Bonhams & Butterfields, international fine arts auctioneers, has established a reputation as a preeminent source for Fine Prints, each auction attracting collectors and setting record prices for rare impressions. The firm’s next offering is scheduled for October 26, 2010, the sale to be simulcast between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Works on offer include Old Masters, 19th century and Modern prints, and Contemporary prints and multiples.
Marque lots of the Fall sale include several Pablo Picasso linocuts, works by Warhol, Chagall, Bacon, Dubuffet and Lichtenstein, and Edward Ruscha’s 1966 screenprint Standard Station, for which the auctioneers recently set an auction world record. Signed in pencil, dated, and annotated ‘trial proof,’ the Ruscha print is estimated at $60/80,000. Strong collector interest is expected for an Edgar Degas monotype Pauline and Virginie Cardinal Bavardant avec des Admirateurs, 1880-83. This monotype, ideal for a museum collection, is estimated at $20/30,000 and rarely seen at auction. This print was originally sold at one of Degas’s sales in Paris in 1918, acquired by Henri Béraldi (1849-1931), an important print and book collector, author and publisher, and President of the Société des Arnis des Livres.
Several lots to be offered in October will support a charitable family foundation; property on offer stems from trusts, institutions and private collections from across the US, and from multiple estates, including the Estate of Elaine Horwitch, the respected long-time Scottsdale, Arizona art dealer.
Old Masters open the 388-lot auction, with property from the Estate of Howard C. Warren including several Piranesi works, Rembrandt’s etching Adam and Eve from an Illinois collection, and woodcuts from other collectors, including Albrecht Dürer impressions — his The Seven Angels with the Trumpets, from The Apocalypse, 1498, is estimated at $6/8,000. The same estimate is in place for Dürer’s engraving Hercules.
Modern prints feature a 1921 depiction of pugilists by George Bellows, Counted Out, First Stone, a signed and titled lithograph from the edition of 11, estimated at $10/15,000. Marc Chagall’s 1954 lithograph La Bastille could bring as much as $35,000, while the 1968 Chagall print from Le Cirque, numbered 12/74, could sell for $30/40,000. A robust selection of etchings, aquatints and lithographs by Joan Miró should attract bidders, one example, Demi-mondaine à sa fenêtre, 1975, stems from the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art (est. $4/6,000).
More than 15 lots of Picasso glazed terre de faïence platters, pitchers, vases and bowls will be offered from the Estate of Myriam Schasseur, New York City. Also from that collection comes Le peintre et son modèle, c. 1970, an Aubusson wool tapestry from an edition of five, with the mark of Atelier de Saint Cyr in the weave and Picasso’s woven signature, expected to bring $40/60,000. Estimated at $30/40,000 is Picasso’s 1962 linocut Petite Tête de Femme couronnée, signed in pencil and numbered 33/50. Other desirable Picasso works include mezzotints, etchings and aquatints such as Femme au Chapeau à Fleurs (est. $20/30,000) and Femme au Chapeau (est. $25/35,000).
A nice assortment of Latin American artists’ prints is highlighted by a portfolio from the Horwitch Estate. The Mexican Masters Suite, 1973, comprises eight lithographs, each signed in pencil and numbered 27/100 (est. $8/12,000). Artists include: Francisco Zúñiga, Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Luis Cuevas.
The auction’s Contemporary Prints and Multiples section features several Keith Haring prints from his “Apocalypse” series and David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and Sam Francis prints, with a dozen Andy Warhol screenprints including two versions of Mao, each estimated at $30/50,000. Other Warhols include his iconic depictions of John Wayne, Mick Jagger and varied Campbell’s soup cans. Tom Wesselmann’s Still Life with Liz, from Portfolio 90, 1993, features Dame Elizabeth Taylor (est. $15/20,000) while additional Wesselmann lots depict nudes and flowers and fruit. The Francis Bacon lithograph Triptych, 1983-84, after the painting The Triptych, includes the trio of sheets signed in pencil and numbered 80/180 (est. $20/30,000). The metallic porcelain multiple by Jeff Koons Balloon Dog – Red, 1995, (diameter 10 1/4in) is numbered 152 and expected to fetch $4/6,000.
“The fall sale offers outstanding works by important artists from the 15th century to the present. Among them is the rare monotype by Edgar Degas from 1880-1883, a copy of which is within the collections at The Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. Although the present economy is not as robust as, say, four years ago, the caliber of works in this sale illustrate a very confident and positive outlook,” said Judith Eurich, Director of Bonhams & Butterfields’ Prints Dept.
Previews for the prints sale will be held at Bonhams & Butterfields in Los Angeles on Oct. 16-18 and in the firm’s San Francisco gallery on Oct. 23-25. The illustrated auction catalog will be posted online at www.bonhams.com/us for review and purchase.
