Focus On Women
Officers
Devon Eastland
Senior Specialist
deastland@swanngalleries.com
(212) 254-4710 ext. 18
George S. Lowry
Chairman
Nicholas D. Lowry
President, Principal Auctioneer
924899
Andrew M. Ansorge
Vice President & Controller
Alexandra Mann-Nelson
Chief Marketing Officer
2030704
Todd Weyman
Vice President & Director, Prints & Drawings
1214107
Nigel Freeman
Vice President & Director, African American Art
Rick Stattler
Vice President & Director, Books & Manuscripts
Administration
Andrew M. Ansorge
Vice President & Controller
aansorge@swanngalleries.com
Ariel Kim
Client Accounting
akim@swanngalleries.com
Diana Gibaldi
Operations Manager
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Kelsie Jankowski
Communications Manager
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Jessica Jackson
Shipping Coordinator
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Celebrating Swann's Second Annual Focus on Women Sale
Devon Eastland
Swann’s second annual Focus on Women sale, as its name suggests, is an opportunity to emphasize women’s experiences and contributions to literature, science, art, politics, and thought. With published and manuscript material from the hand-press period, through the work of living artists, bidders will have a chance to bid on photographs, prints, books, and ephemera while remembering women’s stories through time.
"Jo" is not myself any more than the others are my sisters, only suggestions of the four real girls. I consider her a failure, for she was meant as a warning, & to my surprise naughty, riotous, peppery Jo turns out to be the favorite.
1
Alcott, louisa may (1832-1888)
Autograph Letter Signed, undated, post-1868.
Single wove bifolium sheet inscribed over four pages in brown ink to a Miss or Mrs. Thurston, written in response to a fan letter praising Little Women, with original folds, signs of handling, unfolded dimensions: 8 3/4 x 7 in.
Miss or Mrs. Thurston Dear Madam,
As I don't [have] your proper address I must be a little formal in the beginning, but I thank you very much for your kind note, for these tokens of interest from strangers are among the pleasantest consequences of story writing.
My "Little Women" have much astonished their Momma by making many friends for themselves, & she can only account for it by the grain of truth that lay at the bottom of the little story.
The praise & value most you have given me, in saying that my effort to do something toward putting simpler & healthier food before the little people has been made evident at least, though very imperfectly carried out.
I have such a love and reverence for children that it makes me heart-sick to see the trash offered them, when there is so much that is true & fresh & helpful in their own innocent hearts & lives, if wiser, older heads would only learn how to shadow it forth in [hearty crossed out] plain words for their pleasure & instruction. The little people have taught me more than I can ever teach them, & my greatest satisfaction is the friendship with which they honor me.
"Jo" is not myself any more than the others are my sisters, only suggestions of the four real girls. I consider her a failure, for she was meant as a warning, & to my surprise naughty, riotous, peppery Jo turns out to be the favorite. I'm afraid it's a proof of natural depravity in the rising generation.
Very truly yours,
L.M. Alcott
Allestree, richard (1619-1681)
The Ladies Calling.
Oxford: at the Theater, 1676.
Octavo, engraved frontispiece, engraved vignette of the Sheldonian Theater on title page; bound in full contemporary dark morocco tooled in gilt, marbled endleaves, aeg., ex libris Sarah and Ann Salmon with inscriptions to ffep and title, 7 x 4 1/4 in.
ESTC R35685; Wing A-1144.
Andreini, isabella (1562-1604)
Lettere.
Venice: Alla Minerva, 1647.
12mo, divisional title for second part, lacking final ?blank; bound in full 19th century tan calf tooled in blind, aeg, 5 1/2 x 3 in.
Andreini was a renowned Commedia dell’Arte actress and published poet. Her works are scarce at auction.
Anonymous.
The History of Miss Indiana Danby.
Dublin: Printed for J. Hoey senior, P. Wilson, J. Exshaw, S. Cotter, E. Watts, H. Saunders, J. Hoey junior, J. Potts, S. Watson, R. Bell, & J. Williams, 1766-1767.
Four 12mo volumes bound in two, second Dublin edition, apparently not in ESTC, which records a Dublin imprint with an identical list of printers dated 1765, and a 1767 London edition, but nothing answering to the description of the present copy; old ownership signatures aggressively trimmed from the top portion of the title pages of the first and third volume, and to the first page of text with loss to the top six or so lines on the verso of the first leaf of the first volume [B1], similar damage to the first leaf of the third volume [A3]; bound in uniform contemporary full calf, stiffly rebacked, with new labels, a few tears to text leaves repaired with tape, 6 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.
Set out in epistolary format, this anonymous novel, attributed to “A Lady” according to the London edition, was produced to appeal to women with entertainment deemed appropriate for their expected interests and tastes. Although somewhat formulaic in its plot and novelistic devices, similar stories published in this period nonetheless informed heavily the work of young and emerging female authors. Published ten years before Jane Austen’s birth, Miss Indiana Danby’s adventures can be read as a set of steps from the ground floor of women’s writing leading hopefully up into higher and more sophisticated levels of storytelling.
The 1765 Dublin edition in ESTC [N32713] lists one holding worldwide, at Harvard; this edition not in ESTC; rare at auction.
Anthony, susan b. (1820-1906) & ida husted harper (1851-1931)
The History of Woman Suffrage.
New York: Fowler & Wells, 1881-1922.
First edition of the full set in six volumes, all bound in original publisher’s red textured cloth, titled in gilt on spines, first two volumes with neat ownership inscription to ffep, volume three with a gift inscription, some slight condition issues to bindings, generally a bright set not often found in its complete form, each volume 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 in., occupying 15 inches of shelf space. (6)
Arnold, eve (1912-2012)
Marilyn Monroe in the Nevada desert rehearsing lines during filming of The Misfits.
Circa 2000, originally captured in 1960.
Silver print with Arnold’s signature in pencil on verso; the image 11 1/2 x 17 in.; the sheet 16 x 20 in..
Baker, josephine (1906-1975) & ethel waters
Program for the New Plantation Revue’s Show, “Tan Town Topics.”
New York: De Pamphilis Press, 51 Greenwich Ave., [1925].
Four-page program detailing the entertainment lineup for the midnight shows held at the Plantation Club, a rooftop venue over the Winter Garden Theater; with a racist graphic depicting a Black child eating a watermelon on the cover; the show was headlined by Ethel Waters, the main production called, “The Mikado in Dixie,” listing Josephine Baker in a scene in an impression of Johnny Hudgins called, “Taken from the County Jail,” and Baker listed again as performing in the Revue in an act called, “Hot Foot’n”; some old folds, discoloration likely from being glued in an album, 10 7/8 x 8 in. unfolded.
Nineteen-year-old Baker departed the U.S. for France in 1925, thus elevating herself from minor player to immortal star.
Barton, clara (1821-1912)
Autograph Letter Signed, to Phillip U. Adams.
Oxford, 27 July 1908.
Octavo-format ruled paper, written over three pages, explaining how the addressee’s shelf clock could not have come from her immediate family and reminiscing about family clocks and the period when she lived in Dansville, written on a folded sheet; horizontal folds, with the original envelope, addressed in holograph and additionally signed with initials, 9 1/2 x 8 in.
Barton writes, in part: “I am searching for clocks, which were a part of the household in my early days, and in the change and march of time have quite disappeared. Neither of them […] were shelf clocks, but tall, upright, the one wood, the other brass, of superb English workmanship. These were both in Oxford, the home of my direct branch of Bartons. […] Some of these descendants, being both wealthy & elegant, may have made the gift, but I have never given away an old time family relic. I regret that I cannot claim some connection with the clock, but I am glad to know that we have met even in the long age days of dear old Dansville. That word is a talisman to all of us who enjoyed its healing life.”
Bierstadt, eliza (1833-1896)
One Mixed Media Miniature Painting; and Original Botanical Collage.
Including a “Bierstadt Butterfly,” created by painting one half and then folding the sheet, this one rendered in green tones with some reddish orange dappling, the head, legs, and antennae added by hand, mounted in an oval gilt mat and inscribed by the artist at the bottom, “N. Conway Aug. 1866; Miss E. Bierstadt,” mounted on an album page, the matted piece 5 x 4 in.;
[And] a collage made of dried botanical specimens including the spathe of two jack in the pulpit flowers, mounted on an oval sheet on a slightly larger oval of pink paper, and set on the verso of the same album page with the butterfly, inscribed at the top, “Haverhill, N.H., June 10, 1867,” in Bierstadt’s hand; the specimen dry and delicate; the oval mount measuring 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 in., the album page 9 1/2 x 7 3/4 in.
Bierstadt, whose surname brings to mind her more famous painter brothers, was the first female American art dealer. Beginning with the sale of family work at the Ellis Gallery in New Bedford, Massachusetts, she was able to expand her stock to include the work of Charles Henry Gifford, artists of the Hudson River Valley school, and others. Her brother Albert also created the Rorschach-style butterflies. Both of the pieces in this lot were created during summer sojourns to New Hampshire.
The first graphic novel published by a woman.
10
Bochoráková-dittrichová, helena (1894-1980)
Enfance.
Vyškov [Brno]: Obzina, for Dorbon-Aîné, Paris, 1 October 1930.
Small octavo, first edition in French, one of 310 copies; a graphic novel illustrated with ninety-four woodcuts and text in French; original paper-covered publisher’s boards, in a well-preserved original dust jacket with a large woodcut of the author as a babe on the front panel, 6 1/8 x 4 1/2 in.
The first edition of Bochoráková-Dittrichová’s autobiography was printed in an edition of sixty copies only in Czechoslovakia in 1929 under the title, Z Mého Detství , From my Childhood. This French edition came next, followed by an English-language version in 1931. This, her first work, is also the first graphic novel published by a woman.
Bochoráková-dittrichová, helena (1894-1980)
Seven Signed Woodcuts.
Including four from the Brno series printed in two or three colors; and three printed in black ink: one depicting the inside of gothic cathedral with columns, chandeliers, and a large stained glass window; one showing a town square with a steeple and billowy clouds in the sky; and one printed on lightweight Japanese tissue showing the Hotel Continental in Brno, Czech Republic under construction in 1962 with subject and date in artist’s hand on verso of mount, sizes vary, small to large folio sheets. (7)
Bochoráková-dittrichová, helena (1894-1980)
Venezia.
Brno: Grafický Klub pro Moravu, 1926.
Folio-format folder with woodcut title and date on front cover, and limitation information on the back, containing six woodcuts in two or three colors depicting scenes in Venice, copy number 14 from a limited edition of 100 copies printed, each print signed by the artist in pencil, some rust stains from paper clips in the top blank margin of the wrapper, the recto of one print, and the verso of one other print, slight paper clip dents, 16 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.
Bochoráková-dittrichová, helena (1894-1980)
Z Mého Detství Drevoryty.
Prague: Obzina, 1929.
First edition, copy number 49 of 60 copies printed, signed by the artist in pencil on the title page, with a preface written by Arne Novák, the text consisting of ninety-four original woodcuts, the first graphic novel ever published by a woman; bound in publisher’s half parchment with gold tooling on front board and gold lettering on the spine, this copy partially unopened, 6 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.
Bochoráková-dittrichová, helena (1894-1980)
Zahrada Snu, Cyklus sesti suchych jehel.
Brno: Grafický Klub pro Moravu, 1926.
Folio-format folder with typographical title printed in red and black on the front and limitation page on the back, containing six drypoint etchings of the artist’s “Dream Garden” of the title, printed on wove Van Gelder Zonen watermarked paper, five of six signed in pencil by the author, some minor foxing, 16 1/4 x 12 1/4 in.
Bradstreet, anne (1612-1672)
Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning, full of Delight.
[Boston?]: [no printer] Reprinted from the second edition, 1758.
Third edition, octavo & 12mo, originally published under the title, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America, authorship on the title attributed to “a Gentlewoman in New-England,” ex libris Reverend Samuel Buell (1716-1798) with his signature on the title page dated 1773, and his daughter Mary Polly Buell’s (1768-1849) calligraphic signature on ffep; lacking both boards, with a strip of tanned leather adhering to the spine, ffep chipped, margins closely trimmed, 6 x 4 in.
[Together with] A Faithful Narrative of the Remarkable Revival of Religion in the Congregation of Easthampton on Long-Island, [which contains a biography of Reverend Buell], Sag Harbor: Alden Spooner, 1808, provided with the lot for context, owned by the same family. (2)
Bradstreet was the first published English North American colonial author. Born in England, she emigrated to Massachusetts Bay in 1630. Her male contemporaries publicly complained that women were not capable of writing well. Governor Winthrop graciously suggested that she focus on housekeeping. Even so, she wrote, thought, published, gave birth to eight children, and would not accept attempts to constrain her expression.
“Now say, have women worth? Or have they none? Or had they some, but with our queen is’t gone? Nay Masculines, you have thus taxt us long, But she, though dead, will vindicate our wrong, Let such as say our Sex is void of Reason, Know tis a Slander now, but once was Treason.”
ESTC W22243; Evans 8091; Sabin 7298; Wegelin’s American Poetry 30.
Bresslern-roth, norbertine (1891-1978)
Flamingos.
1927.
Color linoleum cut on Japan paper, wide margins, signed and titled “Handdruck” in pencil, lower margin, a very good impression, 8 3/8 x 73/4 in.
Bresslern-Roth was born and worked in Graz, Austria. She exhibited with the Vienna Secession in the 1910s and was a pioneering European color woodcut and linoleum-cut artist.
Brooks, gwendolyn (1917-2000)
A Street in Bronzeville, First Edition.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945.
Stated first edition, octavo, in the publisher’s black cloth binding stamped in orange and gilt and original unclipped dust jacket, some losses to spine panel of jacket, slight surface abrasions to same, 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.
Brooks was the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize, which she won for poetry in 1950. Born in Topeka, Kansas, Brooks’s family moved to Chicago just six weeks after her birth. She published her first poem at the age of thirteen. By the time she was sixteen, she had published seventy-five.
Brown, cecily (b. 1969)
The Battle Between Carnival and Lent (after Bruegel).
New York: Two Palms Press for Downtown for Democracy, 2017.
Archival pigment print on Hahnemüle paper, full margins, signed, dated and numbered 71/100 in pencil, lower right, 18 x 24 in. (sheet).
According to the artist, “The Battle between Carnival and Lent is a depiction of greed and foolishness, hypocrisy, falseness, idiotic excess and mockery. That is why it seemed a fitting image for these times. But the image also contains a liveliness and wit that makes it impossible to despair. The image is a copy of Pieter Breugel’s painting of the same name–it shows the contrast of virtue and vice; self-denial versus self-indulgence and the folly of both.”
Buck, pearl s. (1892-1973)
The Good Earth.
New York: The John Day Company, [1931].
First edition of the Pulitzer Prize winner, octavo, bound in publisher’s brown cloth, green pictorial endleaves, top edge stained green, and original pictorial dust jacket; small scuff to corner of cloth, back board, dust jacket slightly dusty, spine panel slightly faded and detached, otherwise nicely preserved, ex libris New York book dealer and collector Helene Champlain with her neat signature in ink to title, 8 x 5 1/2 in.
Burr, hattie a. (fl. circa 1886)
The Woman Suffrage Cook Book.
Boston: Published in Aid of the Festival and Bazaar [by C.H. Simonds & Co. Printers], December 13-19, 1886.
First edition, octavo, with an advertisement for The Woman’s Journal opposite the contents leaf, with quotes from prominent women singing the journal’s praises, including Louisa May Alcott, Maria Mitchell, Mary Livermore, Clara Barton, and Frances Willard, containing 112 pages of recipes, followed by sections on cooking for and caring for ill people, a miscellaneous section that includes cleaning and stain removing remedies, and tips on destroying household insects, ending with a tract entitled, “Eminent Opinions on Woman Suffrage”; a well worn copy in publisher’s fabric spine and boards printed with the title in red and black, staining throughout, some leaves loose, extra recipes clipped from publications and tacked to the endleaves, 7 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.
Cabrini, frances xavier (1850-1917)
Letter Signed, Mother Frances X. Cabrini, to physician John Benjamin Murphy.
Seattle, 10 July 1916.
Quarto, three folded pages, minor smudging at end of text (not affecting signature), offering elaborate congratulations on his recent appointment to the Order of St. Gregory the Great, 11 1/2 x 8 1/4 in.
“The honor, which has recently been conferred upon you, is the great reward you so well deserve. […] You have known how to show an abundance of kindness toward suffering humanity, and in return the Tender Heart of our dear Savior, so lovingly touched by your generosity, has been pleased to confer upon you, through His Representative on earth a precious gift. […] May the Benign Heart of Jesus bestow upon you every good; strewing your path with consolations and peace, and may the happiness you shed around others be reflected in your own life.”
On June 16, 1916, John Benjamin Murphy was awarded the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great, a papal order of knighthood.
Mother Cabrini founded a Catholic missionary group to support Italian immigrants to the United States. As the first U.S. citizen to be canonized by the Church in 1946, she is revered as the patron saint of immigrants, with shrines dedicated to her in Manhattan, Colorado, and Chicago.
Cahun, claude [aka lucy schwod] (1894-1954)
Aveux Non Avenus.
Paris: Éditions du Carrefour, 1930.
Limited edition, copy number 82; one of 370 copies printed on velin pur fil Lafuma, illustrated with ten full-page heliogravures of mixed media collages by Cahun and her partner and artistic collaborator Marcel Moore [aka Suzanne Malherbe], one text vignette on the table of contents leaf at the end; in publisher’s original limp wrappers with original glassine and slipcase, slight toning to spine, short tear at head of spine, generally very good; 8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in.
Cahun & Moore departed from their birth names and lived life in gender fluidity. In Aveux Non Avenus, she writes of herself, “Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.” As a queer non-binary visual artist, writer, sculptor, and performance artist, Cahun presented a radical point of view, even for surrealism.
Cassatt, mary stevenson (1844-1926)
Margot Wearing a Bonnet (No. 1).
Circa 1902.
Drypoint on cream laid paper, full margins, a very good, strong impression with traces of burr on the child’s hair, 9 x 6 in.
Breeskin 179.
Cassatt, mary stevenson (1844-1926)
Margot Wearing a Bonnet (No. 3).
Circa 1902.
Drypoint on antique cream laid paper, full margins; crowned coat-of-arms with a fleur-de-lys and half-eagle watermark, a very good, dark and evenly-printed impression still with burr in the child’s hair and the contours of the arms and hands, 9 x 6 in.
Breeskin 181.
Chase, louisa (1951-2016)
Untitled, [from the Skowhegan Suite.]
1991.
Color lithograph with chine collé, print number one from an edition of eighty, floating in a modern frame with all edges of the sheet visible, 32 x 27 3/4 in.
Chicago women’s graphics collective.
Cry Out.
Chicago: Women’s Liberation Union, [1972].
Silkscreen poster on white paper, printed in purple and black, incorporating text at the top, a woman with her head down and upraised fists in the center, a second woman in profile, lots of long hair, the Venus with fist symbol, and the following text along the bottom, “Graphics - Chicago Womens Liberation Union - 2875 W. Cermak Rd. Rm 9”, some short tears and folds, nicks, old pinholes to corners, masking tape to corners on verso, 26 x 20 in.
This is the first poster produced by the Chicago Women’s Graphic Collective. Original examples are rare.
Club le monocle.
Black-and-White Press Photo.
1930s.
An image of five women seated at a table in the club with three in dresses and the other two in tuxedos, with stamps on verso indicating the photo was taken by Paul Balassa, and identifying French and American press; pencil notations indicating the name of the club in Montparnasse, and identifying one of the women in the photo as Lulu Munn, 7 x 9 1/2 in.
Club le Monocle opened in Paris in the 1920s as a safe space for lesbian patrons to gather. According to text on the verso of this image, Lulu Munn, the Montmartre club’s owner is pictured in this image. Women wore monocles to quietly identify as gay within the community, thus the name of the club. The Nazi occupation of Paris forced le Monocle to close its doors in the 1940s, but it did re-open after the war on Boulevard Edgar Quinet, with a monocle-shaped facade. (cf. https://www.messynessychic.com/2016/09/14/inside-le-monocle-the-parisian-lesbian-nightclub-of-the-1930s/)
Colette, sidonie gabrielle (1873-1954)
Trois… Six… Neuf… , Signed Presentation Copy.
Paris: Corrêa, 1946.
Octavo, signed on half-title, “Pour André Lang, en souvenir de Colette,” with a typographical error, “Troix” instead of “Trois” corrected by the author, bound in limp publisher’s paper covers, 6 1/2 x 5 in.
Cookbooks by women, two british examples: 1788 & 1811.
Including: Hannah Glasse’s (1708-1770) The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, London: Printed for Rivington and Sons et alia, 1788, octavo, lacking the bill of fare plate, contemporary leather boards, rebacked; 8 1/8 x 5 in.
[and] The Young Woman’s Companion: or Frugal Housewife, Manchester: Printed by Russell & Allen, 1811, first edition, octavo, illustrated with six full-page engravings; bound in later paper over boards, 8 x 4 3/4 in.
Glasse: ESTC T103512.
Croy, norma jean (b. 1954)
Free Norma Jean Croy, Original Silkscreen for Making T-Shirts.
[?San Francisco, 1980s or 1990s.]
The original silkscreen used to make t-shirts for Croy’s cause; [together with] a white t-shirt newly printed from the silkscreen; signs of use, old ink.
Norma Jean Croy was convicted of the pre-meditated murder of a police officer and sentenced to life in prison based on a racially charged incident in Yreka, California in 1978. An argument at a convenience store escalated to a melee at a private home in the course of which the police discharged more than 200 rounds, and a small group of young Shasta-Karok Native Americans fired three bullets. Croy and her brother were both shot by the police. Her brother returned fire, killing a police officer instantly with one shot. Norma Jean never handled any weapons. Nonetheless, she was convicted and jailed. Judge Edward Stern, who presided over Croy’s brother’s appeal in 1991 noted, “I think that when Norma Jean Croy comes up for a parole hearing again, […] the parole board should take into consideration the fact that this court believes that had Norma Jean Croy been tried in the case I heard, [she] would have been found not guilty. […] I want the record to be clear that this is my judgment, my opinion, having heard the evidence in this case.” Croy was finally exonerated and released from prison in 1997, after being wrongly incarcerated for eighteen years. In the 1990s, Croy’s cause, often alongside that of Leonard Peltier, was featured by a number of social justice groups working to free wrongly convicted Indigenous Native Americans. This silkscreen is proof of the insistent grassroots activism that helped keep her case in the public eye.
Cunningham, imogen (1883-1976)
Agave.
Circa 1970, originally captured in 1920.
Silver print with Cunningham’s signature and date in pencil on mount recto, and a Cunningham Trust label with the typewritten title and negative date, on mount verso, image 95/8 x 7 3/4 in. on a 14 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. mount
From a Private New Jersey Collector.
Cunningham, imogen (1883-1976)
The Unmade Bed.
Silver print with Cunningham’s facsimile signature and chop blind stamp on mount recto, and a Cunningham Trust label with the title and negative date (1957), and the printer’s signature in ink, undated, likely 1990s, matted; the image 10 x 13 in., the mount 16 x 20 in.
Davis, angela (b. 1944) illus. dana c. chandler jr.
This Black Woman is a Heroine!! Free Angela Now!!! Don’t Wait Until She is Dead to Honor Her!
[Boston?], 1970.
Lithographic poster printed in black ink on pale blue paper, slight tear to top blank margin, bottom corner creased, 22 x 17 in.
[Together with] Rally to Free Angela Davis, Boston: New England Free Press, [1970], lithographic poster printed in black ink on red paper advertising a rally featuring Fania Jordan (Davis’s sister), a representative from the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers, poetry, music, and more, held on December 11, 1970 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Boston, sponsored by the Greater Boston Committee to Defend Angela Davis, featuring a sketched illustration of Davis speaking and text, 20 x 14 in.
Chandler (b. 1941) [aka Akin Duro], who described himself as a Pan-African Artist, was educated at the Massachusetts College of Art in the 1960s. Inspired by the Black Power movement, he created a number of striking images used in Black Panther publications, in addition to painting murals in Roxbury.
De kooning, elaine fried (1918-1989)
Small Archive of Material.
Including the following pieces:
1) de Kooning’s personal address book, small-format commercially produced mid-century with alphabetical tabs, much used, with dozens of names, addresses, telephone numbers and other random information recorded in her hand, 4 x 3 in.
2) a film reel from NBC New York in its original case labeled “Kennedy Art”, not viewed but presumably containing a TV news piece about de Kooning’s portrait of President Kennedy, 8 x 8 in.
3) an unused sketchbook of Aquabee CanvaSkin paper with “Elaine” in pen on the front cover;
4) Thomas B. Hess’s biography of Willem de Kooning published in the Great American Artist series by Braziller, 1959, with Elaine de Kooning’s ownership rubber stamp to title and copiously annotated with her corrections and reports of inaccuracy throughout the text, 10 x 7 in.
5) two small metal and mixed material sculptural pieces that may be prototypes for jewelery designs, approximately 3 x 3 in.
6) three large-format reproductions of self-portraits, (rolled); and
7) an assortment of ephemera including several exhibition brochures advertising Elaine de Kooning’s work, some with her handwritten notes.
De kooning, elaine fried (1918-1989)
Untitled (Cave).
Circa 1992-1994 after the circa 1985 wax original.
Bronze relief sculpture from an edition of thirteen, incised artist’s signature, lower center recto, with the foundry mark “RD” on lower left edge, 15 x 13 x 1 1/2 in.
Provenance: the artist Conrad Fried (1920-2009), Elaine de Kooning’s brother, Sullivan County, New York; acquired directly from the former by private collection, Sullivan County, New York.
This bronze relief was designed by de Kooning (1918-1989) toward the end of her long, illustrious career as an artist; there is another cast of the bronze on the artist’s gravestone at the Green River Cemetery, East Hampton, New York. The bronze was cast posthumously, in an edition of thirteen, under the direction of Conrad Fried, from a wax model in the artist’s studio.
Dehner, dorothy (1901-1994)
Skating.
1953, printed circa 1991.
Color engraving printed in reddish pink and black on white wove paper, full margins, from an edition of 125, signed and inscribed “Ed. 125” in pencil, lower margin, a very good impression, 12 3/4 x 4 in.
Dumas, marlene (b. 1953)
Imitating the Fathers.
1989.
Color lithograph printed in black and light beige on Zerkall cream wove paper, full margins, signed and dated in pencil, lower right, a very good impression with strong contrasts, 15 x 17 1/2 in.
Dutton, elizabeth schooley (1839-1927)
Two Autograph Books with her Signature and those of other Quakers from Waterford, Loudoun County, Virginia, 1850s-1860s.
Two quarto-format autograph books containing mainly short sentimental verses and signatures of friends and relatives, one belonging to a person named Thamison, the other owned by someone only identified as Mary; in this album, signature pages with Lizzie Dutton’s signature also include those of her sister, Mary F. Dutton; her brother, James B. Dutton; and two Steer cousins, Mary & Frances; one with limp speckled paper covers, the other in full gilt-stamped period brown morocco, rubbed, sizes vary. (2)
Dutton, along with her sisters, established a pro-Union literary society in their town of Waterford, VA before the Civil War broke out. Empowered by parents who believed in the education of girls, free-thinking, and Quaker precepts, they started a political newspaper to express their views at the outbreak of the war. While only in their early twenties, they were forced to smuggle the manuscript material that they composed over the Potomac River to Baltimore, where a friend of their father’s printed up The Waterford News. They published eight issues of the paper between 28 May 1864 and April of 1865, even expressing dismay in print at Grant’s assault on their town. “We do not believe, if our Government had been as well acquainted with us as we are with ourselves, the order for the recent burning would have been issued; but having suffered so much at the hands of the Rebels since the commencement of this cruel war, we will cheerfully submit to what we feel assured our Government thought a military necessity.”
Dwight, mabel (1875-1955)
Farmyard.
New York: Associated American Artists, 1947.
Lithograph on cream wove paper, signed in pencil bottom right, matted, the sheet 15 1/4 x 11 1/14 in.
Dwight, mabel (1875-1955)
Feeding the Chickens.
New York: Federal Art Project, WPA, 1938-1939.
Lithograph on cream wove paper, signed by the artist in pencil, lower right, titled on verso perhaps in the artist’s hand, with WPA stamp in lower left corner, slight mat burn, matted, the sheet 15 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.
Earhart, amelia (1897-1939)
Twelve Photographs of events around her crash on Ford Island, 20 March 1937.
1937.
Including nine period black-and-white photographs of her plane after the crash: one 5 x 7 in.; three 4 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.; and five 2 1/2 x 3 in.; one photo of the plane with Earhart in the frame; one photograph showing Earhart after the crash listening to General Yount with a serious expression; and two photographs of Earhart on the steamship Lurline going home "after the crackup" festooned in leis; several photos stamped on the verso by O.H. [Otto Hickman] Hornung, Jr. of Honolulu; each photo mounted on black paper album pages with typed captions; sizes vary, all but one nicely preserved.
On 20 March 1937, in an attempt to complete the second leg of her flight around the world, Earhart, along with three crew members, attempted to take off from Luke Field on Ford Island in her Lockheed Electra 10E. Unfortunately, the runway was slick with rain and Earhart's attempt to correct a slight swing to the left turned into an out of control ground loop. Supported for a run of 50-60 feet on only the right wheel, the landing-gear on that side suddenly collapsed, followed rapidly by a collapse of the same gear on the left. Sliding on its belly in a shower of sparks, the plane sustained extensive damage, although the pilot and her crew emerged without injury. Plane and pilot boarded the SS Lurline headed back to Lockheed in Burbank for repairs.
Hornung Jr. clearly took some of these photographs, although the identity of the album compiler is otherwise undetermined. Several of the images viewable online concerning this incident are identical to those here. Other similar images were taken at the same time. All may share the same origin. Barton Kyle Yount (1884-1949), a decorated U.S. Army Air Forces Lieutenant General, commanded Army Air Forces Training Command and served in the first and second world wars. In 1937 he was stationed at Hickham Field, Hawaii. In the image where Yount is speaking to Earhart, he is visible only from the back, leading this cataloguer to believe that the compiler of the album must have been present or informed by someone present in order to identify him. (For more see: https://tighar.org)
Essex, john (fl. circa 1722)
The Young Ladies Conduct: or, Rules for Education, under Several Heads; with Instructions upon Dress, both before and after Marriage, and Advice to Young Wives.
London: Printed & sold by John Brotherton, 1722.
First edition, octavo, bound in contemporary boards, 7 3/4 x 4 3/4 in.
ESTC T116429; rare at auction.
Fashion and jewelry.
Six Advertising Photos.
1949-1968.
Black-and-white photos, most 8 x 10 in. featuring women modeling clothing and jewelry for advertisements, mostly for the Chicago Sun Times, all with stamps, dates, and text on versos. (6)
Female american photographers.
Thirteen Cabinet Cards.
Including photographs taken by Emma Olson of St. Paul, Minnesota; Mrs. F. Nixon [Brooklyn, NY?]; Miss [Minnie] Libby of Norway, Maine; Mrs. Harrison [no place]; an image produced by the Ladies Library Publishing & Portrait Co. in New York City; Julia O. Charles of Salamanca, New York; and Lydia Cadwell of Chicago, Illinois; including five images of women; one image of a couple; and seven images of men; sizes vary slightly, each approximately 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 in.
Minne Libby (1863-1947) operated her successful photo studio in Maine for sixty years. She attended the Boston Museum School, which is where she learned the art of photography. She was also an accomplished painter and a free spirit who eschewed the traditional clothing approved for women, preferring instead to wear men’s shirts (with flamboyant neckwear) and knickers.
Female american photographers.
Thirty Cabinet Card Portraits Taken in Southern, Midwest and West Coast States.
Including photographs taken by Cornelia Knox, of Lakeview, Oregon; Mrs. Rice of De Witt, of Nebraska; Rose Campbell of Erie, Kansas; Harriet Drum of Kansas; Miss Ella Graham of Beloit, Kansas; Olia Burger of Granby, Missouri; Mrs. Mary Brown of Cainsville, Missouri; Miss Laura Harris of Bentonville, Arkansas; Jean Honey of Clyde, Kansas; Mrs. Young of Fayetteville, Arkansas; Kay Chandler of McConnelsville, Ohio; Mrs. J.A. Webber of Rico, Colorado; Lydie Hills of Galena, Kansas; Nellie Jackson of Clinton, Missouri, and others; a few of female subjects and couples photographed by artists who only identify with initials; consisting of ten images of women; seven photos of couples and families; eight photos of children and babies; and three of men; sizes vary slightly, each approximately 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 in.
Harriet Drum (1842-1904), her son Oscar, and daughter-in-law Lottie were all photographers working in Southern Kansas and in the Oklahoma Indian Territory. They ran a railroad car studio in the early years of the 20th century.
Ella Graham and her sister Sarah ran their Beloit, KS studio jointly.
Female american photographers.
Twenty-three Cartes-de-Visite.
Including photographs taken by Miss B. J. Hadlock of Sterling, Illinois [the only tintype in the lot]; Mrs. Ruth Thomas of Camp Point, Illinois; Mrs. J.A. Reed of Morris, Illinois; Mrs. R.A. Smith of Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Vreeland of McPherson, Kansas; Mrs. P.P. Bliss [no place]; Mrs. J. Hitchcock of Canton, New York; Miss C. Smith of Lowell, Massachusetts; Miss L.A. Hart of Whitewater, Wisconsin; Mr. & Mrs. Graves of Lockport, New York; Mrs. Julia O. Charles of Salamanca, New York; Mr. & Mrs. H.B. Cady of Waitsfield, Vermont; Mrs. E.M. Howard of Alstead, New Hampshire; A.C. Hamilton with Mrs. A.G. Da Lee of Lawrence, Kansas; Mrs. Moore of Canal Street, NYC; and others, each approximately 4 x 2 1/4 in.
Female scandinavian photographers.
Fifty-seven Photographic Portraits.
Including fifty-three cartes-de-visite and four cabinet cards taken by Ina Roos of Kristinestad, Sweden; Hanna Forthmeiier of Helsingborg, Sweden; Zelma Johanson of Stenstorp, Sweden; Anna Frankel of Malmö, Sweden; Mathilda Ranch of Varberg, Sweden; Laurine Andersen of Odder, Denmark; Hilma Rude of Malmö, Sweden; Lina Tonn of Lund, Sweden; and many others.
Mathilda Ranch (1860-1938) was born in Denmark and moved to Sweden with her family at the age of ten. Her father was a photographer but passed the business of capturing images to Mathilda when she was twenty-two years old. In addition to working in studio portraiture and landscapes, Ranch was also a photojournalist. Local newspapers relied on her images of fairs and attractions, royal visits, and disasters like train derailments. She was also an active feminist whose favorite motto of solidarity was “Kvinnor Kan,” which means Women Can.
Feminist, militant, & lesbian small press publications.
Fourteen Pamphlets.
1970s.
Including:
1) The Ladder, ed. Gene Damon, vol. 14, nos. 11 & 12, August/September, 1970;
2) Willyce Kim & Wendy Cadden’s Eating Artichokes, Oakland, CA: Women ‘s Press Collective, 1972;
3) Fran Winant’s Looking at Women, New York: Violet Press, 1971;
4) Bev Balliett & Patti Patton’s Graphic Details, Phoenix, AZ: Starr Publications, 1979;
5) The Feminist Book of Lights & Shadows, Venice, CA: The Feminist Wicca, 1975, signed and isncribed by the pseudonymous editor Z. Budapest;
6) In Touch, Madison, WI: The Women’s Center, 1972;
7) Judy Grahn & Wendy Cadden’s The Common Woman, Oakland, CA: Women’s Press Collective, [n.d.];
8) Amazon, Creative Writing Issue Vol. 1, Issue 10, Milwaukee, WI: Amazon Collective, [n.d.];
9) Amazon Quarterly, Oakland, CA: Amazon Press, December 1973, Vol. 2, Issue 2;
10) Meridel LeSueur’s Rites of Ancient Ripening, Minneapolis, MN: Vanilla Press, 1976, second printing;
11) Meredith Tax’s Woman and her Mind: the Story of Daily Life, Somerville: [a Bread & Roses Publication] New England Free Press, 1970;
12) Linda Gordon’s Families, Cambridge: Bread & Roses [and] Boston: New England Free Press, 1970;
13) Womankind, Chicago: Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, 1971, Vol. 1 No. 1; and
14) The Feminist Press, 1974-1975, Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press, [1975]. (14)
Francken, ruth (1924-2006)
Untitled, No. 30.
1989.
Oil on canvas, dated and annotated “No. 30” in ink on the stretcher verso, with the “Salon Ruth Francken” estate ink stamp, on the stretcher, 32 1/2 x 48 in.
Born in Prague and exiled in Vienna during the interwar years, Francken studied painting with Arthur Segal beginning in 1939 at the Ruskin School in Oxford, England, and lived in New York from 1940 to 1950. She became an American citizen in 1942, and took classes at the Art Students League before settling in Paris in 1952. Francken is generally considered an Abstract Expressionist, though her later work also focused on sculpture, collage of different textiles with related techniques and furniture design. Her work from the late 1960s to the early 1970s is marked by an obsession with technology, as in this series of photo-metallic reliefs and collages. While sometimes included among the Pop artists for these 1960s/1970s works, the over-arching interest of much of her creative output is the association of industrial language and its conflictual relationship with fine art.
Frank, mary lockspeiser (b. 1933)
Four Untitled Figure Studies.
1963.
All ink on paper, signed and dated, including:
1) Standing Figure;
2) Figure on Back;
3) Figure on Side; and
4) Figure on Back with Raised Knee; all drawings 13 1/2 x 17 in. (4)
Frank, mary lockspeiser (b. 1933)
Four Untitled Figure Studies.
1963.
All ink on paper, signed and dated, including:
1) Figure Resting on Hand;
2) Firgure with Arm around Knee;
3) Figure on Side; and
4) Figure with Back Turned; all drawings 13 1/2 x 17 in. (4)
Frank, mary lockspeiser (b. 1933)
Taming of the Harp.
1971.
Handbuilt earthenware sculpture in two sections, 15 x 15 x 13 in. and 19 1/2 x 15 x 14 in.
Provenance: Zabriskie Gallery, NY; Private collection, acquired from above March 14, 1972.
Exhibited: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 10 Independents; An Artist Initiated Exhibition, January 14 - February 27, 1972; Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, Purchase, NY, Mary Frank: Sculpture, Drawings, Prints, June 4 - September 10, 1978. (cf. Herrera, Hayden, Mary Frank, NY, 1990, illus. p. 7.
“The 1970s witnessed a surge of women artists gaining recognition within an art world that had become greatly diversified in style, subject, and materials. The art of Mary Frank resists easy categorization and, at first glance, seems outside the mainstream of late twentieth century art. Her choice of hand-built clay as her medium for fine art sculpture and her exploration of the interconnectedness of the natural world and humanity through the imagery of the body set her apart.” (https://reynoldahouse.emuseum.com/people/496/mary-frank/objects)
Frank, mary lockspeiser (b. 1933)
Three Female Nudes.
Handbuilt earthenware sculpture, depicting three small figures in a cave-like enclosure, 8 x 11 x 3 1/2 in.
“Frank’s best-known works are the ceramic sculptures that she started making in the early 1970s, despite having had no previous experience in the medium. (She also worked at home and had no kiln, she told me in a recent phone interview, and so had to carry her fragile pieces down the hall of her apartment building, “past the baby carriages and kids on skates, down the elevator and get [them] in the truck” and off to be fired.) In addition to the Everson’s work, there are several other wonderful examples at the Dorsky, including the poignant Arching Woman (ca. 1972), a mere drape of clay that somehow manages to summon Bernini’s Saint Teresa in Ecstasy, and Three Dancers (1981), which finds an ideal midpoint between the serene choreography of Tang Dynasty tomb figures and the muscular figuration of Auguste Rodin.” (Quoted from Glenn Adamson’s From Facts to Wonder: Mary Frank’s Enigmatic Figures, https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/mary-frank-enigmatic-sculptural-figures-1234621314/)
Frank, mary lockspeiser (b. 1933)
Torso: Verso and Recto.
Handbuilt earthenware sculpture, depicting a woman’s torso in a cylidrical format, open at both ends, with incised surface marks, 11 1/2 in.
Frankenthaler, helen (1928-2011)
Untitled (Cleveland Orchestra Print).
Bedford Village, New York: Tyler Graphics, Ltd., 1978.
Color screenprint on White Arches Cover paper, full margins., signed and numbered 7/150 in pencil, lower margin, a very good impression, 22 1/2 x 30 in.
According to Harrison, “To achieve the brushstroke marks that give the print its painterly quality, the artist drew directly on the screens with liquid tusche. This method of screen making allowed her the gestural freedom that is not available in either the hand-cut film process or photo-stencil methods.” Harrison 70.
Gag, wanda (1893-1946)
Easter Morning, (Pussy Willows).
1926.
Transfer lithograph from zinc plate on wove sheet with Vidalon watermark, signed in pencil, lower right; Winnan 20; sheet 21 3/4 x 16 in.
Gag, wanda (1893-1946)
Spinning Wheel.
1928.
Wood engraving on wove paper, from an edition of 100; signed by the artist in pencil, matted; Winnan 57; image 4 3/4 x 3 7/8 in., the sheet 7 x 5 3/4 in.
Gannett, deborah sampson (1760-1827)
The Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine.
Philadelphia: Printed by William Young, February, 1792.
Octavo, containing, among other articles, an account of Gannett’s petition for pay she was denied while fighting as a man in the American Revolution, with other material of interest, including a lengthy printed article by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, disbound, 8 x 5 in.
ESTC P5459; Evans 24949.
“January 19, Boston. A petition was presented [to the House of Representatives] by a Mrs. Deborah Gannett, who served with reputation as a soldier three years in the army of the United States and received an honorable discharge therefrom. This extraordinary woman enlisted as a male by the name of Robert Shirtliff; and as such did her duty without a stain on her virtue or honor. She only prays, in her petition, for the payment of her arrears; but submits the circumstances of her services to the consideration of the legislature.” (cf. pages 142-143).
Gannett was wounded in battle, and unwilling to allow a doctor to remove two bullets from her leg, for fear her gender would be revealed, dug one out herself (penknife & sewing needle), while the other stayed lodged in her thigh for the rest of her life. Paul Revere wrote on her behalf requesting a proper military pension in 1804. Congress approved the request and put Gannett on the pension roll in 1805.
Gilman, charlotte perkins (1860-1935)
In This Our World.
Boston: Small, Manynard, & Co., 1898.
First edition, octavo, the author is listed as Charlotte Perkins Stetson on the title page, with author portrait bound opposite title, bound in publisher’s blue cloth stamped in gilt on front board and spine, 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in.
Gilman, charlotte perkins (1860-1935)
Women and Economics
Boston: Small, Maynard, & Co., 1898.
First edition, octavo, bound in publisher’s red cloth with printed paper spine label, 340 pages (small hole inside blank gutter of the final leaf, binding slightly cocked, generally good, contemporary ink signature to ffep, 7 1/2 x 4 3/4 in.
[Together with] Human Work, New York: McClure, Phillips, & Co., 1904, first edition, octavo, in publisher’s brown ribbed cloth, stamp in gilt, 7 1/2 x 5 in.
Goldman, emma (1869-1940)
Anarchism & Other Essays, Signed.
New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association, 1911.
Stated third edition on front board, flat signed in full by Goldman on ffep; octavo, with frontispiece portrait protected by a tissue guard, bound in publisher’s off-white cloth stamped in black on spine and front board, toned, damage to top of page edges, 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.
Goldman, emma (1869-1940)
Living My Life, Signed and Dated Single Volume Edition.
New York: Garden City Publishing, [1934].
Large octavo, signed by Goldman on ffep and dated London, March 22, 1938; bound in publisher’s cloth, with the original dust jacket featuring bright red sans serif type and a portrait of the author in black and white (the jacket somewhat tattered, lacking a piece of spine at the head), the binding very good; contemporary ownership stamp on ffep, 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.
Goldman, emma (1869-1940)
Living My Life.
New York: Knopf, 1931.
Stated first edition, two octavo volumes, bound in publisher’s blue cloth lettered in blue on front boards and spines, corners somewhat frayed, spines faded, contemporary ownership inscription of Anna Knauth on ffep of each volume, 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 in. (2)
Gott, ada augusta (fl. circa 1880)
Dare Fairfax.
New York: E.J. Hale & Son; Baltimore: W.H.H. Adkisson, 1872.
First edition, octavo, bound in publisher’s green cloth boards stamped in gilt, stain to bottom outside corner affecting front board and a few following pages, 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.
Gott’s work received reviews in The Southern Magazine and in The Southern Review when it was first published. The first publication described Dare Fairfax as, “A tale of considerable power and genuine pathos, very nearly spoiled by the author’s craving for intensity of style.” The latter publication noted, “The story, which opens very ingeniously, interested us from the very beginning, and the interest did not once flag till we reached the end of the volume. We devoured the book at one sitting; and if the reader is not too old to enjoy a ‘love story,’ he can easily do the same.”
Gott had a sister and brother. None married. Ada and her sister lived together at the Bristol apartments in Baltimore, where their brother Jackson, an accomplished architect, died in 1909. Ada published only this novel and two books of poetry.
Gottschalk, donna.
Sisterhood Feels Good.
New York: Times Change Press, 1971.
Offset lithographic poster printed in blue ink on pale yellow paper, masking tape to verso corners, tack holes to corners, 22 x 15 1/2 in.
Gottschalk’s pro-lesbian image of two women asleep in bed with a poster reading, “Lesbians Unite!” pinned on the wall over their heads was taken in Pennsylvania in 1969. This poster was ubiquitous in the lesbian community in the 1970s and ’80s.
Grant, beatrice of duthil (1761-1845)
Sketches of Intellectual Education and Hints on Domestic Economy Addressed to Mothers.
Baltimore: Published by Edward J. Cale, B. Edes, printer, 1813.
Octavo, likely the first American edition, preceded by a Scottish publication the previous year; uncut, in publisher’s original printed boards, front board detached, some toning and spotting to contents, boards toned and chipped, 7 x 4 3/4 in.
Mrs. Grant has included an appendix to her work on the instruction of poor children. She writes about bad habits, how to choose a wet nurse, instruction of the “deaf and dumb,” and even includes a chapter on “vaccine inoculation.”
Rare at auction; sometimes misattributed to Anne MacVicar Grant.
Greenaway, kate (1846-1901)
Mary had a Little Lamb.
October 21, 1895.
Watercolor and graphite illustration on paper painted as a Christmas card for John Ruskin; initialed and dated lower left, matted and framed, with segment of owner’s label from Ruskin sale purchase mounted to verso; image 3 1/2 x 3 in., on 7 x 5 in. sheet.
Provenance: John Ruskin; Mrs. Arthur Severn; Sale of Ruskin Manuscripts and Library, 1930, Sotheby’s London, July 24, 1930, Lot 59; Private collection, New York.
Literature: M.H. Spielmann and G.S. Layard, Kate Greenway, London: Adam and Charles Black, 1905, pictured opposite page 62.
“Indeed, charm and delicacy rather than strength are characteristic of Kate Greenaway’s genius. We see them, for example, in the little ‘Swansdown’ and companion drawings […] and in ‘Mary had a Little Lamb,’ which the artist drew as a Christmas card for professor Ruskin, with their delicate touches of colour and the exquisite pencil outline — so unhesitating and firm nevertheless, that, despite their simplicity, they rarely fail to realise the exact degree of beauty or of character intended”–page 540.
Greenaway began a correspondence with Oxford Professor and art critic Ruskin in 1880 when he wrote to compliment her on her drawings. The two developed a long and close friendship until Ruskin’s criticism of her later work ultimately eroded their relationship.
Greenaway, kate (1846-1901)
Portrait of a Girl in Kerchief and Collar.
Circa 1880s.
Oval watercolor on paper mounted to board, signed “K. Greenaway” along lower left curve, tipped to mat and framed, image 13 x 9 1/4 in., on a 17 x 13 in. board.
Provenance: Argosy Book Store; Private collection, New York, purchased from above, May 1957; thence by decent to current owner.
This portrait is believed to have been created in the 1880s, when Greenaway was at the height of her artistic talent and acclaim. Her publisher, Edmund Evans, hired poet Frederick Locker-Lampson to assist Greenaway with her verse writing. The two became close and Locker-Lampson, wealthy and well-connected, eventually began to help her enter London society in order to make beneficial introductions and promote her work to an affluent market. Commissions to paint the portraits of wealthy European patrons’ children soon followed, as well as invitations to display her paintings at the Royal Academy. This delicate portrait of a young girl may very likely have been one such portrait.
Grunzweig, ruth, photographer.
It’s All Right to be Woman Theatre.
New York: [Davis], circa 1970.
Poster printed in red ink on bright yellow paper with graphics in a sans serif type, the same image used for the documentary about the acting troupe of the same name, 22 x 17 1/4 in.
It’s All Right To Be Woman Theatre was founded by Sue Perlgut and Lynn Laredo in 1970. “The troupe created fresh and innovative forms of expression based on stories from their lives, at a time when women were beginning to break free from the roles that had traditionally defined them.” (cf. https://itsallrighttobewomantheatre.com/)
Guerrilla girls.
Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum? Signed Poster.
Long narrow lithographic poster printed in black and red on a yellow background, depicting Ingres’s Grande Odalisque wearing a guerilla mask, signed by three Guerilla Girls with their pseudonyms: Aphra Behn, Lorraine Hansberry, and Rosalind Franklin, mounted on foamcore, 27 3/4 x 10 3/4 in.
Hagin, nancy (b. 1940)
Triple Mirror.
Boston, 1973.
Self-portrait acrylic on canvas, titled and signed by the artist on the back of the canvas, with label from the Alpha Gallery on Newbury Street, Boston, affixed to back, depicting the artist in a multi-paneled mirror, created at about the time of her first solo show in 1972, with contemporary frame, 19 x 17 in.
Hagin graduated BFA from Carnegie-Mellon in 1962 and holds her MFA from Yale. She has taught at Pratt, FIT, Cooper Union, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In her work she consistently applies a realistic approach to the challenges of representing space altered by reflection. It is more common to see her distinctive style in still life.
Hallam, beverly (1923-2013)
Sun Rings.
1968.
Color monotype on cream wove paper with wide margins, signed, titled, dated, and numbered 1/1 in pencil, lower margin, a very good impression, 9 3/8 x 9 1/4 in.
Hallam was born in Lynn, Massachusetts and earned her B.S. Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1945 and her M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1953. An experimental printmaker, she relished adopting new techniques and media in her work and dedicated a large part of her career to the monotype. She exhibited at many galleries and museums throughout her career, including retrospectives at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts in 1971 and the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine in 1998.
Hammond, valerie (b. 1952)
Threshold.
Albuquerque: Tamarind Institute, 2011.
Lithograph on paper, signed, dated and numbered 5/5 in pencil, lower margin, with blind stamp lower left, a very good impression; 35 x 24 3/4 in.
Harbou, thea von (1888-1954)
Metropolis.
Prague: A. Sveceny, 1927.
First edition in Czech, translated by Marie Dolejsi, illustrated with stills from the 1927 film throughout, with illustration before the title; bound in publisher’s blue cloth boards with gilt-stamped lettering on spine and front board and a stylized building façade blocked in black, patterned endleaves, marbled edges, 8 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.
This translation of the original treatment of the expressionist science fiction film was published in the year of the film’s release to appeal to the Czech-speaking audience.
Harper, ida husted (1851-1931)
Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Signed and Inscribed by Anthony.
Indianapolis & Kansas City: Bowen-Merrill Co., 1899 & 1898.
Two large quarto volumes, a mixed set, the first ex libris Mary C. Roseborough of Elmira, Ohio, with signed presentation to her and her husband by Anthony on ffep, “In the words of […] Lucretia Mott, Be your dependence Equal, your independence mutual, your obligation reciprocal, such is the true basis of a happy marriage,” and a typed letter signed by Anthony to the Roseboroughs originally sent accompanying the gift of this book; with extensive manuscript notes in Roseborough’s hand throughout, together with many pasted clippings from relevant publications; the second volume from a different set; publisher’s cloth, volume one with a bust of Anthony stamped in gilt on the front board and gilt-lettered spine, volume one in different cloth and no stamping with a publisher’s paper label on the spine, both rubbed and bumped, 9 1/4 x 6 1/8 in. (2)
Few details on Roseborough survive, although she is listed as a subscriber to the National American Woman Suffrage Association in April of 1894.
Laura Elizabeth Sterne Harrison
As is so often the case, we know more about Sterne’s husband, Edwin Harrison, than we do of Sterne herself. Although this journal was written before she was married (13 November 1873), we may surmise she was in the company of her future husband, mainly because of the heavy interest in mining and metals, his career. Others she calls “cousins” but that could mean anything. What comes down to us is an interesting journal of an intrepid young woman whose life is under-recorded. Biographies of her husband mention that she was at one time the president of the Missouri State Federation of Women’s Clubs and that she had three children.
Harrison, laura elizabeth sterne (1847-1921)
Manuscript Diary of Several Voyages Including an Overland Trip to California, and a Climbing Trip to Mount Shasta, 1872-1873.
12mo format manuscript on wove lined paper, consisting of a single signature of 40 pages, inscribed densely in pencil throughout, approximately 3,500 words, outlining three different trips taken while the writer was a single woman.
The first recounting a journey of August 22-September 10, 1872 from Sterne’s home in St. Louis, MO toward Lake Superior by way of Chicago, IL; Escanaba, Michigan; Ishpeming, MI; Duluth, MN; Hinckley, MN; Green Bay, WI: Oconomowoc, WI; Minneapolis, MN; Fort Snelling; Milwaukee, WI, and back to St. Louis, traveling by train and boat primarily, with mention of successful post-fire rebuilding going on in Chicago, a trip to a peat mine, the Calumet copper mine, and an iron blast furnace.
The second trip June 13-21, 1873 from St. Louis to Council Bluffs, IA; Omaha, NE; Cheyenne, WI; Salt Lake City, UT; and Carson City, NV (where they stayed at the Glenbrook House); on this journey, Sterne and her party took the Union Pacific Rail Road past such sights as Echo Canyon, Castle Rock, Pulpit Rock, the Devil’s Slide and Devil’s Gates; she observed “Indians” at the train station shooting arrows for the amusement of passengers, women with “papooses” and Indian girls giggling; the visit to Salt Lake City included a guided visit to the Mormon Tabernacle with much information regarding the organ; a drive past “Mr. Young’s house”; some visits to a Crown Point mine and the mint in Carson City; Sterne concludes this section with the observation, “This is a nice place, and we don’t mind staying here a while.”
The third trip is very interesting, it begins in San Francisco on August 6, 1873, after departing the city by rail, observing Alcatraz, Angel, and Marco’s Islands, they pass by San Pablo Bay, the Straits of Carquinez, and then Suisun, stopping at Benicia, CA; Stockton; and Sacramento; followed by a somewhat harrowing stage coach ride from Redding, CA to Shasta.
“Then came packing of the human freight, nine inside five outside, stage a Concord coach, very hard, dusty, close, dreadful”; when they arrived they were first informed that at least one of their party’s bed “would have to be made with a pitchfork,” although Sterne ultimately found hers on a parlor sofa; from there the party departed for Mount Shasta on horseback with three Native Americans to help with the horses and camping baggage, they rode to a camp and ate grouse cooked on a campfire and slept directly on the ground.
The following day at 6:00 am Sterne and party began the ascent of the mountain, a peak first climbed by a woman in 1856; she describes the mouth of the crater, and the “perfectly blue” water within; after lunch and drinking snowmelt, Sterne goes with “the gentleman” to see the Whitney Glacier.
“Then after a while Mr. S. came to see if we [the women] would go too. I went with him, alone, the others preferring not to go. I felt very fully repaid for a climb to the tip top & a walk of 1/2 mile over a ridge of snow. [I] saw the Whitney Glacier. It is very beautiful, castles & spires & diamonds of snow on the side & the main body all cracked & broken with both wide and narrow channels.”
Sterne also describes the amazing view of the lakes and mountains of the Shasta Valley; the last entry in the diary is dated Monday 18 [August, 1873], “reached here tired & dirty & hungry.”
Some staining to contents, in card-weight paper wrappers with a hole punched in the top corner and a loop of string tied through it, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.
As is so often the case, we know more about Sterne’s husband, Edwin Harrison, than we do of Sterne herself. Although this journal was written before she was married (13 November 1873), we may surmise she was in the company of her future husband, mainly because of the heavy interest in mining and metals, his career. Others she calls “cousins” but that could mean anything. What comes down to us is an interesting journal of an intrepid young woman whose life is under-recorded. Biographies of her husband mention that she was at one time the president of the Missouri State Federation of Women’s Clubs and that she had three children.
Harvard college’s house cleaning team.
Salt Print, circa 1863.
Large photo trimmed to an oval and mounted on an album page, the image outlined in pencil; showing a group of thirteen women, (nine standing, four seated), a variety of ages, each woman in a long dress or skirt, some with knitted shawls, several wearing aprons, several holding dusters, rags, and brooms; and one in a kerchief; their garments mostly patterned, plaid, or dark; posing outside a large brick building with flat brick columns and windows above their heads; the image 8 x 6 in. on a 12 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. page, likely taken from a yearbook.
Harvard College maintained a cleaning staff to tend to the residents of student housing until 1950. A variety of demeaning terms were used to describe these under-recognized hard-working women, including goodies, maids, sweeps, and biddies. These positions were eliminated when the university suspected that they might demand higher wages, at which time the school turned to its own students to clean up after themselves.
Hoffman, malvina cornell (1885-1966)
Head of a Monk.
Circa 1920.
Bronze on wooden base, with the artist’s initials incised on the lower left, 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 5 in. (excluding base).
Ex-private collection, Pennsylvania.
Hosmer, harriet goodhue (1830-1908)
Autograph Letter Signed, Watertown, MA, 24 August [no year, circa 1860].
Wove bifolium inscribed over three pages to friend and author Mrs. Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), regarding Child’s written accounts of Hosmer’s celebrated sculpture, Zenobia, and her monumental sculpture of Thomas Hart Benton, and her plans to travel to St. Louis in the near future; 9 3/4 x 8 in. when unfolded.
[Together with] a brief note signed by Hosmer in 1895 on stationery from The Ledge, Bar Harbor, Maine. (2)
Living a life that seems barely possible for her time, Hosmer began in Watertown, Massachusetts under daunting circumstances. Her mother died when Hosmer was six, she lost her two little brothers in 1834 & 1835, and her older sister died when Harriet was only twelve. All of this loss seems to have encouraged her father, a physician, to raise his only remaining child to survive. Hosmer was encouraged to row, ride horses, ice skate, and draw. She traveled alone in the wilderness of the western United States, and visited the Dakota Indians. Women were not allowed to attend medical classes, but she impressed family friend Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell of the Missouri Medical College, who invited her to study human anatomy. Hosmer mentions two of her most famous sculptures in this letter, Zenobia, and the ten-foot bronze of Thomas Hart Benton made for Lafayette Park in St. Louis, MO.
In addition to championing Hosmer’s work in print, Child was also active in transcendentalist and abolitionist circles, a supporter of women’s rights, and a Native American rights activist, who opposed American expansionism. In a letter written to Hosmer on 16 September 1860, perhaps in response to Hosmer’s letter here, Child wrote, “I hope you won’t get into a fight with any of your rivals and settle the question with Bowie knives and revolvers, Missouri fashion. I can send you a Bowie knife bearing the motto, ‘Death to Abolitionists,’ if you want it, but Bowie knives won’t kill us. God bless you, dear little Ruffian!”
International women’s day.
Two Posters from the late 1970s/early 1980s.
Two rare regional posters, both likely from Madison, Wisconsin:
1) Bread and Roses, multi-color screen print produced by a group called Women’s Works, incorporating two long-stem red roses, a loaf of bread with two slices, and the text of the American women’s suffrage anthem printed in black italic type, printed for International Women’s Day, March 8, 1981, on textured beige paper, 25 x 19 in.; and
2) International Women’s Day, [Madison, Wisconsin: no printer, with symbol of a Union print job, 1979 or 1984], color lithographic poster printed in black and red, with a large Venus with fist symbol in red in the background, and a schedule of events for Wednesday March 7th through Saturday March 10th in bold black lettering, advertising workshops, rally, speeches, and showings of the films, Women’s Happy Time Commune, and Salt of the Earth, along with Family of Women lesbian feminists in concert, and a march on Saturday, 17 x 11 in.
Irish & british imprints related to women.
Three Titles in Four Volumes, 1773-1800.
Including:
1) Hester Chapone’s (1727-1801) Letters on the Improvement of the Mind Addressed to a Young Lady, Dublin for Exshaw et al., 1773, 12mo, two volumes in one, contemporary half leather with marbled paper boards, ESTC T05971 (no U.S. copies);
2) Hannah More’s (1745-1833) Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, Dublin: by William Porter for Pat. Wogan, 12mo, 1800, stipple-engraved author portrait frontispiece, half-title present, later half buckram, ESTC T155773; and
3) William Alexander’s (d. 1783) The History of Women, London: Printed for Strahan & Cadell, 1779, first edition, two large quarto volumes, untrimmed, both copies with deckle edges throughout; bound in uniform half cloth, ESTC T36567. (4)
Jesenská, milena (1896-1944)
Cesta k Jednoduchosti.
Prague: Topic, 1926.
First edition of the author’s first book, one of 300 copies, unnumbered, bound in contemporary full red leather title and author stamped in gilt on front board, 7 1/8 x 4 1/2 in.
Jesenská was a correspondent of Franz Kafka, and translated several of his works from German into Czech. She worked in letters throughout her life, editing, translating, and writing short and long works. Vocal regarding the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia while writing for and editing the magazine Prítomnost (The Presence), she stayed in Prague at her own peril in 1939. There she was detained by the Gestapo, first at Pankrác and later in Dresden. She died as an inmate at the Ravensbrück concentration camp on May 17, 1944.
This particular work, whose title translates to The Journey to Simplicity, contains straightforward advice about marriage, love, freedom, and other topics.
Johnson, georgia douglas (1880-1966)
Bronze: a Book of Verse, Signed and Inscribed First Edition.
Boston: B.J. Brimmer, 1922.
First edition, small octavo, signed and inscribed on ffep to poet, playwright, and New Yorker magazine contributor Kenneth Phillips Britton, with appreciation, Johnson’s full signature, and 1461 S Street, Washington, D.C. address; foreword by W.E.B. Du Bois; bound in full publisher’s brown cloth, with paper spine label, slightly abraded, generally very good, 6 1/8 x 5 in.
“Author’s Note: This book is the child of a bitter earth-wound. I sit on the earth and sing–sing out, and of, my sorrow. Yet, fully conscious of the potent agencies that silently work in their healing ministries, I know that God’s sun shall one day shine upon a perfected and unhampered people.”
Johnson, osa leighty (1894-1953)
Archive and Signed First Editions.
Including:
1) Seven black-and-white photographs taken by the Johnsons while traveling to Africa and the South Seas in the early 20th century, of which five depict Osa, and two landscape;
2) 1938 calendar with a photograph of a giraffe, signed and inscribed on verso by Osa;
3) Two letters from the Johnsons, one handwritten, one typed;
4) Lion: African Adventure with the King of Beasts, New York & London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1929, stated first edition, signed and inscribed on ffep, red cloth, no jacket;
5) Osa Johnson’s Jungle Friends, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1939, stated first edition, signed and inscribed, publisher’s cloth, with the dust jacket;
6) I Married Adventure, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1940, signed and inscribed on ffep, publisher’s cloth, no jacket;
7) Four Years in Paradise, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1941, stated first edition signed and inscribed on ffep, publisher’s cloth, no jacket;
8) Bride in the Solomons, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1944, signed and inscribed, publisher’s cloth, no jacket;
9) Last Adventure, New York: Morrow, 1966, signed by Osa’s mother, publisher’s cloth, with the dust jacket; and
10) Short typed narrative from the Sale family that was given these items by the Johnsons, describing them and their visits, and a photograph of Charles “Chic” Sale (1885-1936) on his California farm.
This interesting archive of letters, five signed first editions, and original photographs has come down through the family of the vaudeville performer, film actor, comedian, and author Chic Sale and his wife Marie Bishop Sale (1890-1985). The couple befriended the Johnsons, and kept in touch with them for years. Many of the books are inscribed to Marie, or to the entire family. The short happy narrative of the Johnsons was written by Cherry Sale Brown.
Johnson, osa leighty (1894-1953)
I Married Adventure, Signed and Inscribed Copy.
Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1940.
Third impression, signed and inscribed by Johnson on ffep, “To Mrs. David Lowenthal with best African wishes, Osa Johnson,” the recipient of this volume, Jane Mary Alice Lamberty, was a geographer and scholar who worked at the American Geographical Society, her husband, David Lowenthal (1923-2018) was a world-renowned American historian, geographer, and student of human culture; large octavo, illustrated throughout, bound in publisher’s zebra-patterned cloth, 9 1/4 x 6 1/8 in.
With humble origins in Kansas, Osa Johnson went on to travel the world with her husband, living in Africa for most of the 1920s. They documented their adventures in film, and pioneered the first wildlife series to be aired on American television, Osa Johnson’s Big Game Hunt. I Married Adventure was the bestselling non-fiction book of 1940.
Juana inés de la cruz (1648-1695)
Poëmas de la Unica Poetisa Americana.
Barcelona: por Joseph Llopis, 1691.
Quarto, third edition, with corrections and additions made by the author; bound in contemporary limp parchment, some repairs to title, repairing two small abraded holes, and thinned slightly abraded area along blank fore-edge margin; printer’s woodcut device to title, attractive calligraphic ink title to spine, printer’s waste used as pastedown and free endleaf at back, no front flyleaf, paper repair along inner joint, otherwise unsophisticated, 8 x 6 in.
Palau 65222; this edition not in Sabin.
Kahlo, frida (1907-1954) [and] lucienne bloch (1909-1999)
Three Photographs of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, & Bloch.
1930s.
Including three black-and-white images taken in 1933, depicting the trio at the New Worker’s School after Rivera’s mural was finished; an image of Rivera with Ernest Bloch; and a photo of Frida at Laredo when the Rio Grande flooded in the fall of 1932, waiting for a train that took twelve hours to come, each with Bloch’s stamps on the verso, and captions, each image 6 3/4 x 4 3/4 in. (3)
Keller, helen (1880-1968)
Two Black-and-White Photo Portraits.
Including: Whitman’s profile bust portrait of Keller taken from behind and used in conjunction with the publication of her autobiographical The Story of My Life, published in 1903, tacked to a black mount, with a blurb about the book on the verso, along with a stamp of the American Weekly reference library, the image itself touched up for publication in pencil, 5 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.
[And] Nickolas Muray’s full-length portrait of Keller taken in New York circa 1925, posing with an open book, a plaster round relief profile of Homer on the wall behind her, and Keller’s Great Dane Sieglinde stretched out at her feet, the dog looks up expectantly; with photographer’s name blind embossed and rubber stamps on verso, 8 x 10 in.