Fine Photographs and Photobooks

Auction: Thursday 20 October 2016 14.00

Viewing: Sunday 15th - Thursday 20th

Online Catalogue: www.dreweatts.com/cms/pages/auction/36233

Bloomsbury Auctions is delighted to announce its sale of Photographs and Photobooks taking place on 20th October.

Exploring the history of Photography, the sale comprises prints from the advent of the medium to the present day, concluding with a selection of fine Photobooks.

The sale opens with a collection of 19th century photographs, showcasing a series of charming salt prints depicting views of Provence by Edouard Baldus (lot 3, £1,500-2,000) and 19 views of Rome taken by Robert Turnbull Macpherson in 1859 (lot 4, £4,000-6,000) along with other fine examples of Travel photography, including views and portraits from Georgia, Egypt, Italy and the Holy Land amongst others.
This section is concluded by the Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron with four delicate and dreamy portraits of ​some of her inner circle's members, two of them dressed in elaborate costume and including her neighbour on the Isle of Wight Alfred Lord Tennyson, her maid Mary Hillier posing as Sappho, sculptor George Frederic Watts R.A. and her daughter in law Mrs Ewen Hay Cameron as the Turkish character Zuleika, whose illicit love for her half-brother ended in tragedy (lots 22 to 25).

The 20th century section opens with an early and unique hand-coloured print of irises at Wellesley Farms, Massachusetts by modernist photographer Paul Strand (lot 26, £2,000-3,000) and a delicate vintage print of a lily stem by Cecil Beaton (lot 28, £1,000-1,500), before continuing on to a wide selection of British photography with classics images by the like of Grace Robertson, Wolfgang Suschitzky, Thurston Hopkins, John Blakemore, John Swannell, Terence Donovan, James Davies, Colin Jones. The sale also includes poetic and mysterious views of Cumbrian landscapes commissioned for an exhibition at the Carlisle Museum in 1982, Presence of Nature, captured by Fay Godwin, Michael Kenna and Raymond Moore.

Street-photography is highlighted in the sale with Louis Faurer's snaps of post war New-York and Philadelphia (lots 93 to 97). Other examples are Tony Ray-Jones unusual scenes of English life and Antanas Sutkus shots of Lithuanian 'free thinkers' of the 1960s.

Further on in the sale one finds a selection of photo-journalism, some of them with the proceeds going to Christian Aid and featuring revered photographers such as Sebastiao Salgado (lot 92, £3,500-4,500) and Don McCullin (lot 142, £1,000-1,500). Also on offer are two poignant images taken by Magnum photographer Bruce Davidson during the ten days he spent touring the coalfield South-Wales with his aim to capture what he calls 'the lyrical beauty' of the area (lot 57 and 58).

A highlight of the sale is three polaroids taken by André Kertesz in 1979 (lot 100, £4,000-6,000), as part of his series 'From my Window'. After the death of his wife and in the confinement of his apartment, Kertesz would orchestrate these compositions with objects he had been collected for the last 40 years as a reflection of his own life.

Fashion plays an important role in the auction featuring the After Van Dongen photograph by acclaimed British photographer Norman Parkinson (lot 211, Est £6,000-8,000) as well as the sculptural Odalisque I posing under the camera of Horst P. Horst in 1949 (lot 201, £3,000-5,000). Nude with Elbow by Bill Brandt (lot 207, £6,000-8,000) presents a different vision of the female body, from a more mysterious angle.

The music scene of the 20th century is present in the catalogue, with the iconic image of David Bowie, Diamond Dogs (lot 189, £4,000-6,000) shot by Terry O'Neil and his earlier photograph of the Rolling Stones at the dawn of their career in 1963 (lot 174, £2,000-3,000). Other idols of this decade include portraits of Marianne Faithfull, Francoise Hardy, The Beatles and The Kinks by freelance photographer Roger Kasparian (lots 166 to 173, each £500-700) and a sumptuous nude photograph of Jane Birkin by Jean-Pierre Fizet (lot 161, £1,500-2,000). Among other celebrity portraits featured in the sale, Marilyn Monroe is portrayed on set and in privacy by Eve Arnold (lots 109 to 113).

The sale concludes with a strong selection of first edition photobooks including Man Ray Photographs, 1920-1934 (lot 260, £1,000-1,500), a rare signed copy of Paris de Nuit by Brassai (lot 245, £1,500-2,000) and Montparnasse by Andreas Gursky (lot 262, £1,200-1,500).

Other photographers featuring in the sale include Berenice Abbott, David Bailey, Gilbert Garcin, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Willy Rizzo, Albert Watson, Jeanloup Sieff, Brian Griffin, Ernst Haas, Willy Ronis and many more.