LONDON.- Phillips announced highlights from the 18 November Photographs auctions presenting over 200 lots with a total pre-sale low estimate of £1.7m / $2.8m / €2.2m and a pre-sale high estimate of £2.4m / $3.8m / €3.1m.

The Photographs auction will offer 122 lots with a total pre-sale estimate of £1,418,100 / $2,268,900 / €1,813,700 to £1,975,900 / $3,161,400 / €2,527,100. Also offered on the same day are works from the Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC). A total of 86 works will be offered with a total pre-sale estimate of £332,800 / $532,400 / €425,600 to £457,000 / $731,200 / €584,500.

The various owner sale at Phillips concentrates on the 20th and 21st centuries, with leading names in the field acting as both reference and counter-point between less widely known names at the sale. The sale is notably positioned between the classic and contemporary.

This season, Phillips London sees the introduction of ULTIMATE, a brand new section of the sale which offers collectors the opportunity to acquire the last available for sale print of an image. For the launch of ULTIMATE, Phillips has chosen ‘Contemporary’ as its primary focus, with many of these hand-picked artists new to the Phillips Photographs sales. Woven in amongst the less familiar names to auction such as Cooper & Gorfer, Eelco Brand and Denise Grunstein are artists who are well established in the Contemporary field: Rodney Graham, Guido Mocafico and Erwin Olaf. Rodney Graham’s complete set of Welsh Oaks - borne from the artist’s continued fascination with the Camera Obscura - comprised of seven silver gelatin prints taken in 1998, is estimated at £100,000 - 150,000.

Outside ULTIMATE, the sale kicks off with exquisite fashion works by Erwin Blumenfeld, Portraits of Manina, Paris 1937, estimated at £30,000 - 40,000, Irving Penn’s 1950 Black and white fashion (with handbag) (Jean Patchett) New York estimated at £30,000 - 40,000 and Richard Avedon’s Penelope Tree, Mask by Ungaro, Paris studio, January, 1968 estimated at £10,000 - 15,000.

Other highlights include a rare portfolio of Fifteen Photographs by Helmut Newton estimated at £40,000 - 50,000, some more rare to the market images by Horst P. Horst and also the arresting image by Irving Penn of The Hand of Miles Davis (C), New York, 1986 estimated at £45,000 - 55,000. The sale moves on to show a handful of poignant works from photojournalism, particularly Manuel Alvarez Bravo’s 1934 Striking worker, assassinated estimated at £2,500 - 3,000 and from the American school, Stephen Shore’s glittering Bay Theater, July 9, 1973 estimated at £5,000 - 7,000; and Untitled, circa 1974 by William Eggleston estimated at £18,000 - 22,000.

The Contemporary tempo is set initially by vibrant works by David LaChapelle, Andres Serrano and Philip Lorca diCorcia, followed closely by the atmospheric works of Erwin Olaf. Christian Marclay’s 2012 Grid No. 3 (Full and Empty Cassettes) is also featured, representing Marclay’s debut at a Phillips London Photographs sale, carrying an estimate of £22,000 - 28,000. This contemporary artist’s nod to a traditional photographic process exemplifies the crossover between contemporary and classic that characterises the sale.

Other Photographers included in the various owner sale are Idris Kahn, Paul Graham, Harry Diamond, Peter Beard, Susan Derges, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Nobuyoshi Araki among others.

Phillips London is also offering part two of the Photographs from The Collection of The Art Institute of Chicago. An exciting and fresh departure for the London department, the sale begins with a group of gum bichromate works by Gertrude Käsebier; with Auguste Rodin, 1905, being estimated at £12,000 -18,000. These lots are closely followed by images by Julia Margaret Cameron who has long been recognized as one of the greatest portrait photographers. Included in Lot 4 and 5 are a selection of disarmingly pure portraits of her niece Julia Jackson at various stages in her life. Other images from the 19th century include a charming vignette of Margaret Frances Langton Clarke, 1864 by Lewis Carroll estimated at £5,000-7,000.

As one would expect, there are some wonderful works by the American greats; Ansel Adams’ Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958 is a particularly stunning example, estimated at £15,000 - 20,000. There are also fantastic group lots, such as Brett Weston’s Fifteen Photographs, estimated at £9,000-12,000 and Andre Kertesz’s Selected Distortions, 1933: a group of 5 nudes, estimated at £12,000 – 18,000. Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Helen Levitt, Robert Frank and W. Eugene Smith also represent the American contingent. Bill Brandt also has a strong presence with six works appearing in this section: Lot 29 is an atmospheric vision of a misty evening in Sheffield taken in the 1930s estimated at £3,500 -4,500 and is a great contrast to the other nudes by him featured in the sale.