Following the winter months, when sales of vintage and modern photographic prints appear to be hibernating, when the activity of bargain-hunters, dealers and spaces dedicated to 19th and 20th century photographs in France seems stagnant, seasoned collectors and motivated buyers contemplate the arrival of Spring and March public auctions in Paris with a blend of hope, excitement and anxiety. They are often the tell-tale sign of the resumption (or not) of a market which is having trouble renewing itself, as current generations are being steered to contemporary works or low-priced, freshly printed color images.
This month of March 2015 is quite appetizing with 3 auctions added to the usual seasonal calendar, including the sale of 2 important private collections.
After the mouth-teasers (Chayette & Cheval sale on March 5th and Millon & Associé “Photographies pour tous” sale on March 10th), auction house Lucien Paris offers the starter : a sale of 93 lots, comprised of 2 500 19th and 20th century photographic prints, among which tasty truffles are sure to be unearthed. A group of daguerréotypes, prints by famous and anonymous photographers, film stills, including two lots on German expressionist cinema, numerous photographs of Russia, and over 100 drawings and documents from the office of architect Raymond Loewy (1893-1986), overseer of the Skylab project, will be sold to the highest bidder on March 12th in Nogent-sur-Marne (just outside Paris).
Pierre Bergé & Associés provide the main course : the private holding of the enigmatic Mr. and Mrs. X, amassed over 35 years of collecting. The mystery surrounding the identity of the owners of this sale quickly dissipated. The print descriptions (and absence of an expert) are enough evidence to lift the veil. The sale’s highlight also leads to the collector. A Daguerréotype, alledgedly produced in 1837 (2 years before the process was unveiled) by Daguerre himself, had provoked strong reactions in 1998, when its owner presented it to the world. Mr. X confided to a French newspaper at the time that his discovery, a “national heirloom”, was priceless. Although there is no printed estimate in the catalogue, the reported figure is 600 000 / 800 000 euros, a disuasive amount for French museums to attempt a pre-emption.
At the time they parted with a portion of their collection, Mr. and Mrs. André Jammes did not hesitate to attach their name to the sale, creating many auction records for historic material. This makes one ponder why the author of this catalogue of 341 lots (1 500 prints), representing a large variety of styles and processes, and reading like a history of photography, did not choose to attribute a provenance. Putting so much material on the block in one session, especially at peak market estimates, is quite risky. But the feast is rich and should provide for a small army of collectors and encamped international dealers. Whether they succeed in devouring this photographic cornucopia is a question which will be answered on March 19th at Hotel Drouot.
Finally, for desert, Pierre-Marc Richard hatched a new recipe : “Pertinence Rétinienne” (Retinal Pertinance), the follow-up to his succesfull “Persistance rétinienne” (Retinal Persistance) sale in 2011. The 299 lots of oddball, often gory images, which caught the expert’s eye during 40 years of bargain-hunting, will be dispersed at Hotel Drouot on March 25th, under the gavel of Beaussant-Lefèvre. With Philippe Jacquier (Galerie Lumière des Roses) as outside expert, Pierre-Marc Richard priced the prints attractively. Together, they produced an atypical and amusing catalogue in which images are associated by formal style or by theme, like a visual conversation. Periods overlap and the eye of the collector reveals itself through singular choices, on the fringe of classical occular meanderings. The cover reproduction is a print of a shrunken head (lot 33). Could it be an allegory to qualify the historic image trade, which, having abandonned certain excesses, is welcoming back the casual stroller?
Christophe Lunn
AUCTIONS
Photographies des XIXème et XXème siècles
Lucien Paris
17, rue du Port – 94130 Nogent-sur-Marne, France
Sale date : Thursday, March 12th, 2015, at 2 PM
www.lucienparis.com
Collection M. et Mme X
Pierre Bergé & associés
Drouot-Richelieu (Salles 5 et 6)
9, rue Drouot – 75009 Paris, France
Sale date : Thursday, March 19th, 2015, at 2 PM
www.pba-auctions.com
Collection Pierre-Marc Richard / “Pertinence rétinienne”
(expert : Philippe Jacquier)
Beaussant-Lefèvre
Drouot-Richelieu (Salle 2)
9, rue Drouot – 75009 Paris, France
Sale date : Wednesday, March 25th, 2015,at 1:30 PM
www.beaussant-lefevre.com
