in the United States. The first auction was held at Swann on Valentine’s Day 1952.

Left: Lisette Model, Woman at Coney Island, New York from the portfolio Twelve Photographs, silver prints, 1937-46, printed 1977. Sold February 10, 2022 for $32,500.

Books & Manuscripts

Fine Books & Autographs

Autographs sold October 27, 2022. From left to right: Frederick Douglass, Autograph Letter Signed, 1882. Sold for $18,750; George Washington, Autograph Document Signed, with two manuscript plat maps in holograph, 1751. Sold for $37,500; Sigmund Freud, Autograph Letter Signed, to American psychoanalyst Thaddeus Hoyt Ames, in English, asserting that Freud did not provide moral advice to his own patient despite what the media claim, 1921. Sold for $32,500.
From left to right: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. Edited by Currer Bell, three volumes, first edition, 1847. Sold June 16, 2022, for $23,750; Gertrude Stein, Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia, Firenze, 1912. Sold October 27, 2022, for $9,375.

Early Printed Books

This year the Early Printed Books sales featured the complete collection of noted bibliophile Ken Rapoport bringing the collection to auction in two parts in both May and October.

Left: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, London, 1542. Sold October 13, 2022, for $106,250.

Maps & Atlases

Henry Popple, A Map of the British Empire in America, with the French and Spanish Settlements Adjacent Thereto, London, 1733. Sold December 8, 2022, for $60,000.

Printed & Manuscript Americana

Gideon Welles, Extensive archive of personal and family papers of Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy, 1791-1914. Sold September 29, 2022, for $281,000.

Focus On Women

Louisa May Alcott, Autograph Letter Signed, written in response to a fan letter praising Little Women, post-1868. Sold June 2, 2022, for $23,750.

Illustration Art

The December 15, 2022, sale of Illustration Art marked nearly 10 years of dedicated sales to the genre, and served as a farewell to department director, Christine von der Linn, who pioneered the category at Swann.

Illustrations sold December 15, 2022. From left to right: Ludwig Bemelmans, “Miss Clavel again quite well. . .” from Madeline’s Christmas, ink, watercolor and collage, 1956. Sold for $37,500; Charles Addams, Rock Climbers, cartoon for The New Yorker, watercolor, ink and gouache, 1954. Sold for $37,500.

LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History

Tom of Finland, Portrait of Eric, graphite, together with two Autograph Letters Signed, 1985. Sold August 18, 2022, for $52,500.

Vintage Posters

Paul George Lawler, Fly to South Sea Isles / Via Pan American, circa 1938. Sold November 10, 2022, for $40,000.

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January 3, 2023
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Category: 19th & 20th Century Literature
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