Auctions! Sotheby’s London, November, 2008

One of the most interesting Weegee auctions in many years:

Sale: L08431 | Location: London, New Bond Street
Auction Dates: Session 1: Tue, 18 Nov 08 2:00 PM

[apparently and surprisingly, these didn’t sell…]

LOT 49:

WEEGEE (ARTHUR FELLIG) (1899-1968)
PORTFOLIO, 1986

20,000—25,000 GBP

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
each approx. 50.5 x 40.5 cm (20 x 16 in.) or the reverse

DESCRIPTION

Portfolio of forty-five silver prints, edited by Louis Stettner with Wilma Wilcox. With a printed title page, contents page, and foreword. Edition number two of an intended twenty, plus six Hors Serie. Each print bears the Weegee collection blindstamp in the lower margin, as well as two ink stamps on the reverse. The one bears the phrase ‘Credit Photo By Weegee the Famous’ and the second (designed to match it) simply ‘Print: Kaplan’. In addition each print is numbered in pencil on the reverse to conform to the list of contents. Cased in grey cloth with a version of the ‘Weegee the Famous’ stamp on the cover.

Quantity: 45

PROVENANCE
Wilma Wilcox.
Side Gallery, Newcastle.

CATALOGUE NOTE
These prints were printed in 1982 by Sid Kaplan, Weegee’s distinguished printer, for a portfolio box of forty-nine prints of which only one set was ever sold. The present set of forty-five was issued in 1986 from the prints made for the earlier set, re-edited and with new introductory materials by Weegee’s friend and fellow-photographer Louis Stettner. While it is not known how many of the present edition were made or sold, the evidence tends to suggest that the edition was not completed to its full extent.

LOT 50:

WEEGEE (ARTHUR FELLIG) (1899-1968)
THE CRITIC, VARIANT IMAGES, 1943

4,000—6,000 GBP

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
various sizes: 10.1 x 10.5 cm (4 x 4 1/8 in.), 20.3 x 25.3 (8 x 10 in.) and two of 28.5 x 35.5 cm (11¼ x 14 in.)

DESCRIPTION

Four vintage silver prints, three of them bearing a variety of the photographer’s credit stamps, and one in addtion signed and titled in ink in the lower margin. One print only bears no attributive marks of any description.

Quantity: 4

PROVENANCE
Wilma Wilcox.
Side Gallery, Newcastle.

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES
Stettner, Louis (ed.), Weegee, Knopf, New York, 1977, p. 93.

CATALOGUE NOTE
Mrs. George Washington Kavanaugh and Lady Decies starred in Weegee’s famous photograph of upstairs-downstairs contrast. The present group includes a close variant, cropped slightly wider than is usual, plus three other rare views of the moments immediately before and after that famous view.

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159501693

PS. cool image viewer, you can zoom in 469%!!!