Results of Swann's Printed and Manuscript African Americana Sale 2342

The Printed and Manuscript African Americana Sale 2342 was held on March 27, 2014 at Swann Auction Galleries. This was the 19th annual Printed and Manuscript African Americana Sale, and it included the largest number of lots (596) over the past decade, topping last year's auction which previously had the highest number of lots with 561. This demonstrates that there is still a strong and growing market of available African American historical items. Sale 2342 attracted many institutional bidders and saw record results for rare books and other publications. Wyatt Houston Day, Swann's African Americana specialist said, "We were very pleased to see so many of the top lots purchased by institutions, including a number of research-oriented lots. Among record-setting books were a Banneker Almanack, a rebound copy of Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and an inscribed copy of Anna Julia Cooper's A Voice from the South."

Some highlights of Printed and Manuscript African Americana Sale 2342 follow: 
Lot 140:  Banneker's Almanack and Ephemeris for the Year of our Lord, 1793

Banneker's Almanack and Ephemeris for the Year of our Lord, 1793, Image: Swann Auction Galleries

This publication by self-taught astronomer, mathematician, surveyor and author Benjamin Banneker had not appeared in auction in the past 25 years; it contained a portion of a poem by Phillis Wheatley. Banneker helped with the survey of the Federal Territory that was to become the grid of Washington, D.C. Lot 140 exceeded its high estimate of $15,000 and sold for $52,500, including buyer premium.

Lot 98: Cooper, Anna Julia. A Voice from the South by a Woman of the South

Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice from the South by a Woman of the South. Image: Swann Auction Galleries

This was a first edition, presentation copy of a rare book, with a fine association. Loosely laid in was a pencil note in Cooper's hand presenting the book to an officer of the 29th Ohio Volunteers.  In addition, it was inscribed on the title-page. With an estimate of $6,000 - $8,000, the book almost doubled its high estimate when it sold for $15,000 with buyer's premium.

Lot 164: Richard McCrary's I am a Black Woman! Poster depicting Angela Davis

Poster depicting Angela Davis. Image: Swann Auction Galleries

 

This poster depicting Angela Davis with Richard McCrary's I am a Black Woman! poem had an estimate of $600 - $800; it sold with buyer's premium for $7,500.

Lot 339A: Randolph, A. Philip. Collection of material relative to the Pullman Porters

Collection of material relative to the Pullman Porters. Image: Swann Auction Galleries

Lot 339A consisted of a large collection of rare Pullman Porter material, including virtually all the equipment needed by a porter, plus personal identification, etc. It had an estimate of $15,000 - $25,000, and sold for $17,500 with buyer's premium.

Lot 589: Peacock, Eulace. Personal archive of this great African American track and field star

Eulace Peacock's personal archive. Image: Swann Auction Galleries

Eulace Peacock, often referred to as "The Fastest Man of Earth" was an American track and field athlete of the 1930s. Lot 589 consisted of over 100 gold, silver and bronze medals; correspondence, newspaper clippings, programs, and ephemera; a few photos, and other items. Although Lot 589 did not reach its low estimate of $10,000, it sold for $8,750 with buyer's premium.

For complete results of the Printed and Manuscript African Americana Sale 2342, SEE online: Sale 2342. Also, an illustrated catalogue with prices realized (by request) is available for $35.00 from Swann Galleries, Inc., 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010.

Swann Galleries: African-American Fine Art Sale 2338

Swann Auction Galleries' upcoming African-American Sale, Shadows Uplifted: The Rise of African-American Fine Art, focuses on 19th century, Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Harlem Renaissance artists whose work helped to shape the landscape of American art. Shadows Uplifted: The Rise of African-American Fine Art, Sale 2338, will be held on February 13, 2014. It includes 82 lots of paintings, sculptures, drawings, fine prints, and photography by artists who emerged from the shadows of academic and genre painting, and defined a new visual culture during the Harlem Renaissance and WPA eras. These treasures capture many of the earliest, select, and scarce works from this time period.

According to Swann Galleries, "the auction's title is taken from Frances Harper's 1892 book , Iola Leroy or Shadows Uplifted, one of the first novels written by an African-American female author. The struggles faced by African-American visual artists at the turn of the century mirror those of the book's protagonist-- a young woman in antebellum South. 


Some highlights of Shadows Uplifted follow:

Lot 14
Henry  Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937)
Study for Disciples Healing the Sick

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Study for Disciples Healing the Sick. Oil on thin plywood panel, circa 1930, 10½"x 13¾"
Image: Swann Auction Galleries

Study for Disciples Healing the Sick, a wonderfully modern and painterly oil, is an excellent example of Tanner's late studies for his Biblical scenes. As preliminary works, Tanner experimented in palette, medium and composition in these small scale paintings. This Study, Lot 14, was one of the studies made in preparation for the much larger painting, Disciples Healing the Sick, circa 1930, 36"x 48", in the collection of the Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries.

Study for Disciples Healing the Sick has an estimate of $60,000 - $90,000.


Lot 25
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890-1960)
Untitled (Head)

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Untitled (Head). Stained and oiled wood, circa early 1930s, 12½"x 6½"x7"
Image: Swann Auction Galleries

Untitled (Head) is the first work by early modern sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, who studied at Rhode Island School of Design, to come to auction. This enigmatic and imposing untitled carved wood head dates from the early 1930s.

This androgynous head is most similar in its material, and simplified polished features to Prophet's polychrome wood Discontent, circa 1929. Instead of a skull cap, Discontent is cloaked in a cowl but shares the distinctive Roman nose and features of this untitled head. Lot 25 has an estimate of $35,000 - 50,000.

Additional sculpture highlights are Beulah Ecton Woodward's African Head, Lot 58 (estimate $10,000 - $15,000); Augusta Savage's iconic Lift Every Voice and Sing, Lot 59 (estimate of $12,000 - $18,000); Sargent Claude Johnson's The Knot and the Noose, Lot 79 (estimate of $40,000 - $60,000); and William E. Artis' Michael (Head of a Boy), Lot 82 (estimate of $8,000 - $12,000).


Lot 28
James A. Porter (1905-1970)
Self-Portrait

James A. Porter, Self-Portrait.
Oil on linen canvas, circa 1935, 14"x 12" 
Image: Swann Auction Galleries

James A. Porter, artist, art historian, and head of the Howard University Art Department, shows himself here as a young artist at his easel. Porter was widely exhibited in the 1930s at such venues as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Museum of Modern Art, the Baltimore Museum, and the Harmon Foundation (New York). In 1943, Porter's seminal Modern Negro Art was published; it was one of the first comprehensive academic studies of African-American art.

This work, Self-Portrait, is the cover image for Sale 2338, and it is the first portrait in oil on canvas by Porter to come to auction. Its estimate is $12,000 - $18,000.


Lot 55
Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999)
Coal Breakers

Hughie Lee-Smith, Coal Breakers. Oil on canvas, 1938, 30¼" x 25¼" 
Illustrated: King-Hammond, Leslie. Hughie Lee-Smith, plate 5, page 17. Image: Swann Auction Galleries

Lot 55 is a scarce early painting by Hughie Lee-Smith from the late 1930s, and it is one of his earliest paintings to come to auction. Coal Breakers (1938) is Lee-Smith's first known social-realist oil painting, and an important early manifestation of his long interest in depicting figures in desolate landscapes. Coal Breakers is the top lot in Sale 2338 and has an estimate of $80,000 - $120,000.

Printmakers are represented in Sale 2338 by Dox Thrash, Claude Clark, Allan Freelon, Hayward L. Oubre, Albert Alexander Smith, and others, including a collection of approximately 200 linoleum cut blocks (Lot 47) by Allan Rohan Crite.

An illustrated auction catalogue, with information on bidding by mail or fax, is available for $35 from Swann Galleries, Inc., 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010. View online catalogue.

Live online bidding is available. Also, you may make advance arrangements to bid by telephone during the auction, please call Swann's bid department (212-254-4710, ext. 0) during business hours (Monday - Friday, 10 AM - 6 PM). For further information, please contact Nigel Freeman, Director (African-American Fine Art Department) at 212-254-4710, extension 33, or via e-mail at nfreeman@swanngalleries.com.

Swann Galleries African-American Fine Art Auction: Sale 2290

Swann Auction Galleries' African-American Fine Art Sale 2290 is scheduled for October 18, 2012. These biannual sales (February and October) have been growing over the years. Swann's first auction devoted entirely to African-American Fine Art was February 6, 2007, and many of us who have an interest in African American art/artists, either as viewers/observers or bidders, have come to expect a wide selection for our viewing or acquiring pleasure. There is a catalogue that accompanies each of the auctions, and it serves as historical documentation of the works sold, creating historical reference and provenance.

The market for modern and contemporary art continues to grow at a rapid pace; however, the actual number of artists that sell at high prices at auction is fairly small. Because of my interest in the works of African American artists, I am always concerned as to how successful their works fair in the auction setting, particularly as it compares with the larger field of American art. Regardless of selling price, one of the greatest benefits of these auctions has been the slow but progressive inclusion of African American art into auction data. 

According to Nigel Freeman, Director of African-American Fine Art at Swann Galleries, "Last year's sales met or exceeded expectations and that we're starting to see pre-recession numbers." I would tend to agree with Freeman's statements. The October 06, 2011 Sale was the most successful auction over the past three years (February 2009 to October 2011), bringing in $1,789,989 with Buyer's Premium, and selling approximately 75% of the lots.
 

Robert Duncanson, Young America

The following major highlights from Sale 2290 prove that substantial and importance pieces are steadily entering the art market. Robert Duncanson's Young America (1846), an oil on canvas, is a very scarce work from the beginning of his career and is the earliest painting in the Sale; its estimate is $50,000 to $75,000. "This unusual depiction of a heroic young man raising both sword and the American flag was possibly a commission by the subject's parents before the boy was sent off to fight in the Mexican-American War."

Eldzier Cortor, Classical Composition No. 4

Sale 2290 will offer two Eldzier Cortor paintings from important periods for the figurative artist. This is the first time that any works by Cortor have been featured in Swann's African-American Fine Art Auction. One of those works, Classical Composition, No. 4 (circa 1973), is a large impressive oil on canvas. It is the top lot and has an estimate of $200,000 to $250,000. Cortor is best known for elegant, elongated depictions of women that show the influences of his study of African sculpture, 19th Century French Painting, and his travels to the Sea Islands and the West Indies.
                 
                                         

Charles White, Songs  of Life

Charles White's Songs of Life (1953-54) is a tour de force in pen and ink. White used this drawing in his application for the John Hay Whitney Fellowship and it has not been exhibited since. White was one of the 27 African American recipients of a John Hay Whitney fellowship in 1955. His project under a Whitney Opportunity Fellowship was "to depict in a series of graphic prints, drawings, and paintings, the cultural meaning behind the spirituals, secular works, and blues song of the Negro people." Songs of Life is a recently discovered large and important drawing which has an auction estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. 

  

Norman Lewis, Magenta Haze

Three paintings from Norman Lewis' Abstract Expressionist period will be up for auction, including Magenta Haze (1947), one of his earliest abstract paintings to come to auction. This oil on canvas has an estimate of $60,000 to $90,000.

Elizabeth Catlett, The Co-Founder Award

Elizabeth Catlett's The Co-Founder Award, cast bronze (circa 1995) has an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000.

This post has featured only a few artists and select works in Swann's African-American Fine Art Sale scheduled for October 18, 2012. In addition to the fine  art artists and their works represented here, Sale 2290 will include works by Henry Ossawa Tanner, Hughie Lee Smith, Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff, William Edouard Scott, Thelma Johnson Streat, and others.

See the Online African-American Fine Art catalogue.

Swann Galleries Auction

The African-American Fine Art auction (Sale 2169) was held at Swann Galleries on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 1:30 PM. Although smaller than last year's sale which consisted of 264 lots, this sale had 169 lots of many museum-quality works from a number of private collections, representing all of the major 20th-century artistic movements. The smaller number of pieces in the auction might be indicative of the downturn in the economy. One can readily assume, with a fair degree of accuracy, that many of the items that were presented at auction are in private hands and owners are fearful that they might not be able to get the maximum price for their items in an auction at this time. As I speak of money and value, I am ever mindful that there are dangers when one assumes that the price of a piece of art determines the quality of that art; history has shown that "price equals quality" is a poor barometer. However, such can not be mistaken when it comes to African American art that is woefully undervalued in the overall landscape of American art. Comparable African American artists of the same school of art, representing the same time period sell for considerably less than their counterparts. This makes them a favorable group to collect because their works have a greater potential to increase exponentially in value.

In spite of the fact that African American art is one of those current undervalued commodities with potential to realize a substantial future increase in value, the number of items sold and the price at which they sold in this auction is an indication that times are tight even for those with disposal income. There were only twenty lots that had a low estimate of at least $25,000; they included works by Hale Woodruff, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Charles White, Hughie Lee-Smith, Beauford Delaney, Charles Alston, Eldzier Cortor, Norman Lewis, Sargent Johnson, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and Howardena Pindell. A quick analysis of those twenty lots follow:

• Of the twenty lots, eleven (lots 12, 16, 23, 29, 30, 36, 38, 73, 82, 112, and 136) of those were unsold, including Charles White's "Hope Imprisoned," tempera on paper, which was estimated for $150,000 to 200,000. (See image at top left, Lot 30.)
• Six lots (1, 35, 41, 42, 46, and 55) sold for less than their low estimates, including Charles White's "Move on up a Little Higher," which had an estimate of $200,00 - 250,000. Its hammer price was $190,000. (See image at bottom left, Lot 55.)
• Lot 2, Henry O. Tanner's "Adoration of the Golden Calf" was the only item that sold for its high estimate ($60,000).
• Two lots (45 and 93) sold above their high estimates. Lot 45 was Hughie Lee-Smith's "Untitled" (rooftop view) which sold for $85,000; its high estimate was $75,000. Lot 93 was Hale Woodruff's "Cinque Exhorts his Captives" which sold for $130,000; its high estimate was $100,000.

According to Nigel Freeman, Director, African-American Fine Art at Swann Galleries, "...We were thrilled to sell our cover lot, Move on up a Little Higher, a majestic drawing by Charles White to an important museum. We also set a new record price for a Hale Woodruff painting, Cinque Exhorts His Captives, 1973, which sold for $156,000; this was the fourth consecutive auction record for the artist (Woodruff) set at Swann in the past four years."

In ending this piece, I want to clarify the term sold. The "hammer price" refers to the winning bid and reflects the highest bid on the item; then the "buyer's premium," which reflects an agreed upon percentage of the "hammer price" are combined to get the realized amount paid by the successful bidder. In my examples, I have quoted the hammer prices. To view all the lots, follow this link to the archived catalogue:
http://swanngalleries.rfcsystems.com/asp/search.asp?st=U
To view the sale results (realized price paid) follow this link: http://swanngalleries.rfcsystems.com/asp/realtimeresultsmenu.asp


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