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• Issue #105
• Article

The Spring photography auction at Bassenge is offering a wide selection of almost 400 prints ranging from the earliest photographers such as William Henry Fox Talbot to cutting edge contemporary photographers such as Gregory Crewdson.

Highlights of the 19th century are three talbotypes: "The Ladder" from the Pencil of Nature by William Henry Fox Talbot, most probably varnished by the photographer himself, "Officer on board HMS Superb" by Nicolaas Henneman and "A View of the Island of Malta" by Richard Calvert Jones. Of special interest is an album comprising 150 albumen views of Rome by James and Domenico Anderson.

Ethnographic and travel photography is again well-represented in several lots with rare fine prints showing people of Bhutan circa 1870, as well as botanical images from Ceylon and India. A fine album with views and people of Japan which includes works by Felice Beato, Kusakabe Kimbei and Raimund Stillfried von Rathenitz is being offered. A high-quality half-plate daguerreotype, most probably American, showing four women in fine costume and ornate hairstyles is included in the sale. The important book by Duchenne de Boulogne "Mechanisme de la physiognomie humaine" from 1862 with 21 mounted photographs depicting de Boulogne's experiments with electricity and human physiognomy is also being offered (est. 8,000 Euro). Other important 19th century photographers in the auction include: Fratelli Alinari, Edouard Baldus, Felice Beato, Samuel Bourne and Charles Shepherd, Adolphe Braun, Roger Fenton, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Andreas Groll, Wilhelm Hammerschmidt, Kusakabe Kimbei, Etienne-Jules Marey, Charles Marville, James Robertson, Charles Scowen, W. L. H. Skeen, Vittorio Stella and Giorgio Sommer.

The 20th century and contemporary section includes Eugene Atget's "Rue de Lille". A 1909 vintage print by Lewis W. Hine shows a group of children in front of a canning factory in Baltimore. Brassaï's vintage print of "Jambes" from 1937 is also included. Among four beautiful prints by Josef Breitenbach are two artist's portraits, one of Maillol and one of James Joyce, as well as a tree study and a reclining female nude from 1963.

Henri Cartier-Bresson is represented with three moderately priced prints among them a beautiful fair scene in France from 1950. A rare early vintage print by Leni Riefenstahl from 1933 shows a dynamic view of a sports stadium with the spectators under umbrellas, an unusual example of her early work before the 1936 Olympic Games.

Robert Doisneau's vintage print "rue Guerin-Boisseau" shows a prostitute waiting for her next customer. There are two attractive prints by Andreas Feininger showing New York City scenes "9th Avenue El" and "Brooklyn Bridge". Another Magnum photographer represented is Inge Morath with three Spanish scenes taken during the mid-day heat in Toledo.

Among the contemporary work in the sale, a vintage print of "The Brown Sisters" 1978 by Nicholas Nixon is featured. The Bechers' typology of 16 blast furnaces is being offered as a reasonably priced fine collotype. A double portrait of Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys from an edition of 50 is included. "Production Still (Clover Street #2)" is a recent C-print by Gregory Crewdson. Candida Höfer's brightly colored C-print of the cafeteria of the SPIEGEL office in Hamburg from an edition of 100 brings 1970s decor to mind.

Admirers of pictorial photography also can find several prints, such as L. Misonne's oil-pigment print of a country scene in Holland with very dramatic cloud formations or Lehnert and Landrock's desert panoramas.

More experimental photography is offered with prints by Maurice Tabard and Jaroslav Rössler, whose unique vintage print from 1931 shows multiple exposures of a woman.

Other photographers include: Cecil Beaton, Robert and Cornell Capa, Jewgeni Chaldej, Anton Corbijn, Frantisek Drtikol, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Hugo Erfurth, Larry Fink, J. Foncuberta, Leonard Freed, R. Gibson, F. C. Gundlach, Robert Häusser, Raoul Hausmann, Heinrich Heidersberger, Peter Keetman, Horst P. Horst, Fritz Henle, Edmund Kesting, Rudolf Koppitz, Adolf and Franz Lazi, Digne Meller-Marcovic, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Sasha Stone, Jan Saudek, Gundula Schulze Eldowy, Edward Steichen, Louis Stettner, Sasha Stone, Paul Strand, Josef Sudek, Maurice Tabard, Herbert Tobias, Andre Villers, Weegee, Brett Weston, Paul Woolf and George S. Zimbel.

If you have any questions or need condition reports, please contact the photography expert Jennifer Augustyniak, Tel.: +4930 219 97 277 Fax: +4930 219 97 105 or e-mail jennifer@bassenge.com .

The auction will be held on May 31, 2006 at 15:00, Erdener Str. 5a, 14193 Berlin, Germany, tel.: +4930 893 80290, fax.: +4930 89180 25.

You can preview the work from May 18-27 and May 29-30, from 10-18:00, as well as by appointment, at Rankestr. 24, 10789 Berlin, Germany (near the Gedächtniskirche), tel.: +49 30 219 97 277. The online catalogue can be found at: http://www.bassenge.com .