It was a solid outing for Swann at its Fine Photographs sale last week in New York. With an overall Buy-In rate under 23%, a pair of top lot Ansel Adams prints that found buyers within or above their estimate ranges, and more than twenty positive surprises, the Total Sale Proceeds (of roughly $1.04M) fell squarely in the middle of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
| Summary Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Lots | 329 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | $905200 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | $1349300 |
| Total Lots Sold | 255 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 74 |
| Buy In % | 22.49% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | $1036988 |
Here is the breakdown (using our typical Low, Mid, and High price range definitions):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 314 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | 239 |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | 75 |
| Low Buy In % | 23.89% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | $1057300 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | $753778 |
| Mid Total Lots | 15 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | 11 |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | 4 |
| Mid Buy In % | 26.67% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | $292000 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | $283210 |
| Total High Lots | 0 |
| Total High Lots Sold | NA |
| Total High Lots Bought In | NA |
| High Buy In % | NA |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | $0 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | $0 |
The top lot by High estimate was tied between two lots, each estimated at $30000-45000: lot 32, Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941/1963-70, and lot 33, Ansel Adams, Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California, 1944/1978; the “Moonrise” print was the top outcome of the sale at $58420 (image above, via Swann), while the “Winter Sunrise” print found a buyer at $43180.
75.69% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 23 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate). 4 of those surprises (lots 62, 122, 148, and 280) came in the vernacular category, leaving 19 surprises from fine art photographers (images above via Swann):
Lot 16, (Henri Toulouse-Lautrec), A double portrait of the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painting himself, c1892/1920s, estimated at $1500-2500, sold at $5588
Lot 26, Carleton Watkins, Mirror Lake, Yosemite, CA, c1865/printed 1880s by Isaiah West Taber, estimated at $2500-3500, sold at $7620
Lot 30, Edward Weston, Juniper, Lake Tenaya, 1937, estimated at $10000-15000, sold at $33020
Lot 81, Cecil Beaton, Miss Nancy Beaton as Ophelia, 1930, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $3048
Lot 97, Moneta J. Sleet, Portrait of Billie Holiday, 1956/1980s, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $5588
Lot 119, Garry Winogrand, Dealey Plaza, Dallas (site of John F. Kennedy’s assassination), 1964/1970s, estimated at $1500-2500, sold at $6350
Lot 171, Edmund Teske, Jane Lawrence, c1950s/1961, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $3302
Lot 222, Willy Georg, In the Warsaw Ghetto (7 prints), 1941, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $3556
Lot 224, Brassaï, Picasso’s studio, rue des Grands-Augustins, with his dog, Kazbek, 1944/1970s, estimated at $2500-3500, sold at $11430
Lot 236, Josef Sudek, Walkway through park, Prague, c1940s-50s/c1970, estimated at $3000-4500, sold at $9525
Lot 240, Bruce Davidson, White Horse from Welsh Miners, 1965/1966, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $4826
Lot 244, Rosalind Fox Solomon, Catalin Valentin’s Lamb, Ancash, Peru, from the series Here or There, 1981/2002, estimated at $2000-3000, sold at $6864
Lot 245, Graciela Iturbide, Angelito Mexicano (Mexican Cherub), Chalma, 1984, estimated at $1500-2500, sold at $10795
Lot 246, Graciela Iturbide, Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, 1985/1990s, estimated at $1500-2500, sold at $6604
Lot 247, Graciela Iturbide, Los Pollos, Juchitan, Mexico, 1970/1990s, estimated at $1500-2500, sold at $6858
Lot 269, Herb Greene, Dark Star (Jerry Garcia), 1979/2006, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $6350
Lot 270, Peter Hujar, Keith, N.Y., 1981, estimated at $10000-15000, sold at $48260
Lot 282, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Mizza Bricard at Dior, Paris, c1950/c1975, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $4488
Lot 308, Susan Derges, The Observer and the Observed #16, 1991, estimated at $2000-3000, sold at $7128
The complete lot by lot results can be found here.
