Swann Auction Galleries

Biography

New York City-based Swann Auction Galleries is a family-owned business, priding themselves on authenticity and approachability while adding an element of education and fun to auctions. Swann is New York's oldest specialty auction house: it was founded in 1941 with a focus on rare and antiquarian books and held the first American auction dedicated to photographs in the 1950s. After 75 years of expertise and expansion, Swann now has innovative departments dedicated to African-American Fine Art, Illustration Art and Printed & Manuscript African Americana, alongside staples like Americana, Autographs, Maps & Atlases, Prints & Drawings, Vintage Posters, and of course, Rare & Antiquarian Books. As a platinum auction house, Swann has offered hundreds of live auctions on Invaluable.

Swann has handled major collections in addition to its annual line-up of approximately 40 sales a year, including recently The Art Collection of Maya Angelou, The Lawrence M. Solomon Collection of Mystery, Detective & Science-Fiction, and The Julius Paul Collection of Posters.

Highlights to have come through Swann recently include Egon Schiele's Schlafender Mann, a 1910 drawing that sold for $905,000 in September 2015; Norman Lewis's Untitled, circa 1958, a rediscovered painting that sold for $965,000 in December 2015; William Faden's, The North American Atlas, an important book of maps dealing with the events of the American Revolution, which sold for $341,000 in December 2015; and a previously unrecorded seventh edition of the famed Bay Psalm book which sold for $221,000 in February 2016.

If you are looking to sell, Swann accepts consignments on a rolling basis. Potential consignors are encouraged to submit a request for an initial assessment of their items via email, though you are also welcome to call at (212) 254-4710. Include any photographs you have of the potential consignment, artist/author names, dimensions and a description of the condition of each item. Swann specialists will assess the materials and let you know if the house will accept your consignment.

Buyers may bid in Swann auctions in person, via absentee bid, live by phone with a Swann staff member or live online using Invaluable.com. Swann Galleries' auction is available on their website, and more details about upcoming sales can be found in their newsletter, The Trumpet.

Visit Swann Galleries News for updates on goings-on at the auction house, and follow Swann on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Youtube.