December 18, 2012
Live Auction104 East 25th Street
New York, NY, 10010 USA
Phone: 212.254.4710
Fax: 212 979 1017
Email: swann@swanngalleries.com
Viewing NotesExhibition & Sale Schedule: Sale 2299 - Monsters & Maidens: A Film Poster Collection - begins at 1:30pm in New York on Tues, Dec 18. All material in Sale 2299 on display at our premises in New York City, 104 East 25th Street, as follows - Fri, Dec 14: 10am to 6pm - Sat, Dec 15: Noon to 5pm - Mon, Dec 17: 10am to 6pm - Tues, Dec 18: 10am to Noon.
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Lot 1: HOPE (LEON CHOUBRAC 1847-1885). LES PAVILLONS NOIRS / LES MYSTÈRES DE LA CHINE. 1883. 41x28 inches, 105x71 cm. Franc, Paris.
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Description: HOPE (LEON CHOUBRAC 1847-1885) LES PAVILLONS NOIRS / LES MYSTÈRES DE LA CHINE. 1883. 41 1/2x28 inches, 105 1/2x71 cm. Franc, Paris. Condition B-: repaired tears, restored losses and restoration along vertical and horizontal folds and in image; creases, abrasions and discoloration in margins and image; bubbling in upper image; margins trimmed. Pierre Zaccone wrote Les Mystères de la Chine in 1860. By the time the book was serialized in 1883, France's situation in Indochina had become more precarious. The Pavillons Noirs ("The Black Flags") was a mercenary and bandit army that formed in the 1860s and swelled to great numbers in the 1870s. The Black Flags fought with the Vietnamese and the Chinese against the French, quite successfully at times, and their skirmishes and battles ultimately led to the Sino-French War in 1884. As in the case of horror movie posters from the following century, this poster aims to stimulate the primal fear of the French public, portraying a terrifying enemy of France, a savage Asian warrior making off with a Western woman.
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Lot 2: DESIGNER UNKNOWN. ALCAZAR D'ÉTÉ. Circa 1895. 47x34 inches, 119x87 cm. Ch. Levy, Paris.
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Description: DESIGNER UNKNOWN ALCAZAR D'ÉTÉ. Circa 1895. 47x34 1/4 inches, 119 1/2x87 cm. Ch. Levy, Paris. Condtion B+ / B: restored losses, abrasions, restoration and overpainting along vertical and horizontal folds; creases in margins and image. "This upside down dance well illustrates the fragile man to woman relationship and the inherent risk of the woman finding herself on the floor" (Beauty and the Beast p. 10). Beauty and the Beast p. 10.
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Lot 3: AUGUSTE ROUBILLE (1872-1955). SCALA EN BOMBE! 1903. 46x31 inches, 116x79 cm. Charles Verneau, Paris.
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Description: AUGUSTE ROUBILLE (1872-1955) SCALA EN BOMBE! 1903. 46x31 1/4 inches, 116 3/4x79 1/2 cm. Charles Verneau, Paris. Condition B+ / B: restored losses in central image, light creasing throughout; repaired tears and foxing in margins; loss in upper left edge. Roubille was an illustrator for many of Paris' turn-of-the-century magazines, and his unique and instantly recognizable style is characterized by bright, flat colors, sharp outlining and a great sense of caricature. Here, for a show at a popular theatre entitled "On a Spree!" he plays into the fantasy of men whisking women away. Whether the man's intentions are sinister or not is hard to tell from the poster. Beauty and the Beast p. 14.
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Lot 4: H.R. HOPPS (1869-1937). DESTROY THIS MAD BRUTE / ENLIST. Circa 1917. 41x28 inches, 111x71 cm.
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Description: H.R. HOPPS (1869-1937) DESTROY THIS MAD BRUTE / ENLIST. Circa 1917. 41 3/4x28 inches, 111x71 cm. Condition B+: expert overpainting and repaired tears in margins, some affecting image, minor restored losses, abrasions and restoration in margins and image. "One of the most striking American posters issued during the war" (Picture This p. 68), this fantastic, World War One recruitment poster distills the horrors of a German invasion of America into a savage, primitive, sexually charged theme. A red-tongued and drooling gorilla, whose helmet reads "Militarism," is clutching a desperate maiden with her dress torn off in one paw and a bloody club, reading 'kultur,' in the other. He is stepping over the sea into America, leaving a burned down and ravaged Europe behind him. "The phallic and bloody cudgel and the beast's power over the half naked girl give urgency to the enlistment call. As the beast steps onto American shores, recruits are invited both to fight militarism and to vie for the eroticized figure of raped Liberty" (Picture This p. 69). Popular folklore has it that this image was the influence for King Kong. Rawls p. 66, Paret 32, Borkan cov. and 16, Beauty and the Beast p. 5, Picture This p. 69.
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Lot 5: CHARLES FELIX GIR (1883-1941). LE GORILLE ET LA FEMME / CASINO DE PARIS. 1925. 61x46 inches, 156x116 cm. H. Chachoin, Paris.
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Description: CHARLES FELIX GIR (1883-1941) LE GORILLE ET LA FEMME / CASINO DE PARIS. 1925. 61 3/4x46 inches, 156 3/4x116 3/4 cm. H. Chachoin, Paris. Condition B: repaired tears in upper left image; repaired tears, abrasions and restoration along vertical and horizontal folds and in margins and image; creasing in image. The idea of a large primate abducting a young woman had been implanted into the Parisian consciousness in 1887, when sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet won the medal of honor at the Paris Salon for his statue depicting a gorilla carrying off a woman. That the idea became titillating enough to make it to the stage of one of Paris' most prominent music halls speaks to the innate sense of the exotic excitement, forbidden pleasures and inherent taboo represented by the fantasy. In addition, 1925 was also the year in which a young Josephine Baker made her debut in Paris. Her signature performance, the danse sauvage, was a reverse anthropomorphisation of this very act. Contrary to certain beliefs, this poster was not a result of the influence of King Kong on the Parisian Music Hall scene, as it actually predates the release of the movie by 8 years.
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