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• Issue #143
• Article

Swann Galleries will hold its auction of Photographic Literature (10:30 am) and Photographs (2:30 pm) on May 15th.

The morning session features rare photo books from the Library of David Raymond. Among the Surrealist titles are Hans Bellmer's Les Jeux de la Poupée, Paris, 1949 ($75,000-100,000); Claude Cahun's Aveux non Avenus, Paris, 1930 ($6,000-7,000); and George Hugnet's La Septième Face du Dé, Poèmes-Découpages, signed and inscribed twice by Hugnet, Paris, 1936 ($10,000-15,000).

This literature auction offers two issues of Camera Work magazine that showcase the work of Paul Strand: Number 48, New York, 1916 ($12,000-18,000); and Number 49/50, the rare final issue, in a 7 ($15,000 to $25,000). These publications were formerly in the collection of Milton Brown, an art historian and friend of Strand's.

Also exceedingly rare are two signed and inscribed volumes by Robert Frank, including a first French edition of Frank's Les Américains, Paris, 1958 with an original photograph ($15,000-20,000) and Lines of My Hand with a Polaroid, Tokyo, 1972 ($4,000-6,000).

A rich selection of Japanese first editions includes Hiroshi Sugimoto's Theaters with a signed photogravure titled U.A. Walker, New York, 1978 ($2,500-3,500); Ken Domon and Shomei Tomatsu's Hiroshima-Nagasaki, Document 1961 ($5,000-7,500); Ikko Narahara's Where Time Has Stopped, Tokyo, 1967 ($1,500-2,500); and Eikoh Hosoe's Kamaitachi, Tokyo, 1969 ($3,500-4,500).

The Photographs session, which starts at 2:30 pm, includes many avant-garde photographs by Maurice Tabard, which were gifted by Tabard to a private European collector. Among these are Film Solarisée, No. 4, 1936 ($80,000-120,000); Magraitis¬ Negative Solarisation [Homme a la guitare], circa 1928 ($30,000-40,000); and Montage Femme, 1929 ($10,000-15,000).

Nineteenth-century highlights include Lewis Carroll's albumen photograph of Annie and Henry Rogers, 1861 ($25,000-35,000); Eugene Piot's 1852 salt print of the Parthenon, Acropolis ($3,500-5,000); and Francis Frith's 1858 albumen mammoth plate print of Mount Serbal from the Wadee Feyran ($7,000-10,000).

For stereo and history buffs there is a rare 1869 Savage and Ottinger albumen stereo of Promontory Summit and the Laying of the Last Rail ($3,500-4,500), plus a stereo daguerreotype of a nude woman in lingerie reading a book ($4,000-6,000).

Twentieth-century highlights include Ansel Adams' the Grand Tetons and the Snake River, silver print, 1942, printed 1970s ($20,000-30,000); Imogen Cunningham's exquisite botanical study, Tower of Jewels, silver print, 1925, printed 1930s, from the Collection of Alexandra R. Marshall ($60,000-90,000); 1939 Helen Levitt's vintage silver print of a Boy with Mask ($10,000-15,000); Harry Callahan's 1972 Cape Cod ($7,000-9,000); Clarence H. White's 1919 platinum Nude Study ($5,000-7,500); André Kertész's 1926 vintage silver print of Gypsy Boys Peering from a Window at the Back of a Wagon ($6,000-9,000); and a Harold Edgerton archive of 26 vintage silver prints, circa 1937 ($20,000-30,000).

For further information, please contact Daile Kaplan, V.P., Director of Photographs, email: dkaplan@swanngalleries.com ; phone: 1-212-254-4710, ext. 21; fax: 1-212-979-1017.

To purchase the catalogue for this and other fine Swann Galleries auctions, click here: http://www.swanngalleries.com/scripts/order_cat.cgi?type=schedule . Catalogues may also be purchased at the galleries.

Visit http://www.swanngalleries.com/photo_graphs.cgi for a complete schedule and the online catalogue, which will be available shortly.