Auction Today! Contemporary Art begins at 12:00 pm eastern.

News

Vintage Posters

Records & Results: Graphic Design

Our May 25 auction of Graphic Design offered a cornucopia of inspired works spanning fin de siècle Art Nouveau maste…

Maps & Atlases

Leaving the Land: Ship’s Logs from England to the Mediterranean in the Nineteenth Century

In January of 1819, Captain William Hodgson steered the three-masted merchant ship Transit down the River Avon from …

A Personal Collection of Bernhardt Wall Books

Bernhardt Wall was an American illustrator active in the first half of the twentieth century. A selection of fine, e…

Maps & Atlases

The Endless Mountains: A Map That Promised More

Specialist Caleb Kiffer of our Maps & Atlases department on one of his favorite pieces in our June 7 auction of …

Vintage Posters

Graphic Design in the Vienna Secession

This post includes notes from the catalogue of our May 25 auction of Graphic Design, featuring an extensive selectio…

Books & Manuscripts

Records & Results: 19th & 20th Century Literature

First editions and inscribed copies filled the shelves at our May 16 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature. …

Vintage Posters

Psychedelic Concert Posters

This post was written by Sarah Shelburne of the Vintage Posters department using examples from the May 25 auction of…

Books & Manuscripts

George & Robert Cruikshank, Early Caricaturists

Brothers George and Isaac (who often went by his middle name of Robert) Cruikshank were famed early nineteenth-centu…

Contemporary Art

East Hampton Artists

The community of East Hampton has long been known as an avant-garde artist enclave. Our May 11 auction of Contempora…

Autographs

Records & Results: Autographs

On Thursday, May 4, we held an auction of Autographs, with twentieth-century highlights by authors taking the spotli…

Contemporary Art

Postwar Innovations in Printmaking

These examples come from our May 11 auction of Contemporary Art. From the initial proliferation of engraving in the …

News

Records & Results: Old Master Through Modern Prints

On Tuesday, May 2, we offered Old Master Through Modern Prints, with highlights from as long ago as 1495 and as rece…

Autographs

Thomas Hart Benton Links Pollock and Rubens

In 1926, Thomas Hart Benton was a teacher at the Art Students League of New York. Disappointed by the lack of a pain…

Contemporary Art

Notes from the Catalogue: Robert Motherwell’s Early Surrealist Period

Notes from the catalogue of our May 11 auction of Contemporary Art.   Though Motherwell is known for his integr…

Autographs

Dearest Marlene: Letters & Photos from the Collection of Marlene Dietrich

Swann is honored to commemorate the legacy of Marlene Dietrich by offering for the first time select items that have…

News

Masters of Early Engraving

Our May 2 auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints offers a rare opportunity to see works by some of the earliest…

Records & Results: Printed & Manuscript Americana

On Thursday, April 27, our tenth consecutive auction of Printed & Manuscript Americana exceeded $700,000. Much o…

Books & Manuscripts

What is a Cosway-Style Binding?

It’s hard not to judge a book by its cover when it is encased in a fine Cosway-style binding. Two of these sum…

The Cherokee Messenger

The complete set of The Cherokee Messenger, Oklahoma’s earliest periodical, will be coming to auction in our P…

Photographs & Photobooks

Records & Results: Images & Objects: Photographs & Photobooks

On Thursday, April 20, our sale ofImages & Objects: Photographs & Photobooks set multiple records for early …

Photographs & Photobooks

William Bradford & The Arctic Regions

The following are notes from the catalogue for our April 20 sale of Images & Objects: Photographs & Photoboo…

Photographs & Photobooks

Modern Daguerreotypes & More

While we live in a digital age, faced with a tsunami of photographs on all manner of devices, many modern artists ha…

Photographs & Photobooks

Danny Lyon & New Photojournalism

The Photographs & Photobooks department contributed to this post on Danny Lyon’s eponymous portfolio in ou…

African American Art

Los Angeles Assemblage Artists

From the catalogue of our April 6 sale of African-American Fine Art.     Assemblage emerged as a dynamic n…

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 …

News

Was Walter Sickert Really Jack the Ripper?

Though the official identity of Jack the Ripper has never been determined, there are those who believe Walter Sicker…

Photographs & Photobooks

Edgar Allan Poe: Birthday & A Lost Photograph

Today, on what would be Edgar Allan Poe’s 207th birthday, we take a look at an exceedingly rare and unusual lo…

Vintage Posters

Alphonse Mucha: Behind the Magic

Even those unfamiliar with Alphonse Mucha’s name will recognize the tendrils of hair and profusion of del…

Maps & Atlases

On A Previously Unknown First State of de Wit’s Map of the Netherlands

This post was written by Maps & Atlases Specialist Caleb Kiffer in advance of our December 8, 2016 auction of Ma…

Art Press & Illustrated Books

A Bright Light at a Dark Time: The WPA Handicraft Project

One unusual piece in our December 2016 auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books was a six-volume folio of texti…

Art Press & Illustrated Books

Le Corbusier’s Color Theory Sample Book

Before the holidays drive you up a wall, let an unusual piece in our December 1, 2016 sale of Art, Press & Illus…

Printed & Manuscript Americana

Civil War Correspondence Between Sweethearts: “Scattered, Knew Not Where To Go”

Coming to auction November 17, 2016: Printed & Manuscript Americana Charles L. Taylor married his sweetheart Har…

19th & 20th Century Literature

Signed First Edition of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet

This is the first time a signed first edition of The Prophet has appeared at auction. Interestingly, Gibran, th…

Photographs & Photobooks

Ed Ruscha: “I Want To Be The Henry Ford of Bookmaking”

Edward Ruscha is a pioneer of the American photobook. Between 1962 and 1978 he produced no fewer than sixteen artist…

Early Printed Books

An Eighteenth Century Pye Recipe

When recipe books come to Swann, the only thing to do is test them out. In our upcoming October 18 sale of Early Pri…

Illustration Art

Aubrey Beardsley & Le Morte d’Arthur

On September 29, 2016, five rare pen-and-ink illustrations for Aubrey Beardsley’s first published work, Sir Th…

Maps & Atlases

Politics & Satire: The Etchings of James Gillray

With the presidential primary election in full swing, we’re all up to our eyeballs in satirical columns and ca…

Lot 32: Isaak de Graaf, a fine manuscript map of the Java Sea, ink and watercolor on vellum, Amsterdam, 1743.
Maps & Atlases

A Rare Manuscript Map from the Dutch East India Company: Java

With an almost two hundred year history, the Dutch East India Company (known in Dutch as Vereenigde Oost-Indische Co…

Grimm’s Fairytales Signed by Anne Frank Comes to Auction

Through her poignant writing and tragic story, Anne Frank has become a source of inspiration for millions. Two of ou…

Photographs & Photobooks

The First Auction of Photographs in the United States

February 14, 1952   Much has changed over the course of our 75-year history here at Swann Galleries, from new depart…