SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.- Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers and Appraisers, the West Coast’s leading auctioneers, will be offering 470 prints and nearly 150 photographs in the upcoming seasonal Fine Prints and Photographs auction on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 21 and 22, 2003. Among the fine works on offer are prints by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Thomas Hart Benton and photographs by artists like Ansel Adams, Robert Mapplethrope, Edward Curtis and Jock Sturges.
Artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who are equally famous as painters and printmakers, are well-represented in the offerings. Among the lots coming to auction, Picasso’s linocut print of Tête de Femme is valued at $25,000 to $30,000, while Dalí’s Les Songes drolatiques de Pantagruel is expected to bring $6,000 to $8,000 and Toulouse-Lautrec’s nine lithographs from his Portraits d’Acteurs et d’Actrices is estimated at $10,000 to $15,000.
Pop artists have always been main attractions at these seasonal fine print auctions, bringing out competitive bidders and often setting record prices. Bonhams & Butterfields will offer 12 lots of Andy Warhol prints. Most notable of these are his diamond dust silkscreen Mickey Mouse, 1981, valued at $20,000 to $30,000 and his iconic Mao silkscreen at $10,000 to $12,000. Roy Lichtenstein’s complete set of 6 lithographs entitled Bulls is anticipated to fetch $30,000 to $50,000 while Robert Rauschenberg’s silkscreen Speculations Witness is estimated at $3,500 to $5,500.
Other lots include JJ Audubon’s octavo prints from Birds of America, 162 hand-colored lithographed plates at $8,000 to $10,000 and eight lots of Rembrandt prints, including a Self-Portrait valued at $10,000 to $12,000. The famous German engraver Albrecht Durer is also represented in the auction, his The Turkish Family expected to bring $2,000 to $2,500.
Ansel Adams’ vintage silver gelatin print of El Capitan, estimated at $8,000 to $12,000, will be offered with other travel photography including a collection of 50 hand-colored photographs of Japan (est. $1,500/2,000) and a set of 12 aluminized salt prints of Burma circa 1855 by Linnaeus Tripe, expected to bring $24,000 to $28,000.
Americana photographs will be offered, appealing to many collectors. Among them is a complete set of 12 hand-colored cabinet cards of noted Americans by F. Jay Haynes, the chief photographer for Yellowstone National Park (est. $8/12,000) and a photo of Abraham Lincoln is expected to bring $5,000 to $7,000. Ten orotones and gelatin silver prints by Edward S. Curtis include depictions ranging from an Apache Chief (est. $5/7,000) to his Oasis in the Badlands (est. $8/10,000).
Other lots include Giselle Freund’s photograph of Frida Kalho and her doctor at $3,000 to $5,000 and Older Dog, a three dimensional photograph by William Wegman, estimated at $4,000 to $6,000. Toned photographs of flowers are represented by Robert Mapplethorpe’s Calla (est. $8/12,000) from the photographer’s selected portfolio of photogravures of flowers and Imogen Cunningham’s famous Magnolia Blossom, expected to fetch $7,000 to $10,000.