The spring auction season for photography got off to a solid start earlier this week at Swann, with its Valentine’s Day sale of photograph and photobooks generally meeting expectations. Nearly all of the top lots found buyers, and the sale performed better than usual for the auction house in terms of overall Buy-In rate (just above 25%) and percentage of lots selling in or above the pre-sale estimate range (above 89%). In the end, the aggregate Total Sale Proceeds fell comfortably in the middle of the pre-sale range.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
| Summary Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Lots | 322 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | $1384300 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | $2049300 |
| Total Lots Sold | 238 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 84 |
| Buy In % | 26.09% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | $1582852 |
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 281 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | 204 |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | 77 |
| Low Buy In % | 27.70% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | $1277300 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | $883102 |
| Mid Total Lots | 41 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | 34 |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | 7 |
| Mid Buy In % | 17.07% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | 772000 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | 699750 |
| Total High Lots | 0 |
| Total High Lots Sold | NA |
| Total High Lots Bought In | NA |
| High Buy In % | NA |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | $0 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | $0 |
The top lot by High estimate is lot 13, Eadweard Muybridge, Selection of 50 plates from Animal Locomotion, 1887, estimated at $30000-45000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $62500 (image in preview post).
89.13% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 16 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate). These can be divided into several groups including vernacular imagery (lot 268 San Francisco Earthquake, lot 274 General Motors Employees, lot 282 New York – Grocery Shopping, and lot 283 Civil Rights – Alabama) and 19th and early 20th century works by unknown makers (lot 254 American Tintypes and lot 255 Ambrotypes). The positive surprises in fine photographs and photobooks were as follows (images above via Swann):
Lot 4, (Henry Clay), Half-plate daguerreotype, 1850, estimated at $1200-1800, sold at $4000
Lot 6, (Edgar Allan Poe), Sixth-plate tintype, 1849-late 1850s, estimated at $10000-15000, sold at $37500
Lot 49, Ralph Steiner, Ten Photographs from the Twenties and Thirties & One From the Seventies, 1920s-1930s and 1970s/1977, estimated at $3000-4500, sold at $10000
Lot 54, Bill Brandt, Rainswept Roofs, 1933/1970s, estimated at $4000-6000, sold at $16250
Lot 56, Lewis Hine, Empire State Building, 1930/1950s, estimated at $12000-18000, sold at $37500 (image in preview post)
Lot 64, Laura Gilpin, The Storm Over La Bajada, 1946/early 1960s, estimated at $4000-6000, sold at $12500
Lot 77, Horst P. Horst, Portrait of a handsome man (Fred), c1940s, estimated at $1400-1800, sold at $8125
Lot 79, George Platt Lynes, Chuck Howard, 1949, estimated at $2000-3000, sold at $8450
Lot 80, George Platt Lynes, Male nude, 1949-1950, estimated at $1800-2200, sold at $6000
Lot 114, Robert Doisneau, Be Bop en Cave, Vieux Colombier, 1951/1980s, estimated at $1500-2500, sold at $5000
The complete lot by lot results can be found here.
