Albrecht Dürer Meisterstiche engraving Knight, Death, and the Devil, $80,000 (£63,500) at Grogan.
Offered in Boston, all were part of a collection of Old Master prints that came from ‘the estate of a Cambridge, Massachusetts lady’. Most bore labels from US galleries operating in the first half of the 20th century and had descended within the client’s family for decades.
Dürer’s three large-scale copper engravings known as the Meisterstiche were created in 1513 and 1514. Titled (in the 19th century) Knight, Death, and the Devil, St Jerome in his Study and Melencolia I, they have been interpreted by some scholars as a complementary set, evoking different virtues: the moral (the Knight), the theological (St Jerome), and the intellectual (Melencolia). Certainly, they represent the pinnacle of the German artist’s practice as an engraver.
Albrecht Dürer Meisterstiche engraving St Jerome in his Study, $37,500 (£29,800) at Grogan.
Dürer prints are typically sold with reference to the Austrian art historian Joseph Meder who in 1932 published a vast catalogue of all his known works together with the characteristics of various impressions and the watermarks found on printing paper stocks.
Closest to the artist’s original vision and intention, lifetime impressions of his prints are the most valuable. The very best lifetime impressions of the Meisterstiche can sell for prices of more than $500,000 each.
Make a date
Grogan’s prints were sold without reference to states and so buyers were left to determine date and quality by themselves.
Grogan & Co’s president Georgina Winthrop said: “From welcoming bidders to our gallery to examine the works in person to numerous FaceTime calls with international clients to examine the works ‘up close’, we strived to make sure our clients felt confident in their bids for these rare fresh-to-market works.”
And generally, the market approved.
Albrecht Dürer Meisterstiche engraving Melancholia I, $50,000 (£39,700) at Grogan.
The image of a knight on a magnificent charger making his way through a rocky gorge known as Knight, Death, and the Devil, sold at $80,000 (£63,500) after competition from seven phone bidders. Against the same estimate of $10,000-20,000, Melancholia I, the winged personification of a dejected Melancholy, hammered for $50,000 (£39,700). Saint Jerome in his Study hammered for $37,500 (£29,800) against a guide of $5000-10,000.
None had visible watermarks and all showed various degrees of staining.
Plates reused
Prices for etchings by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69) are similarly determined by states and dates.
The copper plates the Dutch artist produced were famously reworked and reused time and again both during his life and later.
Rembrandt van Rijn's The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, $50,000 (£39,700) at Grogan.
The impressions of two well-known prints in this Cambridge collection were well received. Sold at $50,000 (£39,700) against a guide of $4000-6000 was a rich, black impression (with partial fleur-de-lis watermark) of The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, an etching and drypoint from 1634. This episode from the Gospel of Luke, with its dramatic collision between heaven and earth, was the first etched nocturnal scene attempted by Rembrandt. It was issued in three different states, each achieving a varied depth of shadow and contrast.
Rembrandt van Rijn's La Petite Tombe (Christ Preaching), $37,500 (£29,800) at Grogan.
Another New Testament scene, La Petite Tombe (Christ Preaching), was made more than 20 years later in 1657. It takes its name from the man who commissioned it, the Amsterdam book and art dealer Pieter de la Tombe (1593-1674).
A rich impression of a print that was published on several occasions between the 17th and the 19th century, this example (with Jester watermark) hammered for $37,500 (£29,800) against a $5000-10,000 estimate.
