The fundamental issues are straightforward: the occasional disagreement about description and an ongoing concern that two step access to condition reports may imply to inexperienced bidders that the primary description is sufficient basis for bidding. Most IFPDA dealers disagree.
Swann handles condition reports on a request basis while some other auction houses include extensive condition information in their posted listings. Such requests to Swann are, without exception, honored but, as one dealer explained, "you have to know these reports are important. Nothing in the description tells you this. Years ago I had a problem with Swann on a lot. I had bid without requesting the condition report and was disappointed when the lot arrived. I was later able to reach a satisfactory conclusion and ever since have routinely requested condition reports. In my view such reports are a requirement, not an option."
Swann's descriptions, while including contact language do not include a warning that failure to request such reports may result in buyer disappointment. For both the casual and the yet to become expert buyer, bidding without knowledge of the condition may lead to more aggressive bidding than the print's condition warrants. This reality is fundamental to dealer concerns. The descriptions can be seen in two lights. Professionals know to look into condition and occasionally end up losing out to bidders who they suspect do not examine condition reports.
IFPDA dealers who consign to Swann, not surprisingly, do not see it the same way.
Because the IFPDA letter was released midway through a punishing year for dealers, auctions and buyers, and the fact it is a public letter, not posted on the association site but nevertheless available from dealers who chose to share it, the statements "in the case of Swann Galleries, our concerns frequently are simply disregarded;" "while experienced collectors and the trade may be able to identify questionable works, most collectors will not;" and "given Swann's longstanding pattern of apparent disregard for connoisseurship,..." together seem a bit self-serving. They seem to suggest their high standards require they point out Swann's are lower. Tarring Swann with a pail of dry negatives that reads like an under-the-radar PR release strengthens the association at the expense of Swann without forthrightly addressing the issues. The absence of specifics compromises their case.
Separately, other issues relating to authenticity have been raised sub-rosa but the association declines to comment and Swann's denies such issues have been raised. Again, specifics are lacking.
For the issues that are in view the remedy seems straightforward.
[1] On Swann's part, barriers to condition reports can be minimized while their importance to dealers and collectors emphasized.
[2] Statements of concern by this association, its members, other appropriate associations and their members could be, subject to review by Swann, attached to the lot descriptions as notes.
[3] Swann can reaffirm its warranty, its time limit and duration.
In the downturn economic pressures on both sides are exacerbating the disagreement. Books have pneumonia while prints have a cold. The print business will come roaring back. Let nothing be said in a moment of uncertainty that is out-of-place in the continuum. Both sides need each other.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 4: Various entertainers, Group of 30 items, signed or inscribed, various dates. $1,500 to $2,500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 27: John Adams, Autograph Letter Signed to Benjamin Rush introducing Archibald Redford, Paris, 1783. $35,000 to $50,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 36: Robert Gould Shaw, Autograph Letter Signed to his father from Camp Andrew, Boston, 1861. $10,000 to $15,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 53: Martin Luther King Jr., Time magazine cover, signed and inscribed "Best Wishes," 1957. $5,000 to $7,500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 127: Paul Gauguin, Autograph Letter regarding payment for paintings, with woodcut letterhead, 1900. $6,000 to $9,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 169: Suck: First European Sex Paper, complete group of eight issues, 1969-1974. $800 to $1,200.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 173: Black Panthers, The Racist Dog Policemen Must Withdraw Immediately From Our Communities, poster, 1969. $2,000 to $3,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 187: Marc Attali & Jacques Delfau, Les Erotiques du Regard, first edition, Paris, 1968. $300 to $500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 213: Andy Warhol, Warhol's Index Book, first printing, New York, 1967. $800 to $1,200.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 215: Cookie Mueller, Archive of 17 items, including 4 items inscribed and signed. $3,000 to $4,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 249: Jamie Reid, The Ten Lessons / The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle; Sex Pistols, chromogenic print with collage, signed, circa 1980. $20,000 to $30,000.
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
Bonhams, Apr. 8: First report outside of the colonies of the American Revolution, from American accounts. Printed broadsheet, The London Evening-Post, May 30, 1775. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce, James. The earliest typescript pages from Finnegans Wake ever to appear at auction, annotated by Joyce, 1923. $30,000 - $50,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce's Ulysses, 1923, one of only seven copies known, printed to replace copies destroyed in customs. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S COPY, INSCRIBED. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento, 1667. $2,000 - $3,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713. "... first significant book on probability theory." $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Aristotle's Politica. Oeconomica. 1469. The first printed work on political economy. $80,000 - $120,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: John Graunt's Natural and political observations...., 1662. The first printed work of epidemiology and demographics. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: William Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786. The first work to pictorially represent information in graphics. $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Anson's A Voyage Round the World, 1748. THE J.R. ABBEY-LORD WARDINGTON COPY, BOUND BY JOHN BRINDLEY. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: La Perouse's Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde..., 1797. LARGE FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Charles Schulz original 8-panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, 1992, pen and ink over pencil, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy as a psychiatrist. $20,000 - $30,000