Swann Galleries is a New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 auction house

Auction

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

 founded in 1941. It is a specialist auctioneer of antique and rare works on paper, and it is considered the oldest continually operating New York specialist auction house.

The company has separate specialist departments for book

Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

s, autograph

Autograph

An autograph is a document transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by an amanuensis or a copyist; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph.Autograph also refers to a person's artistic signature...

s and manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

s, map

Map

A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....

s and atlas

Atlas

An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a map of Earth or a region of Earth, but there are atlases of the other planets in the Solar System. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats...

es, photograph

Photograph

A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...

s and photographic literature

Photography

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

, prints

Printmaking

Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...

 and drawings, vintage posters, and African-American fine art

African American art

African American art is a broad term describing the visual arts of the American black community . Influenced by various cultural traditions, including those of Africa, Europe and the Americas, traditional African American art forms include the range of plastic arts, from basket weaving, pottery,...

. Additionally, Swann conducts annual sales of printed and manuscript African-Americana

Americana

Americana refers to artifacts, or a collection of artifacts, related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Many kinds of material fall within the definition of Americana: paintings, prints and drawings; license plates or entire vehicles, household objects,...

 and of magic

Magic (illusion)

Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...

 books, posters and other collectible

Collectible

A collectable or collectible is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector . There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An antique is a collectable that is old...

s. In total, Swann conducts over 35 catalogued live auctions a year.

History

Book dealer Benjamin Swann founded the family-owned firm in 1941. In 1970, George Lowry acquired the business from Mr. Swann, and it is now headed by Nicholas D. Lowry, the third-generation at the company’s helm.

For over thirty years, Swann has been located on East 25th Street, just one block east of Madison Square

Madison Square

Madison Square is formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States and the principal author of the United States Constitution.The focus of the square is...

 Park, at the boundaries of the historic Murray Hill

Murray Hill, Manhattan

Murray Hill is a Midtown Manhattan neighborhood in New York City, USA. Around 1987 many real estate promoters of the neighborhood and newer residents described the boundaries as within East 34th Street, East 42nd Street, Madison Avenue, and the East River; in 1999, Frank P...

, Gramercy Park

Gramercy Park

Gramercy Park is a small, fenced-in private park in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park is at the core of both the neighborhood referred to as either Gramercy or Gramercy Park and the Gramercy Park Historic District...

, and Flatiron

Flatiron District, Manhattan

The Flatiron District is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, named after the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street, Broadway and Fifth Avenue...

 districts.

Affiliations

Swann is one of the founding members of International Auctioneers (IA), formed in 1993 by some of the world’s leading independent auction houses. Current European members are located in Stockholm, Cologne, Milan, Paris, Zurich, Geneva, and Vienna.

Swann is the only auction house that is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America

Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America

The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America is an organization of rare and antiquarian book dealers.-History:Founded in 1949, the ABAA is the benchmark for professionalism and ethics in the rare book trade in the US...

, which actively promotes an ethical professionalism in the dealing and trading of rare books.

Many of the specialists at Swann share their expertise on PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

’ Antiques Roadshow, where they assess people’s antiques and collectibles in the quest for hidden gems.

External links

• http://www.swanngalleries.com
• http://www.internationalauctioneers.com
• http://www.pbs.org/roadshow