Sotheby’s Classic Photographs

The third photography auction of the week took place on 3rd October at Sotheby’s with Classic Photographs – a collection of 138 lots from the early years of the medium.

Sotheby’s catalogue detailed the auction as:

‘Sotheby’s Fall Photographs auction in New York features a selection of classic works by the most sought-after names in photography as well as notable discoveries by photographers rarely found at auction. Fine examples of 19th and early 20th century photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron, William Henry Fox Talbot, Albert Frisch, and Eugène Atget will be offered alongside important works by Jaromír Funke, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Edward Weston, Richard Avedon, and Francesca Woodman, among many others‘

The auction total reached $2,382,250 and is the first of three auctions from Sotheby’s to include photographic lots this month.

The top lot was Francesca Woodman’s with Polka Dots with an estimate of $50,000 to $70,000 and a hammer price four times the price of its bottom estimate at $200,000.

Another lot to outperform its estimate was Walker Evans’ Floyd Burroughs, A Cotton Sharecropper, Hale County, Alabama which had an estimate of $80,000-$120,000 and sold for $150,000.

In third place was Robert Mapplethorpe’s Tulips with an estimate of $80,000-$120,000 and a hammer price of $93,750.

The next photography auction to take place this month is hosted by Sotheby’s Paris L’Univers Lalanne Collection Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne taking place over 23rd and 24th of October, there is also an auction from Christie’s which will feature several works by Peter Beard: The Collection of Lee Bouvier Radziwill.

(view lots by clicking on their title)