I can't find this anywhere online (except a possible reference to a university library). It's a portfolio of photos by Hans Namuth showing 52 post-war artists, mostly in the northeast. There are 50 loose leaf plates (each about 14" by 11", portrait and landscape) that I'm guessing are some kind of photo-lithograph - no dot matrix. I gotta figure it's worth a bit. There are major artists here (and quite a few I've never heard of), and the photographer was no slouch. Can anyone find it online? Any notion as to value? The Library of Congress number is 73-76690. Jackson Pollock Ad Reinhardt Elaine & Willim de Kooning
There are a couple listed on ABE, so while the book is not rare I believe you could justifiably describe it as "scarce." http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Namuth&sts=t&tn=52+Artists
I'm sorry, Maxine. I didn't mean to crowd your response. I was looking it up while you had already given an answer.
I have checked those sources previously, but obviously not lately. Thanks for the help. I think the first thing I ever purchased online was something on Abebooks. It's probably my oldest bookmarked site.
BookFinder.com lists 4 copies for sale on different sites, for $350-375: http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?a...on&bq=author=hans%20namuth&title=52%20artists
No problem! In this case, all the listings are for the same two books, as both sellers list on more than venue. I also checked ViaLibra, another good source to add to the list you gave; but, again, it was the same two books. -
All those are the same seller, Pawprint Books, showing the book for sale on each of the four venues it's listed on, at different prices on some venues. And it fails to show the copy offered by Caliban books, via ABE. Being able to list the same book on multiple venues is nice for sellers (and for buyers, too, for that matter), but it can give surely me a headache in researching a title!
This won't help with value, but WorldCat shows 63 holding libraries: http://www.worldcat.org/title/fifty-two-artists/oclc/2080948&referer=brief_results
I found one offered for $250 by the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America: http://www.abaa.org/books/245194218.html And here is one offered for $200 http://book---shop.com/hans-namuth-fifty-two-artists-photographs-by-hans-namuth/ And one for $175 http://www.klinebooks.com/cgi-bin/kline/36189.html And there are more on individual sites... Fig
There was a copy on eBay that didn't sell for $299. One thing I find odd about this collection is that it does not include Andy Warhol. For a collection like this, you'd think he'd be a no-brainer.
I noticed in the eBay completeds that there was a later book about portraits taken by Namuth that had Andy Warhol on the cover. I'm not sure why he did not get him in this one. Warhol was well known by 1973 when the portfolio came out.
I'm frustrated because I can find more copies for sale, too, but I'm not finding copies that have sold in the US within the past year. Here's one that sold at auction in Amsterdam for €100, on a pre-auction estimate of €200 - €300. http://www.botterweg.com/Auction/Bid/tabid/59/lotid/18593/language/en-US/Default.aspx
It takes a long time to publish a book. By the time Warhol came along, it's possible the book had been all set up. Just from publishing local ad books I know how tough it is to add stuff at the last minute.
The latest photos in this set are from 1971. Warhol was a phenom in the early '60s. These photos span 1950-71. Most likely he was keeping Warhol in reserve to sell another book.
I know I'm a bit late to the party, but have a thought on the printing process. If the plates aren't real photographs, they may be photochrom prints. It's a process that was developed in Switzerland in the late 1800s, and was used up until the early 1970s.
