Aviation, New York City Scenes Capture Attention in May 18 Photographs Auction

DALLAS, Texas (April 19, 2017) - Two excellent portfolios/collections are highlighted in the Heritage Auctions Photographs Auction May 18 in New York City, including The Airplane as Art portfolio and a collection of photos from 20th-century photographer Berenice Abbott.

One of the most ambitious photography portfolio projects of the last 100 years, Bob Seidemann’s The Airplane as Art portfolio (est. $150,000-200,000), includes autographs from 75 of the photo subjects. The 302 photos depict numerous aviation pioneers - pilots, inventors, military heroes, etc. - and many have been signed in ink on the photo by the subjects. Other sets of these images can be found at the Getty Museum and The Boeing Company. Two sets have sold previously at auction in 2000 and 2007 for over $200,000 each. The autographed portraits are one (No.8) of an edition of 10 and the rest of the unsigned portrait and airplane views are one (also No. 8) of an edition of 20.  

“This auction is very special, since we will be offering the largest group of photographs from Berenice Abbott to come on the market since the Museum of the City of New York deaccessioned its duplicates in 2002. These ‘vintage’ prints are fresh to the market and come directly from a friend of Abbott’s,” said Nigel Russell, Heritage Auctions Director of Photography. “There are also smaller groups of photographs by photographers whose works have rarely, if ever, appeared at auction, such as Joseph Dankowski, Ira Cohen and Gordon N. Converse.”

The largest group of photographs from Berenice Abbott to come on the market since the Museum of the City of New York deaccessioned its duplicates in 2002 also is offered in this auction, including New York Stock Exchange II, 1934 (est. $3,000-5,000), Canyon: Broadway and Exchange Place, July 16, 1936 (est. $4,000-6,000) and Pennsylvania Station Interior, July 14, 1936 (est. $4,000-6,000). The prints come directly from a friend of Abbott’s and most are “vintage” prints. None was printed after the early 1970s and these will be sold without reserve.

There are smaller groups of photographs by photographers whose work has either never or very rarely has appeared. This includes Joseph Dankowski, the first photographer to receive a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts in photography; Ira Cohen who was a poet, publisher and photographer involved with the Beat-Era and the Psychedelic 60s and Gordon N. Converse, who was the chief photographer for the Christian Science Monitor for 40 years and traveled to more than 120 countries.

Other works included but not limited to:

A very rare vintage Edward Weston print Bananas, 1930, est. $50,000-60,000 - one of only three prints known

A 20th-century classic: W. Eugene Smith’s Walk to Paradise Garden, 1946, est. $25,000-35,000

Alfred Eisenstaedt’s Children at a Puppet Theatre, Paris, 1963, est. $25,000-35,000

Steve McCurry’s Afghan Girl, Pakistan, 1985, est. $12,000-18,000

Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Chicago, Palm Beach, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.

The Internet’s most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has over one million registered bidder-members, and searchable free archives of four million past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos.