Posters And Decorative Panels By Art Nouveau Master Alphonse Mucha Led Swann Galleries' Vintage Posters Auction
Record-setting works by Mucha were single panels from the Times of the Day set, with Eveil du Matin, the Morning panel, bringing $35,840 and Reverie du Soir, the Evening panel, selling for $23,750; as well as a single sheet with Three Seasons, 1898, which sold for $10,625. Also among the Mucha highlights were his Documents Decoratifs portfolio with 72 plates, 1902, $27,500; two variants of Job, one from 1896 for $22,500, the other from 1898, $11,250; and The Seasons, set of four decorative panels, 1896, selling for $18,750.
Additional record setters were Philippe Henri Noyer's effervescent image of mermaids swimming beside a large glass for Limonade Brault, 1938, $6,750, and Mather & Company's sensible warning Don't Lose Your Head/Handle Your Temper, with a red background and a disembodied hot head, 1924, selling for $12,500.
On the heels of the 2014 Winter Olympics, there was a lot of interest for Witold Gordon's III Olympic Winter Games/Lake Placid from 1932, which sold for $8,125, and other ski posters such as Alex Walter Diggelmann's dynamic Pontresina, circa 1930, which sold for $6,750. Emil Cardinaux's view of skiers in Jungfrau Bahn, Zurich, 1925, sold for $5,500; Erich Hermes' image of a gentleman resting on the slopes with a cup of coffee and a cigarette advertising Winter in Switzerland, 1936, sold for $4,750; and Walter Koch's depiction of ski tracks in the snow for Zuger-Berg/Wintersport, circa 1910, sold for $4,250.
Rounding out the sale were other Art Nouveau classics such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's poster for singer Aristide Bruant/dans son Cabaret, 1893, selling for $7,500; Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen's Cocorico, a magazine of the Art Nouveau era, $5,000; a horizontal-format image by Rene Vincent for Motorcycles Cottereau, 1905, selling for $6,750; and American literary posters, among them Maxfield Parrish's The Century/Midsummer Holiday Number, 1897, which realized $5,376.
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