July 6, 2020Swann CommunicationsIllustration Art Pen, Pencil & a Bottle of Ink: Al Hirschfeld Seen Through Six Drawings Read more about Pen, Pencil & a Bottle of Ink: Al Hirschfeld Seen Through Six Drawings Swann Director of Illustration Art, Christine von der Linn, joined special guest David Leopold, author of the best-selling The Hirschfeld Century and the Creative Director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation,…
Read more about The Rise of Illustration Art in the Public Eye February 21, 2020 Illustration Art The Rise of Illustration Art in the Public Eye Swann Galleries’ Illustration Art Director Christine von der Linn weighs in on the burgeoning category: Illustration art has the ability to reach people in a way that many genres do…
Read more about Still Reading It for the Cartoons: Changing Production Methods & Public Perception in Illustration November 19, 2019 Illustration Art Still Reading It for the Cartoons: Changing Production Methods & Public Perception in Illustration Cartoonists Emily Flake & Benjamin Schwartz in Conversation We got together on December 5, 2019 to hear from cartoonists Emily Flake and Benjamin Schwartz, both regular contributors to The New…
Read more about Cataloguing History: Why we hold specialized auctions. June 10, 2019 Auctions 101 Cataloguing History: Why we hold specialized auctions. Auctions offer a moment where the sometimes-incalculable significance of an object is quantified. The price is reached through collaboration: specialists, consignors, the market, and finally, bidders convene in the room,…
Read more about Swann Summer Reading List 2018 June 28, 2018 Swann Swann Summer Reading List 2018 Our Summer Reading List is back for 2018! Here’s what some of us are cracking into in the off-season. Nicholas D. Lowry, President & Principal Auctioneer Noah Charney and Ingrid…
Read more about #5WomenArtists: Christine von der Linn’s List March 28, 2018 Books & Manuscripts #5WomenArtists: Christine von der Linn’s List As part of Women’s History Month, we’re offering a week of #5WomenArtists, inspired by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. We asked some women of Swann to tell us…
Read more about Records & Results: Illustration Art December 19, 2017 Illustration Art Records & Results: Illustration Art The grand finale of our 2017 roster was a successful auction of Illustration Art on December 14. Highlights of the sale ranged from large-scale oil paintings to sentimental children’s characters…
Read more about Ingeborg Willy & the Making of Snow White December 7, 2017 Illustration Art Ingeborg Willy & the Making of Snow White A scrapbook, presumably kept by an inker at Walt Disney Studios, reveals much about the production of Snow White. The album is a highlight in our December 14 auction of Illustration…
Read more about Records & Results: Art, Press & Illustrated Books June 14, 2017 Books & Manuscripts Records & Results: Art, Press & Illustrated Books Our June 13 auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books offered a spectrum of books that doubled as objets d’art, with records for important twentieth-century works celebrating art and typography.…
Read more about 75 years of Madeline September 4, 2014 Illustration Art 75 years of Madeline In honor of the 75th anniversary of everyone’s favorite French schoolgirl, our Art Books specialist Christine von der Linn submitted this post. This Saturday, September 6, 2014, marks the 75th…
Read more about The Danish Girl and the Erotic Art of Gerda Wegener August 21, 2014 Art Press & Illustrated Books The Danish Girl and the Erotic Art of Gerda Wegener Many of the biggest names in Hollywood have been rumored to be part of an upcoming film based on the David Ebershoff novel The Danish Girl, which was inspired by the true story…
Read more about Where He Crosses Over: Edward Gorey Posters & Postcards May 5, 2014 Vintage Posters Where He Crosses Over: Edward Gorey Posters & Postcards “I didn’t know GOREY did that poster!” That was the excited reaction of a Swann employee as she spotted the six-foot-high poster of a ballerina’s feet in five positions that…
Read more about Collectors on Collecting: Sam Speigel on Collecting Edward Gorey April 24, 2014 Art Press & Illustrated Books Collectors on Collecting: Sam Speigel on Collecting Edward Gorey On May 7, 2014 Swann will auction The Edward Gorey Collection of Samuel Speigel, and the catalogue for that sale opens with this charming recollection from Speigel himself: Collecting Edward…
Read more about The Glory of Gorey: Swann to Offer the Sam Speigel Collection February 11, 2014 Art Press & Illustrated Books The Glory of Gorey: Swann to Offer the Sam Speigel Collection On May 7, 2014, Swann will auction one of the top private collections of Edward Gorey books, illustrations and ephemera as part of our Art, Press & Illustrated Books sale.…
Read more about Of Provenance & Peter Rabbit January 22, 2014 Illustration Art Of Provenance & Peter Rabbit Christine von der Linn, Swann’s Art & Illustrated Books expert, shares some insight into this week’s 20th Century Illustration auction: One of the challenges of putting together a sale of…
Read more about Judging a Book by Its Cover January 6, 2014 Illustration Art Judging a Book by Its Cover Our January 23, 2014, 20th Century Illustration sale boasts an abundance of original book-cover art, many examples of which became iconic images of the literary works they graced and, in…
May 3, 2013 Art Press & Illustrated Books Christine von der Linn on Irving Oaklander Thursday, May 9th, our sale of Art, Press & Illustrated Books will feature the inventory of the late Irving Oaklander, known to all who sought rare books about graphic design,…
Read more about Penises and Pompadours: The Erotic Art of Franz von Bayros November 3, 2011 19th & 20th Century Literature Penises and Pompadours: The Erotic Art of Franz von Bayros Decadent! Erotic! Phantasmagoric! Fin-de-siècle grotesqueries! Gents and ladies disporting themselves, occasionally with a zealous attention by attending friends from the animal kingdom! The provocative work of Austrian artist Franz von…
Read more about Books Arts or Art Books? Call Them What You Will May 5, 2011 Art Press & Illustrated Books Books Arts or Art Books? Call Them What You Will There is a sign tacked to the cork board of the Art & Illustrated Books Department clipped from a forgotten source years ago that states: “What’s the difference between artist’s…
Read more about The Four Gospels: One of the Most Important Fine Press Books of the Last Century April 4, 2011 Art Press & Illustrated Books The Four Gospels: One of the Most Important Fine Press Books of the Last Century The 1931 Golden Cockerel Press edition of the Four Gospels set the text of the King James Gospels into a masterly example of book design and is considered one of…
Read more about The Otto Penzler Collection of British Espionage and Thriller Fiction March 15, 2010 19th & 20th Century Literature The Otto Penzler Collection of British Espionage and Thriller Fiction Any collector knows that the reasons behind a particular collection are often just as fascinating as the collection itself. Otto Penzler, proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York, and…