General
The book before you is the seventh edition of Gordon's Photography Price Annual International.
Contained within these pages are nearly 13,000 entries gleaned from auction houses the world over, both major and minor, that reflect the blossoming of the photography market during the calendar year 2000. We have recorded photographs, and books and periodicals with original photographs.
Accuracy in reporting, important as it is, is not the sole criterion of usefulness. We spend untold hours consolidating and correcting titles and references. Proofing the book involves scanning tens of thousands of lines on our computer monitors. Despite our best efforts, a certain number of mistakes creep in. For these we ask: 1- your forgiveness; 2- your reporting them to us so that we may correct them on our CD-ROM disc; 3- your realization that the auction house may share or own the blame for that particular incorrect entry.
The "Alphabetical Listing by Photographers of Photographs Sold at Auction - 2000" constitutes, of course, the heart of the book. The individual entries for each photograph or group of photographs contain information extracted from the auction sale catalogue in which the photograph appeared. Some minor auction houses' sales have been omitted because of their poor cataloguing of lots. The old computer adage of "garbage in...garbage out" has led us to this decision. Useful information is what we have endeavored to include in this book. When possible or necessary, as noted above, information has been amended or corrected; references and titles have especially received this attention.
Complete sets, pair portfolios, and cohesive groups of photographs also are recorded. Broken sets, incomplete portfolios, and lots with unrelated photographs may be, but are not necessarily, included.
We salute the auction houses featured in this book. Their co-operation facilitates the production of this volume, especially their constant and immediate response to our last-minute requests for price lists or catalogues we may have inadvertently overlooked.
Photographer
Entries are grouped alphabetically by the photographer's surname. SETS, PORTFOLIOS, AND SOME SERIAL PUBLICATIONS THAT INCLUDE WORKS BY VARIOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS OFTEN HAVE BEEN LISTED AS "PORTFOLIO".
Title
Each photographers work is in turn arranged alphabetically by title. If the first word of a title is an article such as "The", "A", or "An", the article has been dropped and the next word becomes the first word of the title (e.g., "A Boy Reading" is listed as "Boy Reading").
Descriptive Information
Additional information about a photograph or portfolio follows the title (negative numbers, sub-titles, the set in which the photograph originated, etc.).
Printings
Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs are assumed to be from the first edition.
Late Printing: Indicates a printing within the photographers lifetime, after the first edition.
Posthumous Printing (Restrike): Indicates a printing after the photographers death. When the only edition is posthumous, the restrike annotation is not always given, although whenever possible, date and edition information is entered after the title.
Abbreviations
Although terms are usually spelled out in full, some cases necessitate abbreviations. A list of those abbreviations most frequently used is found within the book.
Photograph Type (Medium)
In simplifying the variety of photographic media to a series of standard terms, a very small degree of compression has been necessary. For example, "hand coloring" encompasses watercolor, acrylic, pencil, and gouache.
Date
Dates are given for the year in which the photograph was taken. When the date is uncertain a "c" appears before the date. Subsequent editions are noted after the title.
Edition Size
Editions are expressed with the number of the photograph and its edition size, the edition size alone, or with such abbreviations as "H.C." for hors commerce or "A.P." for photographers ("artist's") proof (these last generally found in the fine print field).
Measurements
Measurements are recorded in millimeters and in inches whenever sales catalogues provide them.
Signatures/ Marks/Notations
Signed or Initialized: Indicates the appearance of the photographers autograph signature or initials on the print or mat. With reference to books or portfolios, signatures refer to the justification page or colophon. If the photographs are individually signed, mention is made within brackets following the title.
Stamped Signature: May be placed either in the margin, within the photograph, or on the verso of the photograph or the mat.
Estate Signature: Indicates the signature or stamp of, or approval by, the photographers widow, widower, or heir.
Printers Signature: Refers to the signature of the printer or publisher; in the case of books it sometimes indicates the autograph signature of the author.
Numbered: Refers to the written number placed upon the photograph. They often will have a numerator and a denominator. Numbering may be in the hand of the photographer or someone designated by the photographer.
Dated: Refers to the date inscribed by the photographer.
Titled: Indicates the photographer has titled the photograph in his hand.
Annotated: Covers sundry inscriptions by the photographer such as edition size, remarks, and various notes and comments by the photographer concerning the photograph.
Dedicated: An inscription by the photographer to a specific person.
Condition
The overall condition of a photograph, its margins, image, and verso are described if they are noted by the auction house.
Whenever the condition of the photograph has been referred to in the auction catalogue we have endeavored to describe this condition. Our condition reports are concerned with four areas of the photograph: margins, image, the verso, and the overall condition. Only defects in condition are referred to in our listings. Verbiage such as "otherwise in excellent condition" has been left out. Descriptions in auction catalogues such as "slightly attenuated colors" is described in our listing as "colors faded"; "a few small tears in the outer margins" becomes "tears in the margins"; "some foxing in the margins" becomes "margins foxed". Words like "small", "slightly", "a few", "some", etc. have been left out of our condition descriptions since one man's "slightly" may be another man's "badly". An auction house's "a few" may look like another viewer's "many". These words are judgment values and we are trying to re-describe condition facts.
Margins
The standards employed by auction houses vary widely, from those that do not mention margins at all to those terms such as Full Margins, Wide Margins, Small Margins, Trimmed Margins, Without Margins, or, the ambiguous Margins. The reader must conclude for himself what the relative difference is between these terms.
Price/Sale Information
Auction House & Location: The name of the auction house and its location appears in the entry. A list of auction houses used in the book's entries and a list of the sales included appear on the following pages.
Auction Date: The month, day, and year of each sale are given in this order in Arabic numerals with slashes.
Lot Number: Lot numbers are preceded by the annotation "#" and are given in Arabic numerals. These are occasionally followed by the letters given by the auction house when more than one lot has the same number.
High & Low Pre-Sale Estimates: Both the low and the high pre-sale estimates, if provided by the auction house, are noted in brackets, e.g. [12,000 14,000]. They are given in the currency of origin of the auction house.
Price:
Sold Photographs: Prices are given to the left of each entry in U.S. dollars, the Euro, and British pounds. IF THE AUCTION WAS HELD IN A CURRENCY OTHER THAN THESE THREE CURRENCIES, THAT SOLD PRICE IN THE CURRENCY OF THE HOME COUNTRY ALSO IS INCLUDED AT THE END OF THE ENTRY (e.g. 4375 DK). Prices for the Italian Lira are truncated by three zeros (please see the explanation, following, under Italian Lira). All sold prices include the buyer's premium as well as any VAT on the premium that is mandatory for every purchaser to pay. Therefore, stated sold prices are the minimum price every purchaser must pay for the lot. VAT on the purchase price or sales taxes are not included.
THE CURRENCY OF SALE PRICE IS BOLDED if that currency was either dollars, the Euro or pounds.
There is no price cut off in this 2001 edition. Hundreds of lower priced photographs, which the reader will find nowhere else, are listed.
Bought-in Photographs: LOTS THAT FAILED TO SELL which are "bought-in" (often referred to as a "buy-in") also are stated in U.S. dollars, the Euro, and British pounds to the left of each entry, but ARE PLACED IN BOLDED (PARENTHESES) ( ). They are expressed by giving the auction houses' low estimate, with the buyer's premium and any VAT on that premium added. IF THE BUY IN SALE IS IN A CURRENCY OTHER U.S. DOLLARS, THE EURO, OR BRITISH POUNDS, THE LOW ESTIMATE IS GIVEN IN THE SALE CURRENCY AT THE END OF THE ENTRY, PRECEDED BY THE WORD ESTIMATED (e.g., ESTIMATED FF2275) [Parentheses then are also placed around the dollar, Euro, and pound figures].
Not Reported/No Results Published Photographs: Sales results for auctions are sometimes not published or, despite our repeated requests, not provided to us prior to our publication deadline. These are reported by us in a manner identical to that for those "bought-in" except that the prices are placed in [BRACKETS] [ ] not parentheses.
Withdrawn Photographs: Occasionally a photograph is withdrawn from an auction after the catalogue is published but before the sale itself. Again these photograph prices are expressed by giving the auction houses low estimate, with the buyers premium and any VAT on that premium added, and are placed in bolded {BRACES} { } not parentheses (buy-in) or brackets [not reported].
Sold After Sale Photographs: Sometimes an item will not sell at auction, but a sale will be negotiated afterwards, and the auction house will report these separately from the lots actually sold at the auction itself. These lots are placed in bolded <LESS THAN/GREATER THAN> < > not parentheses (buy-in) or brackets [not reported] or braces {withdrawn}.
Therefore all prices, whether to the left or at the end of each entry, represent either what the purchaser paid or what he would have had to pay for the lot if the photograph had been sold and the low estimate had been reached.
Italian Lira: For your convenience, in our currency exchange rate table for the Italian lira we have omitted the first three zeros to the right of the decimal point. As an example, for 01/02/1996, the rate was listed as .63780, whereas the effective exchange rate was .00063780. This is necessary because in our entries the last three zeros of the lira price are omitted if the photograph sells in lire.
For instance, a price listed as "L7500" is actually 7,500,000 lire. To get the correct sale for that 01/02/1996 sale you would multiply L7500 by .63780 for a sale price of $4,784, the same as if you multiplied L7,500,000 by .0006378.
Rate of Exchange: The exchange rate used for currency conversions is based on published daily rates of exchange. If an auction took place on a weekend the following day's rate of exchange is used.
We pay meticulous care to currencies, making sure that we give the right denominations for the auction houses and that our dollar equivalents are calculated with the conversion rates applicable to the dates of the auctions. Our 2000 currency conversion list for the major reporting currencies can be found on the following pages.
The following are the abbreviations used for the currencies used in this book:
| Australian dollar A$ |
| Israeli shekel IS |
| Austrian schilling AS |
| Italian lira L |
| Belgian franc BF |
| Japanese yen Y |
| British pound £ (or) EL |
| Mexican peso MP |
| Canadian dollar C$ |
| Netherlands guilder RDG |
| Danish krone DK |
| Norwegian krone NK |
| Dutch guilder DG |
| South African rand R |
| Euro e |
| Spanish peseta SP |
| Finnish markka FM |
| Swedish krona SK |
| French franc FF |
| Swiss franc SF |
| German deutschmark DM |
| Taiwan dollar T$ |
| Hong Kong dollar H$ |
| U.S. Dollar $ |
| Indian rupee IR |
| Venezuelan bolivar VB |
Photographs that are illustrated in the auction catalogue are denoted by "(illus.)" at the end of each entry.
Bibliography
The bibliography has two parts. The first lists General Reference Works that deal with more than one photographer, or surveys of the photography scene. It is arranged by authors name.
The second part lists Monographs on individual photographers. It is arranged alphabetically by the photographers name.
For Help or Further Information
We hope you find this book as useful as we have intended it to be. For assistance or further information, feel free to call our offices at (1) 602-253-6948, or send us email at office@gordonsart.com. Our Internet site at www.gordonsart.com is newly designed and brimming with updated information, including how to access our databases on-line. Our fax number is (1) 602-253-2104 and our order line is (1) 602-253-6948. We would be happy to spend as much time as you need to help you use this book, our Website, or any of our other art reference books and CD-ROMs as efficiently as possible.
Marty Gordon, et al
New York, New York
Naples, Florida
Phoenix, Arizona