Brassaï

ferrotyped, the photographer's '81, Rue du Faubourg St. Jacques, Paris XIV, Téleph: Port-Royal 23-A' stamp and various numerical and reduction notations in pencil and blue and green crayons on the reverse, framed, a Prakapas Gallery, New York, label on the reverse, 1931

Christie's New York, 13 November 2000, Sale 9485, Lot 175

Palm Beach Photographic Centre, In Good Hands: Selected Works from the Buhl Collection, March 2011

Middletown, Delaware, Warner Gallery at St. Andrew’s School, In Good Hands: Selected Works from the Buhl Collection, October - November 2011

This ferrotyped print is in generally good condition. As is typical of ferrotyped prints, occasional pitting is visible across the print's surface. A number of handling creases and scratches of varying length are visible overall. The corners are sharply creased: the upper right corner one-and-1/2-inches; the lower right corner 1/2-inch; and the tip of the lower left. The edges are rubbed, with attendant losses of emulsion. On the reverse of the print, there is evidence of liquid staining as well as blue ink smudges. An outline of the image of the chair is traced in pencil on the reverse. Also on the reverse are 2 linen tape hinge remnants in the upper corners, as well as a one-inch piece of brown paper tape along the right-center edge. Although Toklas, an avid stitcher, is credited with the needlepoint, the Prakapas Gallery, New York, label on the reverse of the frame suggests that it may actually have been worked by Serge B. Toiles. When examined under ultraviolet light, this print does not appear to fluoresce.
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.

The small Louis XV-style chair pictured here was a fixture in Gertrude Stein’s early 1930s atelier at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris.  The pattern design for the tapestry, executed in petit point, was drawn by Pablo Picasso.  As Stein recounts in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, ‘ . . . I have been making tapestry of his drawings ever since and they are very successful and go marvelously with old chairs.  I have done two small Louis fifteenth chairs in this way’ (pp. 228-29). 

The chair pictured here, as well as the second one referenced above, are now at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.