Beautifully Bookish Prints At Auction
Coming up this week at Swann Galleries of New York, a large auction of prints, drawings, and lives d'artiste. A major selection of prints and illustrated books of Jean-Emile Laboureur will start the 786-lot sale, followed by all the names you would expect in an auction of prints and drawings: Chagall, Picasso, Manet, Whistler, Pissarro, Renoir, Lautrec, Tissot, Grant Wood, and more. John Steuart Curry's infamous lithograph of John Brown is one to note, not so much for its price (est. $4,000-6,000) as for its beauty. And with so much attention on Edvard Munch these days, surely his Selbstbildnis mit Weinflasche, or, Self-portrait with Wine Glass, 1930 (est. $40,000-60,000) will command a high bid.
But a peruse through the catalogue reveals a handful of lovely literary-minded images worth sharing as well. The first of these is perfect for FB&C readers -- its title is Book Auction.
Mabel Dwight's Book Auction. Lithograph, 1931. Signed and dated in pencil. Its estimate is $1,000-1,500.
On the same theme, this one is called Connoisseurs of Prints by John Sloan, depicting an exhibition of prints to be auctioned at Manhattan's old American Art Gallery. Etching, 1905. Signed, titled and inscribed in pencil. Its estimate is $2,000-3,000.
Also from John Sloan, this etching it titled Reading in the Subway, from 1926. Signed, titled and inscribed. Its estimate is $1,500-2,500.
Another female reader (more serious perhaps) can be seen here in Peter Ilsted's color mezzotint, Woman Reading, from 1925. Signed and numbered in pencil. Its estimate is $2,000-3,000.
Yet another reader turns up in Thomas Hart Benton's Old Man Reading, a lithograph published by Associated American Artists in 1939. Signed in pencil. Its estimate is $2,000-3,000.
But a peruse through the catalogue reveals a handful of lovely literary-minded images worth sharing as well. The first of these is perfect for FB&C readers -- its title is Book Auction.
Mabel Dwight's Book Auction. Lithograph, 1931. Signed and dated in pencil. Its estimate is $1,000-1,500.On the same theme, this one is called Connoisseurs of Prints by John Sloan, depicting an exhibition of prints to be auctioned at Manhattan's old American Art Gallery. Etching, 1905. Signed, titled and inscribed in pencil. Its estimate is $2,000-3,000.Also from John Sloan, this etching it titled Reading in the Subway, from 1926. Signed, titled and inscribed. Its estimate is $1,500-2,500.Another female reader (more serious perhaps) can be seen here in Peter Ilsted's color mezzotint, Woman Reading, from 1925. Signed and numbered in pencil. Its estimate is $2,000-3,000. Yet another reader turns up in Thomas Hart Benton's Old Man Reading, a lithograph published by Associated American Artists in 1939. Signed in pencil. Its estimate is $2,000-3,000.
