BERKELEY, Calif. – On Thursday, July 25, PBA Galleries will offer an auction of over 400 lots of Art & Illustration – Fine Books sale. The auction features prints, graphics, original artwork and other visual materials, illustrated books, artist’s books, children’s books, art reference, plate books and more from the 17th to 21st centuries. Plus, a selection of fine books in a variety of fields, with literature, history, religion, science, finely bound and finely printed books, will be offered. Bid absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers.
Auction highlights will include noteworthy lots featuring photography from the 19th and 20th centuries. American Beauty Personified as the Nine Muses (1869) features 10 mounted original albumen photographs of paintings by Joseph Fagnani of American models, reportedly one of only 50 copies produced ($2,000-$3,000). Photographer Todd Hido’s first book, House Hunting, from the Nazraeli Press, includes an original signed chromogenic print, one of only 25 copies (above; $5,000-$8,000). Another Nazraeli Press standout is the complete deluxe edition of the One Picture Book Series, 115 volumes in all, with each volume signed by its photographer and with a tipped-in original photographic print (below; $8,000-$12,000).
Rare lithograph prints are equally well-represented in the auction. PBA Galleries will also have George Grosz’s key work of German Expressionism, Ecce Homo (1923) on the auction block. The lot includes a partial set of the deluxe Edition ‘A’ with 10 color and 27 black and white lithographs, each signed in pencil ($10,000-$15,000).
Other lithographs on offer include a set of 64 hand-colored lithographs after Frederick Frohawk of birds of Hawaii, being the full complement of plates from a disbound copy of Wilson and Evans’ Aves Hawaiienses, 1890-1899 ($8,000-$12,000).
The auction includes signed first editions of beloved works. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery will be available in the first American edition. PBA’s copy is one of 500 hand-numbered and signed copies in the original first issue dust jacket with matching number ($5,000-$8,000). William Faulkner’s The Hamlet, the first novel in the Snopes family trilogy, one of 250 signed copies of the limited first edition, is also expected to attract competitive bidding ($2,000-$3,000).
Other exciting offerings include Variations by Edouard Benedictus, with 86 striking Art Nouveau and Art Deco textile and wallpaper designs on 20 plates, superbly rendered in pochoir by Jean Saudé ($2,000-$3,000). Erotic etchings by Mahlon Blaine will be available: Venus Sardonica features a portfolio of 50 etchings of erotic, grotesque and even pornographic natures, limited to 50 copies ($2,000-$3,000).
The sale will begin at 11 a.m. Pacific Time. For more information, contact the PBA Galleries at 415-989-2665 or pba@pbagalleries.com.
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