Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 340

Price Realized: $ 10,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(PHOTOGRAPHY.) Jennie Van Der Zee / Mme. Toussaint Welcome. Real Photo postcard of a Garveyite in uniform. Photograph, 5¼ x 3¼ inches, with embossed photographer's stamp in image "Toussaint Studios, 451 Lenox Ave., New York"; faint horizontal crease, other minor wear. New York: Toussaint Studios, circa 1918 to 1930
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Jennie Van Der Zee (1885-1956), sister of the more famous photographer James Van Der Zee, married Ernest Toussaint Welcome in 1910 and became a successful photographer and filmmaker in her own right. Her 1910 advertisement in The Crisis called her "The Foremost Female Artist of the Race."

This variety of postcard was produced between 1918 and 1930. It depicts a uniformed supporter of Marcus Garvey. We trace no other photographs by Mme. Toussaint at auction. She is discussed in Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe's 1986 book "Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers," pages 28-30, including a reproduction of her advertisement but none of her photography.