Sotheby’s kicks off the London auction season for photography on the 19th with its various owner Photographs sale. The London auctions seem to be falling into a familiar pattern these days – a start with fashion/celebrity/nudes, followed by a mixed bag interlude of middle range vintage and newer work, eventually finding its way to Peter Beard and Nick Brandt at the end. That all three major houses would follow such a formula must say something about who they think is buying in the London sales and what kind of work they are looking for. Irving Penn leads the way here, with the support of Peter Lindbergh, Robert Mapplethorpe, and others. Overall, there are a total of 134 lots available in the sale, with a Total High Estimate of £2469000.
Here’s the statistical breakdown:
| Preview Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000) | 14 |
| Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of low lots) | £68000 |
| Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000) | 101 |
| Total Mid Estimate | £1186000 |
| Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000) | 19 |
| Total High Estimate | £1215000 |
The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 78, Irving Penn, Mouth (for L’Oreal), New York, 1986/1992, estimated at £180000-230000 (image above, via Sotheby’s).
Here’s the complete list of photographers with four or more lots in the sale, along with the number of lots on offer:
| Multiple Lots For Sale | |
|---|---|
| Helmut Newton | 7 |
| Nobuyoshi Araki | 6 |
| Irving Penn | 6 |
| Peter Beard | 5 |
| Horst P. Horst | 5 |
| Robert Mapplethorpe | 5 |
| Nick Brandt | 4 |
| William Eggleston | 4 |
| Sally Mann | 4 |
| Sebastião Salgado | 4 |
| Hiroshi Sugimoto | 4 |
Other lots of interest include (images above, via Sotheby’s):
Lot 8, Daido Moriyama, Tights No. 10, 1987/2012, estimated at £6000-8000
Lot 22, Peter Lindbergh, Mathilde, Paris, 1989, estimated at £100000-150000
Lot 76, Robert Mapplethorpe, Calla Lily, 1988, estimated at £30000-50000
Lot 84, Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled (I-26), 2011, estimated at £5000-7000
The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.
