Auction: Photographs, April 16, 2010 @Phillips

Phillips' various owner Photographs sale continues the trend of increased consignments this season, with an additional $1.5 million in estimated value over last year's equivalent sale. Another installment of Mapplethorpe portraits of Lisa Lyon can be found in the first session, and a large group of Willy Ronis later prints and an additional selection of Japanese images from the Jacobsen/Hashimoto collection bookend the second. Penn's Cuzco Children makes its its third appearance (all three houses have one this season). All in, there are a total of 349 lots on offer with a total High estimate of $4488100. (Catalog cover at right, via Phillips.)

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 242
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $1447100

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 93
Total Mid Estimate: $1911000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 14
Total High Estimate: $1130000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 216, Edward Steichen, Wheelbarrow with Flower Pots, France, 1920, at $150000-200000.

The following is the list of photographers represented by more than three lots in this sale:

Willy Ronis (25)
Robert Mapplethorpe (14)
Nobuyoshi Araki (9)
Andre Kertesz (9)
Helmut Newton (9)
Vik Muniz (7)
Shikanosuke Yagaki (7)
Peter Beard (6)
Harry Callahan (6)
David LaChapelle (6)
Sebastiao Salgado (6)
Sally Mann (6)
Walker Evans (5)
Irving Penn (5)
Herb Ritts (5)
Diane Arbus (4)
William Eggleston (4)
Ernst Haas (4)
Horst P. Horst (4)
Yoshiyuke Iwase (4)
Helen Levitt (4)
Man Ray (4)
Albert Watson (4)
Edward Weston (4)
Joel-Peter Witkin (4)
Fred Zinnemann (4)

A few of the lots we liked for our own collection include:

• Lot 41, Andy Warhol, Parking Lot Sign, c1976-1986 (image at right, via Phillips)
• Lot 120, Vera Lutter, 156 Columbus Avenue, New York City, June 21, 1997
• Lot 215, Andre Kertesz, Paris, 1934
• Lot 229, Edward Weston, Elbow, 1935

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographs
April 16th

Phillips De Pury & Company
450 West 15th Street
New York, NY 10011