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Swann Galleries: Important Signed Photographs from a California Family Collection
Auction Reports
| Auction Name | Important Signed Photographs from a California Family Collection | Total Sales (USD) | 857,309.00 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auction Date | May 07, 2026 - May 07, 2026 | Low Estimate of Lots Sold (USD) | 606,600.00 |
| Sale Number | #2739 | High Estimate of Lots Sold (USD) | 908,300.00 |
| Total Lots | 126 | ||
| Sold Lots | 111.0 | Low Estimate of All Lots (USD) | 667,800.00 |
| % of Lots Sold | 88.10% | High Estimate of All Lots (USD) | 1,002,300.00 |
| Unsold Lots | 15 | Total Sales as a % of High Est. | 85.53% |
Top twenty-five by sale price
| Lot Number | Author Name | Book Title | Year Published | Estimate | Actual Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85 | Abraham Lincoln | Photograph Signed |
ND | USD 100,000.00 - 150,000.00 | USD 139,200.00 |
| 86 | John Wilkes Booth | Photograph Signed and Inscribed |
1862-1865 | USD 7,000.00 - 10,000.00 | USD 107,950.00 |
| 12 | Abraham Lincoln; Roderick M. Cole? | Photograph Signed and Inscribed |
1861; 1862; 1891; 1893; 1983; 2020 | USD 80,000.00 - 120,000.00 | USD 101,600.00 |
| 3 | Christopher ("Kit") Carson; Hoeloke & Benecke; George H. Carson; De Witt C. Peters | Photograph Signed |
1861-68; 1864; 1859; 1979 | USD 35,000.00 - 50,000.00 | USD 35,560.00 |
| 83 | John F. Kennedy; Dwight D. Eisenhower | Photograph Signed |
c. 1960 | USD 20,000.00 - 30,000.00 | USD 20,320.00 |
| 23 | Albert Einstein; Elsa Einstein | Two Photographs Signed |
1933 | USD 10,000.00 - 20,000.00 | USD 18,280.00 |
| 22 | Thomas A. Edison | Photograph Signed and Inscribed |
1904 | USD 15,000.00 - 20,000.00 | USD 15,240.00 |
| 109 | Woodrow Wilson; Vittorio Orlando; David Lloyd George; Georges Clemenceau; Raymond Poincare; Robert Cecil; Jan Smuts; Makino Nobuaki; K.V. Willington Koo; Edward M. House; Roman Dmowski | Group of 4 Photographs Signed |
1919 | USD 15,000.00 - 25,000.00 | USD 15,240.00 |
| 16 | William Tecumseh Sherman; Brady | Photograph Signed |
1869-91 | USD 12,000.00 - 18,000.00 | USD 11,430.00 |
| 41 | Babe Ruth | Photograph Signed |
ND | USD 8,000.00 - 12,000.00 | USD 11,430.00 |
| 123 | Mark Twain | Large Photograph Signed and Inscribed |
1905 | USD 12,000.00 - 18,000.00 | USD 11,430.00 |
| 30 | Martin Luther King, Jr. | Photograph Signed and Inscribed |
c. 1960 | USD 6,000.00 - 9,000.00 | USD 10,795.00 |
| 100 | Theodore Roosevelt | Photograph Signed |
ND | USD 4,000.00 - 6,000.00 | USD 10,795.00 |
| 26 | Mohandas K. Gandhi | Photograph Signed and Inscribed |
c. 1931 | USD 10,000.00 - 20,000.00 | USD 10,160.00 |
| 59 | Wilbur Wright | Photograph Signed and Inscribed |
ND | USD 8,000.00 - 12,000.00 | USD 9,525.00 |
| 97 | Theodore Roosevelt; William McKinley | Large Photograph Signed |
c. 1900 | USD 10,000.00 - 15,000.00 | USD 9,525.00 |
| 7 | James A. Garfield | Photograph Signed |
1863; 1881 | USD 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 | USD 8,890.00 |
| 115 | Charles Dickens | Photograph dated and Signed |
1868 | USD 7,000.00 - 10,000.00 | USD 8,890.00 |
| 46 | Edward Terry Sanford; George Sutherland; Pierce Butler; Harlan Fiske Stone; James Clark McReynolds; Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; William H. Taft; Willis Van Devanter; Louis Brandeis | Large Photograph Signed |
c. 1925 | USD 8,000.00 - 12,000.00 | USD 7,620.00 |
| 117 | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Photograph Signed |
ND | USD 7,000.00 - 10,000.00 | USD 7,620.00 |
| 15 | John Singleton Mosby; Isaiah W. Taber | Photograph Signed and Inscribed |
ND | USD 3,500.00 - 5,000.00 | USD 7,366.00 |
| 21 | Winston S. Churchill | Photograph Signed |
1952 | USD 6,000.00 - 9,000.00 | USD 7,112.00 |
| 5 | George Armstrong Custer; Brady | Photograph Signed |
1863-65; 1863; 1865 | USD 8,000.00 - 12,000.00 | USD 6,858.00 |
| 77 | Rutherford B. Hayes | Photograph Signed |
1864-1865 | USD 4,000.00 - 6,000.00 | USD 6,604.00 |
| 4 | Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain; Pierce | Photograph Signed |
ND | USD 4,000.00 - 6,000.00 | USD 6,350.00 |
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Sotheby’s
Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone
25 June – July 7Sotheby’s, July 7: Ludwig van Beethoven. Autograph sketches for the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses", op.124, [1822], UNPUBLISHED. £150,000 to £200,000.Sotheby’s, July 7: Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 1813, first edition, 3 volumes, contemporary half calf. £50,000 to £70,000.Sotheby’s, July 7: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, 1855, first edition, first issue, original green cloth, the Doheny copy. £50,000 to £70,000.Sotheby’s, July 7: Binding—Sangorski & Sutcliffe—Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat, London, 1872, third edition, in a magnificent jewelled Peacock binding. £15,000 to £20,000.Sotheby’s, July 7: George Eliot. Middlemarch, Edinburgh and London, 1871, first edition in the original parts. £20,000 to £30,000. -
Forum Auctions
The Private Library:
Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
July 9, 2026Forum, July 9: Hassall (Joan) A large collection of over 300 original woodblocks of engravings for various books, v.d., with Hassall's engraver's glass water-globe (Qty) - Est. £10,000-15,000Forum, July 9: Eragny Press.- [Bradley (Katherine Harris) & Edith Emma Cooper], "Michael Field." Whym Chow, Flame of Love, one of only 27 copies, inscribed by Bradley, the rarest book from the press, 1914. - Est. £3,000-4,000Forum, July 9: [Moore (Thomas Sturge)] [Wood Engravings], 71 wood-engravings printed by David Chambers from the original blocks, the only set on Japanese Hosho paper, from an edition of 5 sets, [1970]. - Est. £3,000-4,000Forum Auctions
The Private Library:
Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
July 9, 2026Forum, July 9: La Fontaine (Jean de) Contes et Nouvelles en vers, 2 vol., engraved plates after Eisen, fine early 19th century blue morocco, gilt, by Bradel l'ainé, Amsterdam [Paris], 1762. - Est. £2,000-3,000Forum, July 9: Erotica.- Prostitution.- Pretty Women of Paris (The); Their Names and Addresses, Qualities and Faults..., [Paris], privately printed at the Press of the Prefecture de Police, 1883. - Est. £3,000-4,000Forum, July 9: Vale Press.- Ricketts (Charles) & Lucien Pissarro. De la Typographie et de l'Harmonie de la Page Imprimée…, [one of 216 copies], bound in dark blue morocco tooled in gilt, by Sarah T.Prideaux, 1898. - Est. £1,000-1,500Forum Auctions
The Private Library:
Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
July 9, 2026Forum, July 9: Martin (John) Illustrations of the Bible, complete set of 20 mezzotints, good impressions, rarely found in early states, [c.1831-1835]. - Est. £1,000-1,500Forum, July 9: Golden Cockerel Press.- Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ (The), one of 500 copies, Mary Gill's copy, Waltham St. Lawrence, 1931 with a signed proof of engraving on japon numbered 10/10 (2) - Est. £5,000-7,000Forum, July 9: Boccaccio (Giovanni) The Decameron, 3 vol., vol.1 extra-illustrated by John Buckland Wright with c.150 erotic original drawings in pen & ink and pencil, 1886 [extra-illustrated c.1940]. - Est. £10,000-15,000Forum Auctions
The Private Library:
Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
July 9, 2026Forum, July 9: Cox (Morris) Collection of Gogmagog Press Books, 35 vol., rare complete collection of printed books issued by the press, limited editions, most signed by Cox, 1957-83. - Est. £10,000-15,000Forum, July 9: Wynkyn de Worde.- [Terentius Afer (Publius)] [Comedie...], [Paris, Josse Badius: sold in London by Wynkyn de Worde, & others], [15 July 1504]. - Est. £4,000-6,000Forum, July 9: Mosley (James) Ornamented Types. Twenty-Three Alphabets from the Foundry of Louis John Pouchée, 2 vol., one of 10 copies for presentation, from an edition of 210, 1992-93. - Est. £1,000-2,000 -
Freeman’s, June 30. Thomas Jefferson’s “Birth of the New Nation” letter, carried to Paris with the Treaty of Peace, by a Jewish patriot. $100,000-200,000.Freeman’s, June 30. “The rockets’ red glare.” A British midshipman’s log recording the bombardment of Fort McHenry. $60,000-80,000.Freeman’s, June 30. The Critical Promotion of a Naval Hero, Oliver Hazard Perry Commission signed by James Madison, 1812. $40,000-60,000.Freeman’s, June 30. Born in the USA: First Day of Printing in the United States, July 4, 1776. $15,000-25,000.Freeman’s, June 30. One of the Earliest Printed Announcements of American Independence, in the Exceedingly Rare Original Wrappers, 1776. $10,000-15,000.Freeman’s, June 30. "The Two Big Guns of the N.Y. Yanks": A Striking Type 1 Press Photograph of Lou Gehrig's Hands. $8,000-12,000.Freeman’s, June 30. A Unique Contemporary Manuscript Account of Joseph Smith's Final Words to His Followers, the Day Before his Violent Death. $8,000-12,000.Freeman’s, June 30. The State of Minnesota Officially Certifies the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution Of the United States. $8,000-12,000.Freeman’s, June 30. Extraordinarily Large Manuscript Petition Signed by a Who's Who of Colonial New York to Queen Anne from the Colony of New York. $8,000-12,000.Freeman’s, June 30. Mickey Mantle's First Cover: The Earliest Front-Page Newspaper Image of Mickey Mantle, "Something Good from Joplin". $8,000-12,000.Freeman’s, June 30. A Call to Arms in the Months Following the Declaration of Independence: An Early Continental Army Recruitment Poster. $6,000-9,000.Freeman’s, June 30. Samuel Jones, the Statesman Behind the Newly Discovered "Jones Declaration": His Annotated Set Used in His Working Law Library. $6,000-9,000.