Past Auction

Photographs

Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 10am EST |

New York

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Ansel Adams Museum Set Achieves $1.2 Million

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Auction of Photographs on December 14, 2017 at 10am in New York
Featuring an Ansel Adams Complete Museum Set Offered for the Benefit of The College of New Rochelle

NEW YORK, NY -- Doyle's auction of Photographs on December 14, 2017 chronicled the history of Photography with examples ranging from a group of 19th century daguerreotypes to classic 20th century images and works by contemporary photographers.

Ansel Adams Museum Set

Highlighting the sale was an unprecedented offering of an Ansel Adams Museum Set that achieved $1.2 million, surpassing its estimate of $763,200-1,153,300. Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was the preeminent 20th century photographer of the American landscape. Spanning Adams’ entire career, the Museum Set of seventy-five images included all of the artist’s best-known work, including the majestic five image Surf Sequence, which fetched $137,5000. The Set was acquired by a private collector from Adams in 1981 and was donated in 2012 to The College of New Rochelle, on whose behalf the Set was auctioned. The December 14 sale marked the first time an Ansel Adams Museum Set was auctioned with the permission of The Ansel Adams Gallery and the artist’s grandson, Matthew Adams.

Property from Other Collections

The sale contained much early photographic material pertaining to travel. From the James P. and Joan M. Warburg Collection came an extensive group of albums of photographic views, including five of albumen prints from the 1891-92 world tour of the banker Paul Warburg (one of the founders of the Federal Reserve), with images gathered by him. These attracted competitive bidding that sent the price far over the $3,500-5,500 estimate to $17,500.

Among several works by American photographer and ethnologist Edward Sherriff Curtis (1868-1952) was a rare 1904 portrait of Theodore Roosevelt, a sepia-toned platinum print. This achieved well in excess of its $3,000-$5,000 estimate, selling for $8,750.

An extensive collection of early daguerreotypes featured a group lot of four 1850s portrait daguerreotypes of men that tripled their estimate of $800-1,200, selling for $3,750.

In twentieth century photography, a large print of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1956, by Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) sold for $8,125.

All prices include the Buyer's Premium.

We Invite You to Auction!

Consignments are currently being accepted for the June 2018 auction of Photographs. We invite you to contact us for a complimentary auction evaluation. Our specialists are always available to discuss the sale of a single item or an entire collection. For information, please contact Edward Ripley-Duggan at 212-427-4141, ext 234, or Peter Costanzo at ext. 248, or email [email protected]