NEW YORK, NY.- Swann Galleries sale of Autographs & Subculture is set to present items from iconic figures throughout history. The sale will be a timed online auction opening for bidding through Thursday, April 10. The auction will begin closing at 12 pm Eastern. Bidding is available on the Swann Galleries App and on live.swanngalleries.com.
The autographs portion of auction features prominent builders—of industry, of cities, of society. Among those in the sale is one who helped fuel the machines that built the twentieth century—John D. Rockefeller—who is present with a signed photograph from 1905 ($800-1,200), and with a signed file copy of the marriage license of his daughter Elizabeth ($600-900). The Russian empress Catherine the Great who, in 1794, founded the city of Odessa in Ukraine, and who signed the vellum document appointing a captain of artillery ($1,000-2,000). A signed and inscribed portrait of George Bernard Shaw—a stunning photograph by Frederick H. Evans—is also in the sale ($2,500-3,500).
The top lot for the autographs section is an autograph letter signed by John Adams from 1783, as US minister to the Netherlands, longing for home while negotiating the treaty of Paris ($35,000-50,000). Additional Americana lots of note are an autograph album with 10 items signed, or signed and inscribed, by Civil War figures including Abraham Lincoln ($10,000-15,000); and a signed and inscribed copy of Time magazine by Martin Luther King, Jr. ($5,000-7,500).
Additional autographs of note are those by Bob Dylan in a Hibbing High School Yearbook ($10,000-20,000), Paul Gaugin writing in French about receiving payment for his paintings ($6,000-9,000), and a guest book for the Café des Artistes Restaurant in New York ($4,000-6,000).
This two-part auction continues with a selection that explores the underground of culture: following on the interest and excitement of last year’s subculture sale, the second part of the auction will devote itself to the world of Jazz, Music, Art, Dance, Hip Hop, and other aspects of society that exemplify the alternative current of expression that informed some before they became mainstream.
Top lots for the subculture section include Banksy’s Nola (Grey), color screenprint, 2008 ($70,000-100,000); David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust keyhole costume worn in the last ever appearance of his Stardust persona ($60,000-90,000); and Jamie Reid’s The Ten Lessons / The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle; Sex Pistols, chromogenic print, 1980 ($20,000-30,000).
Intriguing and delightful items make waves, from early surfing material to two posters of Lenny Bruce at the Village Theater in 1967 ($800-1,200), to Fluxus posters ($600-900), flyers, books, photographs, brochures, and more covering Cookie Mueller ($3,000-4,000), the Living Theater, Andy Warhol, Sun Ra, the Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, punk rock, Robert Crumb, among others.
