April 1, 2021Rick StattlerAfrican American Art Play Ball!: The Unlikely Tradition of Baseball Ephemera at Swann Read more about Play Ball!: The Unlikely Tradition of Baseball Ephemera at Swann With the arrival of baseball’s Opening Day, spring is truly here. Swann does not handle baseball memorabilia in the traditional sense, leaving the encapsulated gem-mint rookie cards and game-worn jerseys to…
Read more about Spring 2021 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana Brings $1M March 29, 2021 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Spring 2021 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana Brings $1M Our March 25, 2021 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana brought interest from collectors and institutions alike, as well as buyers both new and familiar from across the globe.…
Read more about Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Speaking to the SCLC Board in 1968 March 19, 2021 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Speaking to the SCLC Board in 1968 Any piece of oratory by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a part of the nation’s heritage, but the speech offered in our March 25, 2021 sale of Printed &…
Read more about Early Black-Owned Business Ephemera March 19, 2021 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Early Black-Owned Business Ephemera “Surely you are not going to shut the door in my face!” Since the establishment of the Printed & Manuscript African Americana sale in 1996, Swann has offered a selection…
Read more about Printed & Manuscript African Americana: March 2021 Auction Highlights March 1, 2021 Books & Manuscripts Printed & Manuscript African Americana: March 2021 Auction Highlights Featuring material relating to Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Phillis Wheatley, Katherine Dunham, Kool Lance, and more.
Read more about 2020: Year in Review December 23, 2020 19th & 20th Century Literature 2020: Year in Review 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…
Read more about Swann Ushers in a New Era of Live Online Sales with Printed & Manuscript African Americana May 20, 2020 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Swann Ushers in a New Era of Live Online Sales with Printed & Manuscript African Americana Our Thursday, May 7, 2020 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana was held live online and was conducted remotely. “This was a strong auction regardless of the circumstances. The…
Read more about Printed & Manuscript African Americana: Rescheduled for May 2020 April 16, 2020 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Printed & Manuscript African Americana: Rescheduled for May 2020 Among the highlights will be an 1836 autograph book with inscriptions by noted early African-American orators Moses Roper and Peter Williams. The large section on slavery and abolition will include several runaway broadsides and a miniature printing of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (the only one produced in pamphlet form) intended for soldiers to distribute among the freedmen in the south. Military papers include material written by African-American soldiers, including a Civil War letter and a Spanish-American War diary.
Read more about Romare Bearden’s Letters to Art Historian Harry B. Henderson, Jr. March 26, 2020 African American Art Romare Bearden’s Letters to Art Historian Harry B. Henderson, Jr. Here we take look at letters, postcards and greeting cards from Romare Bearden to his longtime friend and collaborator Harry Henderson, as well as touch on the 2005 sale of Henderson’s art collection that made the establishment of our African-American Fine Art Department possible.
Read more about Old Diaries Tell the Stories of Overlooked Americans March 23, 2020 Books & Manuscripts Old Diaries Tell the Stories of Overlooked Americans The value of diaries on the market is largely driven by historical content and the quality of the writing. What could your diary be worth?
Read more about Listen to Tapes of a 1961 Interview with Leaders of the Atlanta Student Movement March 20, 2020 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Listen to Tapes of a 1961 Interview with Leaders of the Atlanta Student Movement On June 8, 1961, a journalist for The Protestant Hour, a long-running and widely syndicated weekly radio program out of Atlanta, sat down with four leaders of the Atlanta Student Movement to discuss their work in nonviolent direct action. Two reel-to-reel tapes were created as a result of the interview.
Read more about The History of Books & Manuscripts at Swann Galleries October 7, 2019 Auctions 101 The History of Books & Manuscripts at Swann Galleries 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.
Read more about Records & Results: Printed & Manuscript African Americana April 2, 2019 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Records & Results: Printed & Manuscript African Americana A Record for The Negro Travelers’ Green Book Among Printed & Manuscript African Americana at Swann Our Printed & Manuscript African Americana on Thursday, March 28 saw a sell-through rate of 90%, a record for the category. Enthusiastic bidding was seen across all…
Read more about Upcoming Highlights: Printed & Manuscript African Americana February 23, 2019 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Upcoming Highlights: Printed & Manuscript African Americana At Auction March 28 Complete Catalogue A highlight is volume one, issue one of the Mirror of Liberty, July 1838–the first African-American periodical–edited by David Ruggles, and believed to be…
Read more about Records & Results: Printed & Manuscript African Americana April 2, 2018 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Records & Results: Printed & Manuscript African Americana Institutional purchases dominated the buying field at our auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana on March 29. The top lots of the auction were almost entirely manuscripts, archives, early…
Read more about Huey Newton’s Portraits & The Founding of the Black Panthers March 23, 2018 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Huey Newton’s Portraits & The Founding of the Black Panthers New findings in our March 29 auction of Printed & Manuscript African-Americana clarify information behind iconic portraits of Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton. Ensconced in a wicker…
Read more about A Look Inside the Catalogue: Printed & Manuscript African Americana January 16, 2018 Printed & Manuscript African Americana A Look Inside the Catalogue: Printed & Manuscript African Americana On March 29 we will offer Printed & Manuscript African Americana, an array of material that encompasses a wide range of the African-American experience, from letters by Frederick Douglass to his…
Read more about John Augustine Washington III & Mount Vernon March 27, 2017 Printed & Manuscript African Americana John Augustine Washington III & Mount Vernon From the catalogue for our March 30 sale of Printed & Manuscript African Americana. The sale will feature a run of 16 lots of letters and ephemera from Mount Vernon…
Read more about Significant George Washington Carver Archive Coming to Auction March 25, 2014 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Significant George Washington Carver Archive Coming to Auction Among the highlights of our March 2014 auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana is an extraordinary archive of letters written by George Washington Carver between 1925 and 1937. The…
March 13, 2013 Printed & Manuscript African Americana Notes from the Catalogue: The Emancipation Proclamation “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal” declares the extraordinary document brought forth by our founders on July 4, 1776. But as we…
Read more about James Amos Porter Archive Comes to Auction January 29, 2010 Printed & Manuscript African Americana James Amos Porter Archive Comes to Auction Among the highlights of our 15th annual auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana is an incredible archive comprising James Amos Porter’s African-American Art History Reference materials. The lot contains…