News
2008-11-27
Modern Prints
4th and 5th December
Bloomsbury’s latest offering of 20th Century Prints is an impressive, bumper (612 lots) two day sale (4th- 5th December), consisiting of Modern British Prints, William Greengrass and the Artists of the Grosvenor School, the Curwen Press, Continental Prints, Urban Prints and Pop Prints.
Each section has its highlights, but the focal point of the sale must be the unique Andy Warhol silkscreen printed in colours of Eva Mudocci, the English violinist and Edvard Munch’s lover (lot 607), whose image became the basis for one of his most iconic works, The Madonna. Warhol ‘appropriated’ the portrait and reworked it in his own style giving it a twentieth century flavour; it has the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board rubber stamp and is estimated £70000-90000. Another important element of the sale is a completely fresh to the market, private collection of prints from Atelier 17, the leading avant garde print studio in Paris and New York in the 1920s-1980s. The focus is on a selection of prints and unique proofs by the creator and founder of the studio, Stanley William Hayter. Particularly noteworthy is lot 184, Hayter’s first complete published portfolio Paysage Urbains (estimated £3000-5000) which illustrates his ground-breaking forays into surrealism.
Other exciting pieces in the sale include Hotel Acatlan: First Day (from the moving focus series), a large signed and dated Hockney lithograph (lot 548) printed in vibrant colours (£18000-22000). Bridget Riley’s Elongated Triangles (lot 128) is an extremely rare complete set of silkscreens printed in colours, produced to raise funds for the artist’s retrospective of 1971 and this set of five, is estimated £10000-15000. Amongst the Picassos in the Continental Prints section is the charming, signed etching with aquatint 1952 La Poule (lot 381) estimated £12000-15000. Here too, is a book of fifteen lithographs, Le Lezard aux Plumes d’Or (lot 352), watermarked Miro, the full sheets, loose in the original vellum boards and grey linen covered solander box (estimate £10000-15000).
This sale can honestly boast numerous fresh to the market or unique items, the works by William Greengrass of the Grosvenor School include 10 such lino cuts and sketches. Another unusual aspect of the sale is the celebration of 50 years of the Curwen Press, and Bloomsbury Auctions is delighted to offer works to benefit the Curwen Studio, which was formed in 1958 and which specialised in high quality limited edition books and the advanced use of colour lithography.
2008-11-12
Private Press, Limited Editions, Children’s & Illustrated Books and Original Artwork
6th and 7th November
Once again Bloomsbury Auctions proved that good quality, fresh to the market items from private collectors, will do very well even during an economic downturn. The recent two day sale of Private Press, Limited Editions, Children’s & Illustrated Books and Original Artwork on 6th and 7th November included a private collection of Private Press and Limited Editions.
The Property of Joseph Lehrer was a representative collection of the private press movement in the late 19th and 20th centuries and consisted of 183 lots. One of the stars of the collection was Dante’s Tutte le Opere edited by Edward Moore, one of 105 copies on paper (lot 13). Published by the Ashendene Press 1909, it is regarded as one of the great achievements of modern press publications and after heated bidding it sold for £21000, against an estimate of £8000-12000. Lot 26 was a fine copy of The Tragedie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke, edited by J Dover Wilson, number 119 of 300 in a deluxe binding, this fetched £9600. The English Bible in 5 vols (lot 39), one of 500 copies, was the only folio printed by Cobden-Sanderson, the magnum opus of the Doves Press; it sold for £8400, double the higher estimate. Arguably the greatest of all private press books is the Kelmscott Chaucer of 1896. The example in this sale (lot 82) was one of 425 copies on paper, it made £30000, just on the lower estimate. Another outstanding item was lot 144 The Whole Works of Homer; Prince of Poetts, in his Iliads, and Odysses translated by George Chapman in 5 vols. Number 2 of 10 copies on vellum and printed at the Shakespeare Head Press in 1930-31, it was conservatively estimated £7000-9000 and it soared to £19200.