Dallas, TX – A copy of the Declaration of Independence that was published by The Democratic Press publisher John Binns and a daguerreotype of one of the partners whose discovery of gold helped spark the California Gold Rush sold for $30,000 to lead Heritage Auctions’ Americana & Political Auction to $1,182,076 Sept. 14-15.

“Rare and unusual pieces, items that don’t often come to market, did very well in this sale,” Heritage Auctions Americana Director Curtis Lindner said. “The fact that almost 1,500 people bid in this auction and the prices realized throughout proves that the demand for such items remains very high.”

The final price was nearly four times the pre-auction estimate for the Declaration of Independence: John Binns Version Published in 1819, an engraved broadside facsimile of the Declaration of Independence with medallions of seals of the thirteen original colonies forming a decorative oval surrounding the text. At the top are medallion portraits of founding fathers John Hancock, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, above which is an eagle with shield, olive branch, and arrows holding a streamer reading “E Pluribus Unum.” A Philadelphia journalist and publisher of The Democratic Press, Binns was one of the first to realize, in June of 1816, the potential market for a "splendid and correct copy of the Declaration of Independence, with facsimiles of all the signatures, the whole to be encircled with the arms of the thirteen States and of the United States" (as described in his solicitation for subscribers).

An Important From-Life Daguerreotype of John Sutter, which also carried a pre-auction estimate of $8,000, presents the man who, along with James Marshall, accidentally discovered gold in California, sparking a stampede to the West Coast of people hoping to strike it rich. As it turns out, neither had much wealth at the time of his death, but their names will be linked forever with one of the most well-known events in American history.

A Samuel Tilden: Prohibitively Rare Portrait Flag sparked competitive bidding that drove the final price to $27,500, nearly five times its pre-auction estimate, for one of just two known examples of the historical relic. Also doubling its estimate was an Antebellum 28-Star “Texas” Flag, which brought a winning bid of $20,000, while a Roosevelt & Fairbanks: Wonderful “Roos-e-Field” Jugate, perhaps the first ever brought to auction, found a new home at $18,750, the same amount spent for a Lyndon B. Johnson Civil Rights Act Bill Signing Pen.

Historical curiosities were extremely popular among bidders, including a Franklin D. Roosevelt: Personally-Used Wheelchair From Hot Springs, Arkansas that nearly tripled its estimate when it closed at $17,500. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow sometimes eluded prosecution by eating what was caught with the contents of Barrow's Personally-Owned Fishing Tackle Box, which more than tripled its estimate at $15,625, and a Western Union Thomas A. Edison Stock Ticker Tape Machine drew nearly two dozen bids before finishing at $15,000.

Other top lots in the auction included, but were not limited to:

A Coolidge & Dawes: Key Jugate Rarity with Terrific Slogan: $13,750
The Largest Theodore Roosevelt-Signed Photograph: $13,750
A Fells Point Baltimore 13-Star Flag from the War of 1812: $13,750
A Gazette Of The US (NY, NY): October 7, 1789 National Thanksgiving Day Proclamation: $13,750
A Roosevelt & Garner: Phenomenal Jugate Tire Cover: $13,125
A Woman's Suffrage: Large Graphic Votes for Women Pennant: $9,375

For complete results, visit HA.com/6221.

Dallas, TX – Raising nearly $100,000 to help comic-book creators was the very best way to spend Batman Day.

Saturday afternoon, Heritage Auctions sold 110 original Batman No. 75 covers illustrated by some of the industry’s best and best-known names, among them DC Comics Creative Officer and Publisher Jim Lee, Eisner Award-winner Arthur Adams and The Dark Knight Returns’ creator Frank Miller. And when the final hammer fell, less than an hour after the sale began, The Hero Initiative’s Batman 100 Project hammered at $98,535 thanks to the participation of more than 340 online bidders.

That money raised will go to writers and artists who might otherwise be unable to pay for rent or food or cover hospital bills.

The nonprofit Hero Initiative, now in its 20th year, began auctioning these singular one-offs in 2007, starting with The Spider-Man 100 project. In years past these covers were sold during comic conventions and through retailers. But because of the global pandemic, DC Comics and the Hero Initiative made The Batman 100 Project available exclusively through the Dallas-based auction house.

“It was Heritage’s honor to be associated with The Hero Initiative this year,” said Heritage Auctions’ Vice President Barry Sandoval. “It’s always rewarding to see an auction do so well, but it’s doubly so when the money raised goes to benefit such a good cause.”

The total price realized for the auction was $118,242, which includes buyer’s premium on each cover sold. Heritage Auctions donated its entire seller’s commission for this event, and had each issue graded and slabbed by Certified Guaranty Corporation before the auction began.

Art Adams can boast having the auction’s top lot: His stunning wraparound cover, featuring Batman, Robin and the original Batwoman squaring off against the Joker, kicked off the sale and hammered at $4,560. Lee’s squared-jawed Batman sketch was a close second at $4,080, followed by Alan Davis’ wraparound featuring Batman and his rogues gallery. It sold for $3,820.

At auction’s end, more than 20 of the covers – Batman No. 75 blanks provided by DC – sold for more than $1,800. Those include illustrations by Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love cover artist Chrissie Zullo, Spawn and Uncanny X-Men’s Philip Tan, the legendary Bill Sienkiewicz (best known for his work on New Mutants), DC Comics Style Guide creator José Luis García-López, Batman: The Long Halloween’s Tim Sale, Crisis on Infinite Earths’ iconic penciller George Pérez, frequent Grant Morrison collaborator Frank Quitely, Adam Kubert and Miller.

The Hero Initiative was co-founded in 2000 by longtime journalist Jim McLauchlin, and its disbursement board includes nine artists, writers and publishers, including Howard Chaykin, John Romita Sr., Ann Nocenti and Klaus Janson.

Since its inception, the nonprofit has helped more than 100 comic book creators keep roofs over their heads and food in their cupboards. It has also allowed them to visit doctors without worrying about mounting expenses. The Hero Initiative has covered medical and living expenses for Howard the Duck’s father Steve Gerber, colorist Tom Ziuko and, most famously, Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Famer Gene Colan, who said before his death in 2011, "If there was not a Hero Initiative, I probably would have gone under. Hero picked up the slack and made sure I didn't drown.”

“Artists began working on the Batman 100 Project last year, which feels like a very, very long time ago now,” McLauchlin said Saturday. “It’s always nice when a task reaches its endpoint, and we’ve completed this mission. But the ongoing mission of The Hero Initiative goes on. It’s a 24/7 job. And today I am grateful to the artists, DC, the bidders and Heritage Auctions for doing their part in helping us continue our mission.”

For complete results from The Batman 100 Project, go here.

Dallas, TX – Any Alex Raymond primer should begin with this excerpt from A History of the Comic Strip, written in 1968 to coincide with an exhibition in the hallowed halls of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Palais du Louvre.
 
“Of all the great comic-strip creators, Alex Raymond unquestionably possessed the most versatile talent,” it begins. “Other artists surpassed him in the creative power of boldness of style, others in the development of the plot or in accuracy of dialogue. But none possessed as varied an array of talents – talents that enabled him to master all the various types of strips at which he tried his hand.”

In 1934, while only his mid-20s, the New Rochelle, N.Y., native created three strips for his employer King Features Syndicate. One was Secret Agent X-9, a collaboration with The Maltese Falcon’s author Dashiell Hammett; another was Jungle Jim, which chronicled the exploits of a wild-animal hunter and explorer. And the other was Flash Gordon, initially created to rival the popular Buck Rogers and, in the end, the ultimate victor in whatever competition existed between the two far-flung earthmen thrust toward the edges of time and space.

Two early Flash Gordon strips will appear in Heritage Auctions’ Oct. 3-4 European Comic Art event, which previews at Galerie 9e Art in Paris from Sept. 30-Oct. 3 and will be held online and at Heritage’s world headquarters in Dallas. The sale is heavy with highlights from some of Europe’s best and best-known talents, among them Milo Manara, Enki Bilal, Jean Giraud and Moebius, interspersed with never-before-available chefs-d'oeuvre from some of the most influential American illustrators and animators.

Both original Flash Gordon strips come from the family of Alex Raymond, which only recently decided to part with some of the most significant strips drawn by one of the medium’s most important creators.

The family is also making available for the first time six original Rip Kirby strips from 1946 until 1956, the year Raymond was killed in a car crash. Forgoing a return to the strips that made him famous, Raymond began work on the Kirby strips upon his return from World War II, and made his private detective a former Marine – just as Raymond had been.

“No matter how young the collector or how ‘modern’ their collection, they will always wind up wanting to own an Alex Raymond,” says Joe Mannarino, who, with his wife Nadia, co-heads Heritage Auctions’ East Coast Comic Books and Original Comic Art category.

“The pillars upon which everything was built are Little Nemo creator Winsor McCay, Prince Valiant’s Hal Foster, Krazy Kat’s George Herriman, Terry and the Pirates creator Milton Caniff and Alex Raymond,” Mannarino says “There will always be somebody who wants an example of that.”

For proof look no further than Heritage’s Sept. 10-13 Comics & Comic Art event, where a Raymond Flash Gordon-Jungle Jim original from 1939 sold for nearly $100,000, making it one of the top 10-performing pieces in a 1,074-lot sale that completely sold out (and the fifth-highest price ever paid for a Raymond original through Heritage Auctions). And earlier this year, the first-ever Flash Gordon strip sold at auction for close to $500,000.

The two strips in the European Comic Art event date from 1940, and were each part of the long-running “The Power Men of Mongo" storyline. As our online catalog notes, this was “the first great story arc in the strip's celebrated run.”

One Flash Gordon original strip dates from July 7, 1940, and features Gordon in a red suit emblazoned with a yellow lightning bolt – an homage, perhaps, to writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert’s Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick, who debuted only seven months earlier, and writer Robert Webb and artist Lou Fine’s Dynamo, who also made his bow in early 1940.

The similarities to both are uncanny.

“We always talk about Raymond being such an influencer, but he was also being influenced,” Mannarino says. “It’s such a unique piece because it bridges comic-strip art and comic-book art.”

The other, topped with a Jungle Jim strip, comes from August 12, 1940, and features Flash attempting to rescue political prisoners, including Dr. Hans Zarkov, from one of Ming the Merciless’ concentration camps. The prophetic strip appeared long before most Americans discovered what was happening across Europe.

Flash Gordon long outlived his creator, who died in 1959. The strip ran in newspapers from 1934 until 2003, penned by a variety of writers and artists. He spawned decades’ worth of movie serials, cartoons, comics and big-screen features. And as George Lucas wrote in his introduction to the 2007 book Alex Raymond – His Life and Art, had it not been for Raymond and Flash, there may never have been a Star Wars.

“Alex Raymond’s boundless imagination has inspired me and countless others to pursue their own fantasies,” Lucas wrote. “His presence is still felt and remembered so many years after his death, and he has directly or indirectly touched us all. I, for one, am very thankful for his inspiration.”

Amsterdam — Catawiki is pleased to announce its latest Exclusive Art & Photography book auction. The highlight of this exciting collection is a limited edition copy of Poèmes de Charles d'Orléans by Henri Matisse which has a gift inscription and illustration by Matisse. Already a beautiful book, printed entirely in lithography, this copy was a gift to his neighbor in Vence, the scholar Mr. Jean Darquet. As well as the gift inscription, he has drawn a sprig of flowers in oil pastels. Truly a “one off” This book can be viewed at this link.

Dallas, TX – An important collection from Peter Beard and a selection from Leonard Freed’s Black in White America photo essay, as well as powerful images from renowned photographers ranging from Ansel Adams to Ruth Bernhard, will make Heritage Auctions’ Oct. 6 Photographs Auction its most comprehensive yet.

The auction marks the first time Heritage will offer separate sessions for both traditional or classical and contemporary photographs.

“This has become the most important Photographs auction Heritage has ever had,” Heritage Auctions Photographs Director Nigel Russell said. “The Peter Beard selection has some extremely important images, and we have the largest offering from Leonard Freed’s Black in White America photo essay, which is a particularly timely group of images to revisit.”

Included in the sale is an incredibly important private collection of works by Peter Beard, including some of the most sought-after images he ever created. Purchased directly from the artist by a close personal friend, these works are incredibly detailed and biographical, and represent the best examples of each image ever offered. Most are larger than previous examples offered at auction because they feature more embellished elements, collage elements and diary pages than other examples.

Among the Beard lots is 756 Elephants (estimate: $100,000-150,000), an aerial shot of a herd – or “super-herd” – of the world’s largest land mammal on the move. The image is something of a paradox, simultaneously showing the peaceful giants and including so many as to reveal just how tiny they are in comparison to the vast expanse of land around them in East Africa. That the elephants seem to continue off the edge of the frame in each direction leaves the viewer open to wonder how many there really are in this location at the time the photo was shot. Elephants rarely, if ever, convene in such large number.

Another top Beard lot in the auction is I'll Write Wherever I Can... (estimate: $60,000-80,000). According to his nephew, Anson Beard, Peter Beard once told a novice photographer: “Don’t worry so much about the camera. Focus on the subject matter. Don’t worry so much about the camera. Focus on the subject matter. The subject matter! Create.” Signed and inscribed in ink throughout the sheet by Beard, who was known for his images of Africans and African wildlife, I’ll Write Wherever I Can captures that spirit in a man writing in a diary despite losing his lower half into the mouth of a hungry crocodile. The image might have begun as a part of his series Eyelids of the Morning, his study of crocodiles.

Even the matting around several of the Beard lots offer a deeper glimpse into Beard’s travels, thanks to a collage-style design of things he saw and found, including snakeskin, a dragonfly, and images of various animals – some alive and some dead.

“Peter defined what it means to be open: open to new ideas, new encounters, new people, new ways of living and being,” his family said after Beard died in April 2020. “Always insatiably curious, he pursued his passions without restraints and perceived reality through a unique lens.”

Other top Beard lots in the auction include, but are not limited to:

    •    Millennium Greetings (Orphaned Cheetahs), Mweiga, near Nyeri, Kenya, 1968 (estimate: $40,000-60,000)
    •    Emergency All-Nighter in Tokyo, 1994 (estimate: $12,000-18,000)
    •    Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, 2000-2001 (estimate: $8,000-12,000)

The largest offering from Leonard Freed’s seminal photo essay, Black in White America, to appear at auction includes 40 images, all in black and white by the longtime 20th-century documentary photographer. His work examined African American life during the Civil Rights era. Included among Freed’s captivating lots in the auction are:

    •    Open Fire Hydrant on a Hot Summer's Day, Harlem, New York, 1963 (estimate: $2,500-3,500)
    •    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's Motorcade, Baltimore, Maryland, October 31, 1964 (estimate: $2,500-3,500)
    •    Segregated Women's Prison, New Orleans, 1965 (estimate: $1,500-2,500)
    •    DeDe Pierce, Blind Jazz Musician, Playing his Trumpet in his Bedroom, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1965 (estimate: $1,500-2,500)
    •    A Mixed Family, Black and White, North Carolina, 1964 (estimate: $1,500-2,500)

This auction is the first at Heritage that features lots from the collection of Robert J. Dodds, III, a well-known contemporary art collector and Trusts and Estates Attorney. Known for his love of art, Dodds focused on his collection of photography after he moved to New Mexico in the 1990s. Highlights from the collection include two formative lots by Bernd and Hilla Becher. In works like Blast Furnaces, Frontal Views (6 works), 1979-1989 (estimate: $60,000-80,000), the Bechers took a characteristically impassive view of their subjects, such as water towers, coal bunkers, lime kilns, silos, gas tanks and factories, which they always photographed unpopulated, in black and white, under gray skies.

A unique lot in the auction is a Polaroid camera owned and used by Andy Warhol (estimate: $10,000-15,000). The camera was given to famed Interview magazine founder John Wilcock in the mid-1980s. The camera is accompanied by a letter of provenance from Wilcock.

Other highlights in the auction include 13 landscapes by Ansel Adams, 22 Ruth Bernhard portraits, nudes and still lifes, and contemporary nine fashion photos by Guy Bourdin and four images by Marilyn Minter.

New York -- Doyle will hold a timed auction of Fine Literature closing on Wednesday, September 30, 2020 at 10am EDT. The sale features The Library of Duncan Cranford, a collection that was formed in the late 1930s to 1940s. Strong in Stevenson, Conrad, and Milne, all beautifully presented in morocco-backed slipcases, many of the books are in exceptional condition.

One major highlight of the collection is the first edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, 1855. In the first issue binding (in an exceptional state of preservation), this is the very rare English issue, with five rare broadsides tipped in at the front of the book including Emerson’s famous letter to Whitman in which he wrote “I greet you at the beginning of a great career.”

Several A.A.Milne items are likely to excite interest. One exceptional piece is a copy of Now We Are Six, one of twenty copies on Japan vellum, signed by the author and artist, and a very bright, fresh example of this rare issue. Also offered is the first of the four Pooh books, When We Were Very Young, inscribed to Milne’s literary agent Curtis Brown, an exceptional association by any standard. Another important work in the field of children’s literature in the collection is a copy of the first edition of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.

Among the trove of Robert Louis Stevenson items on offer are copies of Treasure Island, first edition with all the first impression points. Copies of two privately printed items include the very rare A Martial Elegy for some Lead Soldiers, printed by the young Lloyd Osborne and Stevenson on their hobby press in Switzerland in 1882; and Stevenson’s remarkable polemic Father Damien: An Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu, the first privately printed edition issued in Sydney, Australia in 1890, issued in approximately 25 copies. An interesting autograph Stevenson item is a four-page musical manuscript in Stevenson’s hand, including (among several pieces) Drink to me only with thine eyes, a setting for two flageolets and a shell ocarina (Stevenson was a virtuosic performer on the former).

Conrad is represented by a copy of Youth: A Narrative and Two Other Stories, 1902, the first state, which contains the first appearance of the author’s Heart of Darkness, perhaps his best-known short story today, on which the classic Coppola film Apocalypse Now was modeled. Other authors include Hemingway, with a near-fine copy on offer of A Farewell to Arms, one of 510 signed copies, and Hemingway’s only signed limited edition. Two great Texas stories by O. Henry are present in the original manuscript: A Chaparral Christmas Gift, with its bitter ending (uncommon in the author’s works) and Art and the Broncho [sic—the author spells it thus], the tale of a cowboy artist and his disillusionment with art. Another manuscript of note is Kipling’s The Miracle of Purun Bhagat, which appeared in the second of the Jungle Books, this apparently the first version that was prepared for The Pall Mall Gazette in October 1894.

Other highlights of the sale are a group of first editions by John Steinbeck, including his third book To a God Unknown; Of Mice and Men; and a scarce review copy of In Dubious Battle. The same collection includes many works of the 1920s-30s. These include works by John Dos Passos in rare dust jackets, such as Pushcart at the Curb and The Garbage Man, and James Cain’s 1937 Serenade.

Hamburg, Germany — It comes in a handy size and with decorative lettering, but if you want to read from the rare 12th century bible manuscript as people used to in the past, knowing Latin would be helpful. The important contemporary document is part of the Rare Books Auction of Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg on November 23.

The unusual hand-size format of the Biblia Latina makes it an extremely rare forerunner of French 13th century pocket bibles. The elegant document of the transition from Latin to Gothic script with elaborate initials in typical 12th century manner was most likely made at a Cistercian monastery and was presumably used for reading out. It is now estimated at a moderate price of € 20,000.

SEMINAL: The same estimate has been tagged to "Distinctiones sacrae scripturae" by Mauritius Hibernicus. The Latin manuscript from around 1300 features explanations of biblical terms in alphabetical order from the Franciscan monk and used to be an important handbook for medieval preachers. The fine and well-preserved manuscript in Gothic textualis contains numerous red and blue Lombardic capitals.

TRANSFORMING: The rare Latin manuscript of the "Metamorphoses" by Publius Ovidius Naso in an elegant Gothic-humanistic manuscript with decorative initials in colors was made in 1462 and features end-to-end interlinear glosses, which served the 15th century reader in understanding. It is estimated at € 10,000.

MONUMENTAL: This copy of Marcus Elieser Bloch's comprehensive natural history of fish is of utmost rarity. The 18th century's ichthyologic main work shows impressive depictions of fish in splendid old coloring that is partly silver- or egg-white heightened. It carries an estimate of € 40,000.

ARCTIC: With Jan Huygen van Linschoten's "Voyasie, ofte Schip-vaert" from the year 1624 a very rare description of Willem Barent's first two arctic journeys will be called up. On his quest for the North-East-Passage he did not only explore the Russian double island of Novaya Zemlya but also discovered Spitzbergen. The travelog, richly illustrated with detail maps and copper plates by Johannes and Baptista von Doetecum, will enter the race with an estimate of € 25,000.

BLOOMY: More than 300 original watercolors by Pieter Joseph de Pannemaeker for "Originaux de publications d'horticulture et d'arboriculture" come from the ownership of Comte de Kerchove de Denterghem. The works which the Belgian painter and lithographer made between 1878-1887 served as models for color plates released in various magazines on plants, flowers and fruits. The unique work with its bright illustrations will be called up with an estimate of € 20,000.

FABULOUS: Joachim Ringelnatz' "Kuttel daddeldu erzählt seinen Kindern das Märchen vom Rotkäppchen" is a true and very rare gem for book lovers. The autographed original manuscript with numerous colored drawings is just one of ten varying copies. The rare version in miniature format is estimated at € 5,000.

COLOR EXPLOSION: The famous lithographic cycle "Daphnis & Chloé" is one of Marc Chagall's main book illustrations and is particularly captivating for its choice of motifs and the intense colors. With this work the artist, who used up to 26 hues per lithograph, celebrates a real fest of colors and conveys his impressions of nature and light in Greece to the observer: The green of the lush vegetation competes with the infinite blue of sky and sea, while red, orange and yellow express the figures' pure lust for life and take the observer straight into the color explosion. With an estimate of € 90,000 an explosive bidding fight can be expected.

COMPLETED by Wassily Kandinsky's "Klänge" (estimate: € 18,000), one of German Expressionism's most important illustrated and stylistically interesting books and by Georg Heym's poetry book "Umbra vitae" (estimate: € 4,000) from 1924 with illustrations by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the range of offers also includes Marcus Tullius Cicero's "Officia" (estimate: € 3,000) with magnificent woodcuts from Hans Weiditz.

Preview: November 16 - 20 from 11 am to 5 pm and on November 22 by appointment at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg
Saleroom Auction: November 23 at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg
Online Only Auction: October 28 - November 25 on www.ketterer-internet-auctions.com

York, PA – The ultimate prize from the late Dr. Paul Munchinsky’s legendary trove of baseball buttons is on deck and ready to knock it out of the park at Hake’s September 23-24 pop culture memorabilia auction, which is now open to online bidding. The oversize 6-inch button depicting the 1916 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox is deemed so important, experts believe it could set a new world auction record for a baseball pinback. It is the only 1916 World Series Championship button known to exist, with graphics depicting and identifying the manager and 24 teammates from the winning Red Sox team. Those players include three future Hall of Famers, including then-21-year-old pitching and batting phenom Babe Ruth.

The button’s crisp, visually dense display is also adorned with art images of baseball equipment and banners that say “World’s Champions 1916” and “Boston Red Sox American League.” The central advertising message on the pinback raises intriguing questions about the button’s origin and intended use. Within a black-outlined circle in capital letters, it says “DRINK ALPEN BRAU – DETROIT’S CHAMPION BEER.”

Paul Muchinsky spent years scrupulously researching why the Red Sox would appear on a button endorsing a Detroit brewery, but the mystery was never solved. Hake’s president, Alex Winter, thinks the button’s size suggests it may have been a sample made to illustrate a presentation to the brewery. “It’s the largest baseball button that had ever been made up to its time. It might have been produced in that size to maximize the detail, which is important because of the images of the players and manager.”

Any Red Sox Championship button made around the time of World War I is exceedingly rare, but the 1916 World Series button – the only one known from that year – is unquestionably the last word in baseball pinbacks. “Most serious collectors of baseball buttons would know of this button because it’s pictured on the back cover of Dr. Muchinsky’s 2004 reference book ‘Baseball Pinback Buttons,’” said Winter. “It was considered such a valuable asset, it was actually placed in a trust and not to be sold until 2037.” Recently Dr. Muchinsky’s family updated that decision, and it is now being offered by Hake’s with an opening bid of $10,000.

The auction playing field will be well covered with baseball rarities, including one of few known 1952 Mickey Mantle Fan Club real-photo buttons, $5,000-$10,000; and a 1915 “Ty Cobb Right Field” button with advertising on verso for Schmelzer’s Sporting Goods of Kansas City, Mo. “Schmelzer’s sponsored a ten-button set that year to be issued locally. It’s very rare for even one to appear at auction. We have examples of eight of the buttons in this auction, including Ty Cobb, ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson and Christy Mathewson,” Winter said. The Ty Cobb button is estimated at $10,000-$20,000. As if all that were not enough treasure to harvest from the Muchinsky collection, the auction also includes a circa-1947 Jackie Robinson “Hi Teammates” button with a facsimile signature and image of the trailblazing Hall of Famer swinging a bat. The only example of this button known to Hake’s, it is expected to make $2,000-$5,000.

A unique button is also the top highlight of the auction’s political memorabilia category. Recently discovered and new to the hobby, the Cox/Roosevelt 1920 Democratic campaign “Eagle & Rays” 7/8-inch jugate button is described in Hake’s catalog as its category’s equivalent to a Honus Wagner T206 tobacco baseball card or Action Comics #1 (which features the first appearance of Superman). Of the six varieties of Cox/Roosevelt buttons produced, four are unique or have populations of fewer than three known examples. Hake’s will offer the exciting new find, which is literally second to none, with an auction estimate of $20,000-$35,000.
 
The auction boasts 1,500 comic books in total, including nearly 300 CGC-certified issues and two titles that are among the most sought-after books of any title and any era: DC’s Superman #1 and Batman #1. Issued in Summer 1939, Superman #1 is CGC-graded 6.0 Fine. It contains the origin story of Superman and has a Superman pinup on the back cover. Batman #1, which came out in Spring 1940, is CGC-graded 6.0 Fine and introduces both The Joker and The Cat (Catwoman). A Batman and Robin pinup appears on the back cover. Both comics were formerly in the Dan Makara collection and now come to auction with individual estimates of $35,000-$50,000. Marvel Comics fans are sure to zero in on Tales Of Suspense #39 from March 1963. CGC-graded 8.0 VF, it contains the origin story and first appearance of Iron Man (Tony Stark). This high-grade, in-demand Silver Age issue warrants a $20,000-$35,000 estimate.

Although it is a more-recent comic book, Marvel’s Ultimate Fallout #4 from October 2011 is as hot as any issue in today’s marketplace. Hake’s will auction a CGC-graded 9.8NM/Mint example of this book on Day 2 of the auction. It contains the first appearance of the new Spider-Man (Miles Morales) and has the added bonus of having been signed on the cover by Stan Lee. There is no higher-graded Ultimate Fallout #4 issue in CGC Census. Estimate: $5,000-$10,000

Nearly 200 pieces of original comic art will be up for bid. A top highlight is Jim Starlin’s original pen-and-ink splash page art for the historic March 1973 Bronze Age comic book Amazing Adventures, Vol. 2 #17, which features the origin story of The Beast. Artist-signed, it is expected to reach $10,000-$20,000 at auction. A pair of Mike Hawthorne artboards that comprise the complete original cover art for Marvel’s Despicable Deadpool #299, April 2018, are artist-signed and dated 2017. “Mike is the most prolific Deadpool artist and has been nominated for both Harvey and Eisner awards. He’s well on his way to legendary status in the comic-book world,” Alex Winter stated. The lot estimate is $2,000-$5,000.

From the earliest days of American animated films comes a very rare and outstanding original Winsor McCay (1869-1934) artwork that was used in production for the 1914 cartoon Gertie The Dinosaur. Reflecting Winsor’s unmistakable style, the India-ink-on-rice-paper drawing depicts a lively Gertie with a lumbering woolly mammoth against a prehistoric mountain landscape. “This is only the second original ‘Gertie’ artwork we’ve offered in our 53 years, and it’s by far the superior example of the two,” said Winter. Estimate: $10,000-$20,000

Close to 200 Star Wars lots will make an Earth landing at Hake’s sale. An encapsulated Boba Fett L-slot rocket-firing prototype of the action figure from Kenner’s 1979 Star Wars toy line is AFA-graded 80+ NM and originated from an ex-Kenner employee. It comes with a notarized CIB LOA and letter of provenance from Star Wars expert Brian Rachfal. Estimate: $50,000-$75,000. A fast-rising Star Wars collector subcategory is foreign and exotic productions. Two action figures of this type will make their auction debuts in the September sale. The first, a Glasslite “Star Wars: Droids – VLIX” 4½-inch action figure, AFA-graded 40 G (archival case), is encapsulated on a Brazilian blister card and copyrighted “1988 Lucasfilm Ltd.” From a Brazilian consignor, it is estimated at $20,000-$35,000. An SB Products unlicensed action figure “Blue Stars Uzay” is an all-blue 3¾-inch Turkish version of the iconic Star Wars character Hoth Snowtrooper. The figure is encapsulated on a blister card, is AFA-graded 60 Q-VG (archival case), and is accompanied by a notarized CIB COA. Estimate: $10,000-$20,000

Hake’s Sept. 23-24, 2020 auction is now open for bidding. For a free catalog or additional information, call 866-404-9800 (toll-free) or 717-434-1600. Email hakes@hakes.com. Online: https://hakes.com

Notre Dame, IN — The Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame has added to its impressive collection of over 10,000 photographs with the addition of a cabinet card portrait of the writer Oscar Wilde taken by Napoleon Sarony.

David Acton, Curator of Photographs at the Snite Museum, states, "In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Napoleon Sarony was regarded as the leading photographic portraitist in New York. From his studio in Union Square, he also produced fashionable celebrity photographs, mostly in the small, collectible carte-de-visite format. Sarony photographed virtually every star of the New York stage during the 1860s through the 1890s, his work helping to create and perpetuate his subjects’ fame.”

In 1882, at age twenty-six, Oscar Wilde arrived in New York. He had just published his first volume of poetry and had recently enjoyed acclaim in London social circles for his epicene character and sharp wit. To promote his career in the US, Wilde signed with agent Richard D’Oyly Carte, who was also the producer of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera Patience; or Bunthorne’s Bride. Wilde embarked on a lecture tour in association with the opera, a work that tells the story of the rivalry between two poets—Bunthorne and Grovesnor—for the attention of female admirers. The opera satirizes the English aesthetic movement in literature and art, and the pretension of all stylish fads. Appearing on stage dressed in knee-breeches and pumps, Wilde both celebrated and poked gentle fun at aesthetic movement poetry and Pre-Raphaelite art with his trademark witty self-deprecation.

Before the tour, Wilde visited Sarony’s studio to pose for a series of publicity photographs, of which the Snite Museum’s photograph became one of the most famous. They were sold at tour stops, at Sarony’s, and other fashionable photography studios, and exported to Britain. After a successful New York engagement, Wilde toured the American continent, presenting 141 lectures over eleven months. Although his style and subject invited ridicule, his effortless ability to humiliate attackers with sharp wit delighted audiences.

“The Museum’s collection of nineteenth-century photography ranks as among the finest in the United States, and this acquisition will make an important contribution, individually and collectively,” stated Joseph Antenucci Becherer, PhD, Director of the Snite Museum of Art. “As we work towards an important volume and exhibition on this aspect of our collection, this particular image will surely resonate visually and historically with scholars and museum-going audiences alike.”

Kansas City, Missouri — The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City will debut the traveling retrospective Robert Blackburn & Modern American Printmaking, which celebrates Blackburn as a key figure in the development of printmaking in the 20th century. The exhibition highlights Blackburn’s legendary contributions to the technical and aesthetic development of abstract color lithography. It also highlights his encouragement of artists at the time and situates him beside the teachers, friends, and collaborators he engaged with throughout his life. Blackburn was born to Jamaican parents in 1920 and grew up in New Jersey and Harlem. He opened his own lithographic press and workshop in 1947 and became one of the leading artists of color in New York.  

“Robert Blackburn’s generous spirit, avant-garde ideas, and technical expertise affirmed printmaking as fine art and transformed it in the process,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell CEO & Director of the Nelson-Atkins. “His forward thinking propelled American modernism throughout his six-decades-long career.”

The exhibition features approximately 60 prints and related materials by Blackburn and the artists with whom he collaborated, including Grace Hartigan, Robert Rauschenberg, Elizabeth Catlett, and Romare Bearden, among others. An heir to the Harlem Renaissance, an influential teacher, celebrated collaborator, and pioneering artist, Blackburn embraced democracy in terms of the creative process and access to art.

"It's powerful to remember that Blackburn established a welcoming, collaborative, and multicultural printmaking workshop in New York in late 1947,” said Deborah Cullen, curator of the exhibition for the Smithsonian. “His life touched so many diverse circles of artists, and as he engaged them in his workshop, he nurtured a creative community like none other in the nation."

Including galleries in both the historic Nelson-Atkins building and the Bloch building, Robert Blackburn & Modern American Printmaking follows the trajectory of Blackburn’s career. It includes his extremely productive period during the graphics boom of the 1960s when he also served as the first Master Printer for United Limited Artists Editions, and showcases the decades of the 1970s through the 1990s during which Blackburn’s workshop was a hotbed of innovation that attracted artists from around the world.

“Through six sections, the exhibition takes visitors from the 1930s when Blackburn was a student in Harlem, to the establishment of his own printmaking workshop in the late 1940s that he expanded beyond lithography in the 1950s,” said Stephanie Fox Knappe, Samuel Sosland Curator, American Art. “It traces his artistic evolution from the figurative to the abstract while mapping the creative community in which he was ensconced, and spans his extremely productive periods in the following decades.”

The exhibition concludes with the last years of the artist’s life when he was awarded MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and ends with his final major project—a commission from the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York to create twelve permanent mosaics inspired by his lifetime of printmaking for the 116th Street subway station—which is represented in the exhibition by new video by Argenis Apolinaro. Robert Blackburn & Modern American Printmaking presents a lively picture of an artist and contributions through a celebration of Blackburn and the democratic, diverse, and creative community at which he was the center.
 
This free exhibition comes to the Nelson-Atkins courtesy of the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Services in cooperation with the Trust for Robert Blackburn and The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts’ Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Program. The exhibition is supported by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation and funding from the Smithsonian’s Provost Office.