Summer Auction Picks of the Week

With our Summer auction only 6 days away, we would like to present one last highlight from this month's auction selection.

Please Contact the gallery if you have questions about the bidding process, or need further information about a particular lot. Our gallery associates are quick to respond to your needs and will help ensure a successful auction outcome. We are driven to perfect and grow your collection, and provide you with the tools necessary to do so.

Highlight of the Week: Lot 12

Chuck-Will's Widow, Plate 52

37 x 49" framed

Once Audubon had committed to his project, producing the monumental Birds of America, it fell to him to find an engraver and subscribers. After a failed attempt to drum up interest in Philadelphia, he turned to Europe. Departing from New Orleans in 1826, he arrived in Liverpool first. While in Europe, he presented himself as a romanticized American woodsman. He dressed in buckskins and applied bear grease to his long hair, playing to the English’s attraction to characters of frontier culture. He brought more than 300 pictures, which were exhibited in Liverpool, Manchester, and Edinburgh where they were enthusiastically well-received by a scientific community much preoccupied with little-known lands. While in Edinburgh, Audubon was directed to William Home Lizars (1788 – 1859), the finest engraver in the city. Lizars was so impressed by Audubon’s drawings that he put aside a project and agreed to instead take on the formidable task of engraving the plates for Audubon’s “Great Work.” Work on the first part began in November 1826 and by January 1827 the first five images were printed. Audubon’s relationship with Lizars was, however, not long-lasting. During the production of the first two parts Lizars’ colorists went on strike, and in June 1827 Audubon retrieved the ten completed plates and began his search for a new engraver.

In London, he met Robert Havell, Sr. (1774 – 1832), a print maker. Havell, Sr., felt he was too old for such an undertaking, but his son Robert Jr. (1793 – 1878) entered into a partnership with him and together they brought to fruition Audubon’s massive work, The Birds of America.

Audubon’s prints are, in a word, stunning. He was an exceptional naturalist. The striking posture of the birds displays as much of their shape and plumage as possible, with a degree of detail that proves the extent of his research. Audubon stood out from other ornithological naturalists of his time by depicting his birds in dynamic, active attitudes, rather than just in profile. The artist’s eye and hand can be seen on every page; the birds have personalities, and with them, Audubon cemented his status as an American archetype, as much a part of our national folklore as George Washington or Johnny Appleseed.

Results of the Arader Audubon Auction, 5/11/2013

Barney Lipscomb, the Leonhardt Chair of Texas Botany at the BRIT (Botanical Research Institute Texas), renowned for his award-winning and unusual approach to bringing the science of botanical taxomony to the non-scientist 'performed' his lecture Art and Science: A Botanist's Eye: Redouté and the Art of Floral Illustration, to a full and enthusiastic house at Arader Galleries, at 29 E. 72nd Street, NYC on Friday evening. He presented a very lively look at the history and evolution of art and botanical science from the first century AD through the life of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, one of the greatest botanical illustrators and flower painters of all time, complete with slide-show and musical score, against the spectacular back drop of some of Redoute's original watercolours on vellum from his magnum opus "Les Liliacees", and John James Audubon's hand-coloured aquatints from his magnificent double-elephant folio "The Birds of America" (London, 1827-1838), all offered for public auction the following day.

Lipscomb's inspirational lecture was followed by a sumptuous dinner generously hosted by Mr. Arader at the famous Nickerbocker Club on 62nd Street, at which he honoured Professor Lipscomb for his pioneering efforts which bring the art of natural history into the classrooms of America: a cause very close to Mr. Arader's own heart, who has just donated an extraordinarily fine and comprehensive collection of works of art that reflect the history of the discovery of the natural world, and how that knowledge was brought from the new to the old world, to the University of South Carolina students studying subjects from art history to environmental science, a donation valued at $30,000,000.

Saturday's auction of hand colored aquatints from John James Audubon's magnificent double-elephant folio "The Birds of America", the single most important work on North American ornithology; hand-colored lithographs from his Imperial folio "The Viviparous Quadrupeds", the first great all-American color-plate book; and exquisitely beautiful original watercolors on vellum from Pierre-Joseph Redoute's magnum opus "Les Liliacees", conducted by Guernsey’s at Arader Galleries at 72nd Street, in New York, this last Saturday, was a triumph, for Arader Galleries and for the universities that Mr. Arader supports through his philanthropic educational programs , as 20% of the hammer price of each lot sold will be donated to one of these programs, or a charity of the purchaser's choice.

More than one third of the plates from the original publications of "Birds of America" and "The Viviparous Quadrupeds" went under the hammer and were more than 85% sold by lot. Not surprisingly some exceptionally high prices were achieved for some iconic images: $100,000 for plate number, and lot number, one "The Male Turkey"; $110,000 for the "Snowy Owl"; and $90,000 for the Long-Billed Curlew. The normally tranquil Arader Gallery at 72nd Street, was buzzing with more than 125 potential private and institutional bidders jostling for standing room only, as many of the other 230 lots sold for well over their high estimates. Arader Galleries retains a comprehensive gallery of works of art by both Audubon and Redoute, and we welcome all visitors at our galleries in New York, Philadelphia, Houston and San Francisco, or to our website www.aradernyc.com.

At this point cash gifts to Arader Galleries' Client's charities appear to be headed well over $400,000 as a result of giving programs established by this auction. The idea of all auctions generating a minimum of a 10% of hammer donation to the buyer's charity makes sense and is clearly being embraced by collectors. The art museums, libraries and 3600 four year colleges in the United States that create interest in fine art and the decorative arts should be rewarded for creating and maintaining the interest in collecting that is such a major fabric in American life today. 

Guernsey's Auction, September 8, 2012

The recent Roger Tory Peterson and John James Audubon auction, as featured in the NY Times, conducted by Guernsey’s at Arader Galleries on Madison Ave., in New York this last Saturday, was an unmitigated success, and surely heralds a welcome return to a lively auction scene not often seen since the end of 2008.

Old friends and new packed the second floor at the Arader Galleries flagship store, which saw furious bidding for more than 400 lots of original gouache, watercolour and pencil drawings of birds that illustrate Peterson’s iconic Field Guides. With more than 90% sold by lot, Peterson’s place as the best known and best loved illustrator of birds in modern times is secured. “It is impossible to overestimate the role that Roger Tory Peterson played in 20th-century wildlife art and photography. Like the legendary John James Audubon before him, Peterson’s pioneering approach to the art of nature changed how everyday Americans interacted with the world around them, in particular with birds. The detailed paintings Peterson produced depicted birds in a realistic and easily recognisable way and in their natural habitat. That art, translated into his Field Guides to Birds, made modern bird-watching easily do-able by a regular person...” (Guernsey’s sale catalogue).

Audubon’s magnificent hand-coloured aquatints from the double elephant folio edition of  “The Birds of America” (1827-1838), the single most important work on North American ornithology, were more than 80% sold by lot. Many, many lots by both artists achieved well over their high estimates; but by far and away the star of the auction was plate 431, Audubon’s life-size, vibrantly coloured American Flamingo at more than $125,000 inclusive. Other notable prices were achieved for Audubon’s Common American Swann at $97,600, and his Trumpeter Swann at $76,250.

Arader Galleries retains a comprehensive gallery of works of art by both Audubon and Roger Tory Peterson, and we welcome all visitors at our galleries in New York, Philadelphia, Houston and San Francisco, or to our website www.aradersf.com.