Wendy Halsted Beard from the Halsted Gallery (website here) came by our house for a visit last week, and as always, we had a terrific time looking at lots of great prints in one sitting. If you aren't familiar with the Halsteds, Wendy's father, Tom Halsted, started the gallery back in the late 1960s and they've been at it ever since, although Wendy is now leading the effort for the most part. They're based in the Detroit metro area (Blooomfield Hills), but seem to be out and about constantly, seeing clients and doing photography/art fairs.
Over the years, the Halsteds have developed close personal relationships with a variety of great American photographers and have helped to build some tremendous collections. For us, the fact that the Halsteds are so close to the estate and family members of Imogen Cunningham (one of our favorite photographers) means they have the more vintage Cunningham inventory than any other dealer/gallery on the planet, by at least an order of magnitude (and believe me, we have scoured the earth for Cunningham prints, so we can say this with some authority). Beyond having the prints we're interested in, the Halsteds are low-key, nice folks, in a Midwestern kind of way, and have always been extremely fair with their pricing (not true of many other galleries/dealers out there); in general, they are the kind of people we enjoy doing business with.
It is virtually impossible for Wendy to bring her inventory by and not have us come away with something, and this visit was no exception. We'll have our newest Cunningham up on our collection website as soon as it comes back from the frame shop. In the meantime, I highly recommend that collectors out there take the time to connect with Wendy and see what she has in her traveling boxes.
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