Edward Weston

mounted, signed and dated by the photographer in pencil on the mount, priced '10.00' and annotated 'No. 6' by the photographer, inscribed 'Sold to Lovett' in an unidentified hand in pencil, and with the letterpress East West Galleries label on the reverse, 1927

Purchased by Bernice Lovett from East West Galleries, San Francisco, 1927

By descent to the present owners

Other prints of this image:

Conger 544

Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Karen E. Quinn, and Leslie Furth, Edward Weston: Photography and Modernism (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1999, in conjunction with the exhibition), cover and pl. 32

Nancy Newhall, ed., Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition (Aperture, 1967), cover and p. 25

Beaumont Newhall, Supreme Instants: The Photographs of Edward Weston (Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, 1986, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 26

Manfred Heiting, ed., Edward Weston: 1886 - 1958 (Köln, 2001), p. 106

This photograph represents the ideal early state of the image: it is on matte-surface paper; affixed by the photographer to the characteristic large, light tan mount; and with the photographer's early signature and date on the mount, well beneath the print. The print is essentially in excellent condition. When examined very closely, it can be seen that the upper right corner of the print is lifting very slightly from the mount. Very faint, age-appropriate silvering is visible in the upper left corner. The photograph has recently undergone conservation to repair two tiny nicks on either side of the print. This conservation was successful, and evidence of these tiny repaired areas is only visible upon the closest examination. A treatment report is available from the Photographs Department upon request. The mount is in very good condition. There is a small circular warm-toned spot in the left portion of the mount, about 1.5 inch away from the image. A few other similar but smaller spots are visible as well on the mount, none affecting the print. Pinholes are present in the corners of the mount, as is frequently seen in early Weston mounts.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This early print of Edward Weston's famous Nautilus was purchased by Bernice Lovett in 1927, the year of the negative, and has remained in Lovett's family since that time.  Alone among the few Weston nautilus shells that have appeared on the market in recent decades, this print has an unbroken family provenance from the time it was made in 1927  until now.   

The present photograph—printed on matte-surface paper, on a large mount, and with Weston's early signature—represents the definitive early state of the image.  Later in the 1920s, Weston would make the transition to paper with a glossy surface, and these later prints present a very different account of the subject.  The photograph offered here is mounted to thick buff paper, and Weston's signature and date on the mount, which appear directly under the photograph in later printings, are located here in the lower right corner.  This print is not numbered, as later prints are, and its presentation and provenance confirm that it is among the earliest prints of the image extant.

The photograph was purchased by Bernice Lovett from the East West Galleries, located in the San Francisco Women's Club Building at the corner of Mason and Sutter Streets.  East West was a pioneering gallery that showed not only California artists, but also the works of Picasso, Braque, and Derain, among others.  An article in the Berkeley Daily Gazette for 17 December 1927 praised the gallery's progressive payment plan for works of art, over the span of one year.  According to the Gazette, this 'extended budget plan' was 'backed by the artist-minded business men' of the community. 

Bernice Githens Lovett (1902 – 1998) was descended from a pioneer Oregon family, and began taking photographs as a teenager.  Both she and her future husband, Hobart McKinley Lovett, graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in the mid- 1920s, she as a math major.  During the Second World War, she designed torpedoes and later helped invent frozen peas.  According to a family member, Bernice and her husband

'. . . had a very loving but eccentric life, rarely leaving the state of California.  They collected (and took) photographs and had an extensive collection of books about California, as well as first editions by people who wrote about California . . . from Mark Twain to William Saroyan and Robinson Jeffers.  Bernice's first love, however, was Modernist and post-Modernist jewelry, and The Lovett Collection is known for its works by Peter Macchiarini, Merry Renk, and others from the 1950s to the 1970s.

'Many of their friends were Bay-area artists or photographers, and while they knew Ansel Adams, Willard Van Dyke, and Imogen Cunningham, they were not personally acquainted with Edward Weston.  They admired his work, however, and often tried to duplicate his techniques.

'The Nautilus Shell was bought after Bernice saw the photograph in the East West Galleries in 1927.  The print's price, $10, was more than she could afford, but Bernice arranged with the Gallery to pay for it on the installment plan . . . fifty cents a month until it was hers.  When the final fifty cents was paid, Bernice carried the photograph home in a Kodak paper box.

'There the print stayed for almost 75 years.  The cottage in the Berkeley hills, built by Bernice's father as wedding gift, faced the Golden Gate, and the west-facing wall was glass.  None of the photographs they either took or collected were ever displayed for fear of sun damage.

'In a tiny twist of fate, several years after buying the Nautilus, Bernice had a photograph of her own hang alongside one of Weston's.  In 1932, Lloyd La Page Rollins, Director of the de Young Museum in San Francisco, lent support to the f.64 group's work and invited them to submit prints to the Museum's California Trees exhibit.  Bernice's Eucalyptii lost the $100 first prize to Edward Weston's Mojave Desert—Joshua Tree, but it was a thrill she never forgot.'

Edward Weston's single gleaming nautilus shell before a plain dark background exemplifies the apex of his achievement as a photographer.  The image's simple composition belies the complexity of its conception and its making, the years of evolution in Weston's own vision and the countless trials with objects before his camera.  One of the most famous photographs ever made, the Nautilus deserves its wide and far-ranging reputation: as a benchmark of modernism in the history of photography, and in the broader category of 20^th-century art as a whole.