Swann Galleries announces October 4 Auction of Fine Photographs & Photobooks

Art Daily Newsletter

Edward Clark’s striking large-format color glamour shot of Marilyn Monroe in a Mink Stole, 1950, printed circa 1995 ($8,000 to $12,000). NEW YORK, NY.- Headlining Swann Galleries’ Thursday, October 4 auction of Fine Photographs & Photobooks is Edward S. Curtis’s magnum opus The North American Indian, a documentation of the customs, manners and rituals of more than 80 Native American tribes west of the Mississippi. This complete set, with 20 folios on Japan tissue (featuring 722 large-format photogravures), and 20 text volumes (with more than 1500 small-format photogravures on vellum), is one of the most stunning and ambitious photographically illustrated books ever produced. Ink numbered 113/500, it appears to be the only version containing a treasure trove of 111 large-format photogravures signed by Curtis. Estimate: $1.25 to $1.75 million. Other early photographic highlights include Alexander Gardner and Henry DeWitt Moulton’s Rays of Sunlight from South America, 1865 ($15,000 to $25,000); the Charles Lummis album Picturesque New Mexico ... More