Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2023 Issue

46 Walker Evans Images Revisited

The original 68 page essay and catalogue

The original 68 page essay and catalogue

Recently I received a very crisp catalogue about Walker Evans and 46 photographs he took and printed in Cuba in 1933.  This catalogue was issued by Michael Brown Rare Books and De Wolfe & Wood.  It was faintly familiar and in fact we had reviewed it in 2017.  I believe one of our many dealer friends recently mailed their copy to us.  The price wasn’t announced [POR] but I know today it was offered at a million dollars.

 

It was a remarkable collection and this is how they described it:

 

“The 46 photographs in this collection were taken and printed in Cuba by Walker Evans in 1933 and then given by Evans to Ernest Hemingway to take back to America, as a precautionary measure, on the Anita, Evans and Hemingway, two of America’s foremost proponents of modernism in Havana in 1933.  The present photographs, printed in Cuba by Evans in 1933, are among the earliest prints of these iconic images, based on comparison with later printings.  The collection includes variants of known images as well as rare images by Evans.  “Hemingway went to Spain to learn to write, for Evans it was on the streets of Havana that his style and subject meshed and he found his own way as a photographer.  Havana was Spain for Evans.  As we shall see it was also his Paris.”

 

The owner consigned the material in the expectation it would achieve a magnificent price but reality interceded, and the material in time became stale.  Subsequently  the consignor passed away and his heirs sent the collection to Doyle, New York who sold it for $163,800 against the estimates $200,000 - $300,000.  It was purchased by a savvy collector.

 

Revisiting the 2017 catalogue the collection looks to be quite valuable and important and, if the asking price was originally twice its ultimate auction realization, it seems likely it would have sold.

 

But, when dealers are handling consignments the owner controls the asking price and, even after their best efforts to develop a transaction with several institutions the high asking price was a bridge too far.

 

What I have taken away from this story is that asking prices have to be logical to generate interest and engagement.  When the price was deemed too high, the material foundered and became old news and lost its shelf appeal.  Later when life interceded, the very same material went into the rooms and brought less than it would have if the original asking price had been $400,000.

 

The dealer presentation was superb and Doyle relied on it.  Consignors, trust your dealers and let them set the prices.  Often, when you ask too much you obtain much less.

 

Here are several links. 

Michael Stillman’s August, 2017 catalogue review on Rare Book Hub:  https://www.rarebookhub.com/reviews/2063

 

Doyle’s catalogue description in 2021:  https://www.rarebookhub.com/search/result?author=&bibliographical_type=&description=&from_year=&max_price=&min_price=&page=7&per_page=25&place_printed=&printed_by=&provenance=&q=21ph01-44&record_number=&search_type=ae&source=+&source_year=&title=&to_year=&utf8=

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Leland Little, Jan. 22: The First Issue of Robert Frost's A Boy's Will, In Extremely Scarce Binding.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Knight's An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Locke's Important Treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: The Richly Illustrated First French Edition of Voyages de Corneille Le Brun par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes Orientales.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Scarce First Issue of An Account of the Province of Carolina in America, Finely Bound and With Celebrated John Speed Map.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Humphrey's An Historical Account, Complete with Scarce Folding Maps.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Chamberlain's Scarce Civil War Memoir The Passing of the Armies.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: A Rare Photograph of David Bruce Brown and #48 Fiat.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: George Cruikshank (England, 1792-1878), Archive of Sketches, Notes, and Letters.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Extremely Scarce Copy of Die Samländische Ode (The Samland Ode), Signed by Max Pechstein.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Andy Warhol's The Thirteen Most Wanted Men Exhibition Catalogue.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Edward Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Every Building on the Sunset Strip.
  • RareBookBuyer.comWe Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide RareBookBuyer.comWe Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions