Auction Results: Important Photobooks & Photographs, May 19, 2011 @Swann

The results of Swann's recent combination sale of photographic books and photographs were generally consistent with previous incarnations of this type of sale at the auction house. In both sections of the sale, the buy-in rate was over 35% and the Total Sale Proceeds fell below the estimate range.
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The summary statistics across the two portions of the sale are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total of Both

Total Lots: 391
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1169650
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1704150
Total Lots Sold: 243
Total Lots Bought In: 148
Buy In %: 37.85%
Total Sale Proceeds: $964281

Important Photobooks Only

Total Lots: 128
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $208050
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $312050
Total Lots Sold: 80
Total Lots Bought In: 48
Buy In %: 37.50%
Total Sale Proceeds: $160772

Photographs Only

Total Lots: 263
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $961600
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1392100
Total Lots Sold: 163
Total Lots Bought In: 100
Buy In %: 38.02%
Total Sale Proceeds: $803509

Here is the breakdown, separated into two sections (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Important Photobooks Only

Low Total Lots: 122
Low Sold: 76
Low Bought In: 46
Buy In %: 37.70%
Total Low Estimate: $208050
Total Low Sold: $99812

Mid Total Lots: 5
Mid Sold: 4
Mid Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 20.00%
Total Mid Estimate: $104000
Total Mid Sold: $60960

High Total Lots: 1
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 100.00%
Total High Estimate: "Refer to Department"
Total High Sold: $0

The top lot by High estimate in the book section was lot 99, 21ST Editions, Collection, 1998-2010, at "Refer to Department"; it did not sell. The top book outcome was lot 13, Alfred Stieglitz, 291, Numbers 1-12, 1915-1916, at $31200. (Image at right, middle, via Swann.)

Only 62.50% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range in this portion of the sale. There were two surprises in this section (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 76, Eugene Smith, Minamata: Life - Sacred and Profane, 1973, at $960
Lot 119, Richard Avedon, An Autobiography, 1993, at $3840

Photographs Only

Low Total Lots: 242
Low Sold: 151
Low Bought In: 91
Buy In %: 37.60%
Total Low Estimate: $1003100
Total Low Sold: $576709

Mid Total Lots: 21
Mid Sold: 12
Mid Bought In: 9
Buy In %: 42.86%
Total Mid Estimate: $389000
Total Mid Sold: $226800

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: NA
High Bought In: NA
Buy In %: NA
Total High Estimate: $0
Total High Sold: NA

The top lot by High estimate in the photographs section was tied between two lots: lot 161, Ansel Adams, Clearing Storm, Mount Williamson, From Manzanar, Sierra Nevada, California, 1944/1970s, and lot 212, Walker Evans, 5 photographs from the portfolio Walker Evans, 1935-36/1971, both at $20000-30000; the Adams did not sell and the Evans sold for $21600.The top outcome of this section of the sale was lot 289, Andre Kertesz, A Hungarian Memory portfolio, 1914-1923/1980, at $48000.

66.26% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 11 surprises in this section (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 131, Japanese Imperial Family, Stacked wooden box with photographs, 1912, at $2400
Lot 142, Frederick Gutekunst, Group of 50 photographs, 1878, at $15600
Lot 153, Edward Curtis, An Oasis in the Badlands, 1905, at $9600
Lot 216, Press Photography, 350 topical news photographs, 1930-1940s, at $3600
Lot 220, Roman Vishniac, Studying Cabala in a Basement in Kazimierz, the Old Ghetto of Cracow, 1936/1970s, at $6240 (image at right, middle, via Swann)
Lot 250, David Vestal, Group of 3 photographs, 1959-1960, at $6000
Lot 278, Julius Shulman, Case Study House #22, Pierre Koenig, Los Angeles, 1950/1980s, at $6240 (image at right, top, via Swann)
Lot 289, Andre Kertesz, A Hungarian Memory portfolio, 1914-1923/1980, at $48000
Lot 298, Hollywood, Group of 68 photographs, 1930s, at $19200
Lot 307, Garry Winogrand, Untitled from Women are Beautiful, 1968/1981, at $10800
Lot 372, Marry Ellen Mark, Untitled (prostitute of Bombay), 1978, at $5040

Complete lot by lot results for both sections can be found here.

Swann Galleries
104 East 25th Street
New York, NY 10010

Julius Shulman Dies

Famed architectural photographer Julius Shulman died earlier this week at the age of 98. Shulman is best known for his images of modernist architecture in California. (Kauffman House, 1947, at right, via Yancey Richardson Gallery.)

The moniker "architectural photographer" seems to me to have a slightly negative connotation, as though taking pictures of buildings is somehow easier or less important than taking pictures of people or landscapes or other subjects. I think Shulman was really a nuanced portrait photographer; his portraits were simply of built structures rather than people. And while some might consider many of his works to be celebrations of the architects who conceived and engineered the buildings, I think this misses the artistry and craftsmanship Shulman brought to his photographs. While not every image of a building he took is a stunner (and many of the subjects he was tasked with challenged conventions of beauty in architecture), Shulman always found a way to make an original view of the structure, rather than a simple, straight up documentary shot. Most often, he gave the viewer a feeling for how the building "felt" - whether from the outside (via its relationship to its site) or the inside (via its interior spaces).

Collector's POV: Julius Shulman is represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York (here). His works have regularly found their way into the secondary markets, nearly always selling for affordable prices, most between $1500 and $3000.

Transit Hub:

• Obituaries: LA Times (here), NY Times (here)
• Modernity and Metropolis @Getty, 2006 (here)