Photographs

Photographs have existed in various forms from the daguerreotypes of the early 19th century right through to today’s development of digital technology.

London dealers P & D Colnaghi have been selling photographs since the 1850s while the first photographic auctions took place in London in the mid-19th century, and though slower to take hold in the US, Alfred Stieglitz established important photographic galleries in New York during the first half of the 20th century.

Some of the most collectable photographers include Julia Margaret Cameron, Ansel Adams, Cindy Sherman, and Irving Penn.


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Julia Margaret Cameron quartet was once part of a photograph album

17 August 2020

Pictured here are two of four photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) sold via thesaleroom.com for £8000 by Duke’s (22% buyer’s premium) of Dorchester.

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Isle of Wight Festival remembered in photo exhibition for 50th anniversary

10 August 2020

During the third and final staging of the original 'Isle of Wight Festival' in 1970, photographer Charles Everest (1929-2015) was granted unrivalled access to the stage, documenting some of the biggest artists of the day as they prepared and performed.

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Churchill: if looks could kill…

06 July 2020

Though largely made up of books, the star turn in a US sale of 100 lots called ‘Churchill in Charge’ was a portrait by the photographer usually known simply as Karsh. The sale was inspired by the 80th anniversary of his assuming the office of Britain’s Prime Minister.

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Le Gray’s ancient and modern Paris comes to Berlin auction

29 June 2020

The sale of Selected Works at Grisebach in Berlin includes this early photographic view of Paris, taken in the 1850s by Gustave Le Gray.

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Schneider brothers take a peek into royal palaces

18 May 2020

Trudpert Schneider (1804-99), a Freiburg carpenter whose first brush with photography was to repair a broken box camera, is today deemed one of Germany’s most important daguerreotypists.

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Is this one’s best side? Rare portrait photographs of the Queen sold in Peterborough auction

04 May 2020

This set of nine portrait photographs of the Queen were those used to create Canadian bank notes in the 1960s.

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Plea to help find photographica collection put together over 45 years but now stolen

02 May 2020

A collection of cameras, photographs and accessories put together by a private collector for more than 45 years has been stolen from a storage unit in north London.

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German daguerreotypes in the frame at Chiswick sale

20 April 2020

Trudpert Schneider (1804-99), a Freiburg carpenter whose first brush with photography was to repair a broken box camera, is today deemed one of Germany’s most important daguerreotypists. The photographic firm he founded in 1847 continued under the management of his sons Heinrich and Wilhelm until 1921.

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Two very different Florence Nightingale letters for sale in UK and US auctions - plus dealer offers signed photograph

20 April 2020

One to a lord about an Ottoman sultan, the other asking for six eggs - two very different letters from Florence Nightingale have emerged at salerooms in the UK and US.

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Dealer launches selling exhibition in support of the NHS

04 April 2020

London’s James Hyman Gallery has launched an online selling show in support of the NHS.

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Rare photos of Alaskan ‘Gold Rush' bid to over 25-times estimate

23 March 2020

An album of 35 photographs relating to the Alaskan ‘Gold Rush’ of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries sold for £1900 rather than the estimate of £50-70 in a recent North Yorkshire sale.

Bristol April photo fair cancelled

09 March 2020

The second Bristol Vintage Photograph Fair due to be held on Easter Sunday, April 12, at The Royal Photograph Society’s headquarters in the city has been cancelled.

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Call for exhibitors to join Bristol Vintage Photograph Fair

24 February 2020

Antiquarian book dealer Hugh Rayner is putting out a call for more exhibitors at the Bristol Vintage Photograph Fair.

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Exhibition staged in London by American dealer focuses on new wave of avant-garde photographic works

17 February 2020

Dealer Michael Shapiro’s exhibition of Modernist photography showcases works capturing a fundamental shift in style.

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Whitby working life in focus at Swann sale

27 January 2020

An album dating to c.1887 containing 64 evocative albumen prints by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, documenting Whitby, England, is on offer at New York auction house Swann.

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Mark Twain in the frame as carte de visite emerges in Philadelphia

20 January 2020

This carte de visite picturing the author Mark Twain (Samuel L Clemens) is signed and inscribed twice.

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Unseen Christine Keeler photos and letters come to market

10 January 2020

Previously unpublished letters and photos belonging to the late Christine Keeler, who was the centre of a political scandal in the early 1960s after having affairs with both a government minister and a Russian diplomat, have emerged at auction and at a dealership.

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Photo portraits and postcard are pick of a Berlin auction

23 December 2019

A set of famous and highly collectable photographic portraits by a well known photographer and a rare postcard painted by a German Expressionist were two highlights of an auction at Berlin saleroom Grisebach (30/25% buyer’s premium) on November 27.

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Photographic carte de visite portraits of Carson, Custer and ‘Our Willie’ sold in Dallas

25 November 2019

Featured here are three photographic carte de visite portraits of American interest from an historical manuscripts and documents sale held in Dallas by Heritage (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium).

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The railway that carried escaped slaves to freedom

18 November 2019

Sporting a distinctive hairstyle and beard that the cataloguer suggested “…would never again be replicated until early 21st-century Brooklyn”, the photograph below was part of a slavery and abolition-themed lot sold for $80,000 (£64,725) in an Americana sale held in New York by Swann (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on September 25.

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