Photographs
Bonhams Knightsbridge
Thursday 17 May at 2pm
www.bonhams.com/photographysale

Viewing:
Sunday 13 May
11am to 3pm

Monday 14 May
9am to 4.30pm

Tuesday 15 May
9am to 4.30pm

Wednesday 16 May
9am to 4.30pm

Thursday 17 May
9am to 12pm

Enquiries:
Jocelyn.phillips@bonhams.com
+44 (0) 207 468 5876

Jennifer.prytherch@bonhams.com
+44 (0) 207 468 5877


Bonhams’ next sale of Photographs in London takes place on Thursday 17th May at 2pm. The sale will feature fine photographs and photobooks from the history of the medium, from the 19th Century to the present day.

Highlights of the sale include John Jabez Edwin Mayall’s exquisite daguerreotype portrait of Charles Dickens’ wife Catherine, dated 1852-55 and estimated at £8,000-12,000. Discovered in an antiques shop, this is the only daguerreotype portrait of Catherine known to exist and is offered with two rare ivory passes for the Royal Italian Opera, 1870, inscribed ‘Chas. Dickens Esq.’ and ‘Miss Dickens’, which were found housed inside the morocco case. Also upcoming is an exciting selection of rare portraits by 19th Century pioneer Julia Margaret Cameron, including an 1865 portrait of Alfred Lord Tennyson signed by the sitter (estimate £6,000-8,000) and a bewitching portrait of Cameron’s nephew Valentine ‘Val’ Prinsep (estimate £18,000-22,000).

Next is an excellent range of classic black and white material from established European masters such as Mario Giacomelli, Willy Ronis, Frank Horvat and André Villers, as well as a iconic examples of early Russian photography including Alexander Rodchenko’s ‘Pioneer Trumpeter’ from 1930 (estimate £1,500-2,000). The sale’s American section is equally strong and showcases works from artists including William Klein, Elliott Erwitt, O. Winston Link and Diane Arbus, whose charismatic, somewhat unsettling portrait, ‘Lady at a masked ball with two roses on her dress, N.Y.C.’, 1967, has attracted a pre-sale estimate of £6,000-8,000. Also offered are two unique colour polaroids by Robert Mapplethorpe, one a candid 1980s self-portrait (estimate £3,000-5,000) and the other a striking image of the artist’s trusted assistant and lover, Javier Gonzalez (£2,000-3,000).

There are some big British names in the sale, including Robert Freeman, Norman Parkinson, Albert Watson and Terry O’Neill. A gelatin silver print of David Bailey’s infamous 1960s shot of the Kray brothers, first published in his ‘Box of Pin-Ups’ in 1965 (a set of which is featured as a separate lot in the sale), is estimated at £5,000-7,000 and is rarely seen at auction as a standalone print.

The department is excited to feature a section of photographs in the May sale that are being offered for charity. This section comprises eleven photographs donated by leading photographers and private collectors, and features an array of well-known images by some of the world’s most renowned photographers. All proceeds from the sale of these photographs will be donated to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and their Rebuilding Childhoods Appeal, which provides therapy for children and young people who have suffered abuse. Highlights are Miles Aldridge’s bold fashion image, ‘Extravagant, Sophisticated Lady #12’, 2011 (estimate £3,000-5,000), Nadav Kander’s bewitching portrait of woman of the moment Florence Welch (£1,500-2,000) and Patrick Demarchelier’s beautiful large-format shot of Christy Turlington from 1986 (estimate £5,000-7000).

Herb Ritts’ captivating ‘Loriki with Spear’, 1993, is another stand-out lot in the sale. With an estimate of £15,000-20,000, this is an example of Ritts’ departure from the glossy, high-fashion images that had so far defined his career, and complements other African imagery in the sale by Malick Sidibé, Sebastião Salgado and Peter Beard.

Idris Khan’s striking composite image, ‘Every...Bernd and Hilla Becher spherical gasholders’, dated 2004 and estimated at £4,000-6000, rounds off the sale’s contemporary section, which also features a superb example of the work of Loretta Lux, ‘Spring’ (estimate £5,000-7,000) and Andreas Gursky’s ‘Montparnasse’ (estimate £1,800-2,200), one in a strong line-up of 1st Edition photobooks that appear throughout the sale and include Karl Blossfeldt’s beautiful ‘Wundergarten der Natur’, 1932 (estimate £1,000-1,500), Henri Cartier Bresson’s ‘The Decisive Moment’, 1952 (estimate £500-800) and Helmut Newton’s limited edition ‘Sumo’ from 1999 with its original packaging (estimate £3,000-5,000).