NEW YORK AUCTIONS SET NEW RECORDS FOR ALVIN LANGDON COBURN AND EDWARD WESTON

摘要

This year's spring photo-graphy auctions in New York will be remembered for a long time. Not only was there a wealth of truly extraordinary pictures on the block, but collectors and dealers ignored estimates, paying what was necessary to secure the best. American buyers dominated these sa es, usually bidding on major American material. The auction marathon (there were seven catalogues) began on the evening of Apri 22 when Phillips sold the collection and inventory of Pennsylvania private dealer Alex Novak. The sale, which continued the next morning, included some strong material, but much of it had been bought within the last several years and then offered for sa e rather recently on Novak's successful i-photo website. Just one third of the material sold. The top lot was a good print of Lewis Hine's Girl Working in a Carolina Cotton Mill, circa 1908, which went to a European collector for $90,000 (estimate: $50-70,000). But there were also some very special pictures that sold for much less, including an anonymous 1870s tintype, Self-Portrait of a Woman Photographer, which sold for $3,840 (estimate: $2-3,000); French photographer Gabriel Loppe's strong 1889 picture of Lightning Striking the Eiffel Tower, which sold for $4,560 (estimate: $4-6,000); and an anonymous photographer's circa 1865 picture of Three Children sitting in a window in Brittany―a small gem that sold for only $2,160 (estimate: $2-3,000).