Edward Weston
1927
Nautilus

Gelatin silver print
Sotheby's - New York
This photograph sold at Sotheby's (New York) on 13th April 2010 for $1,082,500 to a California-based Collector (Sale No: NO8624 Photographs, Lot 122).
 
Press release from Sothebys (April 13, 2010):
 
Denise Bethel, Head of Sotheby's Photographs Department said: "We are thrilled with the stellar results of today's sale, which show that the market for photography is strong across all categories, from the 19th century to the 21st. The prices we achieved for Edward Weston's Nautilus, at $1.08 million, and the Moholy-Nagy Photogram, at $290,500, show the resiliency of the photographs market for the very best material. The outstanding price for the Nautilus makes Sotheby's the only auction house to have sold six classic photographs for over $1 million each.
 
Press release from Sothebys (March 24, 2010):
 
On Tuesday 13 April 2010, Sotheby's New York the auction's top lot is Edward Weston's iconic study of a single Nautilus Shell ($300/500,000). This print was purchased in 1927, the year the picture was taken, at San Francisco's East West Galleries for $10 by a young photographer named Bernice Lovett. Unable to pay the entire cost of the photograph at once, Ms. Lovett paid for it in monthly 50-cent installments. The image has, in the intervening years, become one of Weston's most celebrated and is now regarded as one of the great modernist photographs of all time. The print offered by Sotheby's is the ideal early state of the image, on matte-surface photographic paper, affixed to a large mount that bears Weston's early penciled signature. This print has remained in the collection of Ms. Lovett's family since its original purchase over 80 years ago. It has never before appeared on the market.
 
LL/35824