(PHOTOGRAPHY) Whitney Joan; photographer Group of 7 photogra

Sale 2505 - Lot 159

Price Realized: $ 750

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(PHOTOGRAPHY.) Whitney, Joan; photographer. Group of 7 photographs, apparently by the renowned New York heiress. Silver prints, each about 9 x 7 inches, with photographer's inked stamps and manuscript captions on verso; minimal wear. Vp, circa 1922-24

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These artistically composed photographs of New York street scenes and New England nature scenes all bear the inked stamp of "Joan Whitney, photographer, 18 Beekman Place, New York City." The only Joan Whitney we can trace in the New York area during the 1920s was a renowned heiress, daughter of Payne Whitney, born in 1903. She married Charles Payson in 1924, and as Joan Whitney Payson became the majority owner of baseball's New York Mets. Though she later became a prominent patron of the arts, we find no other indication that she was ever a serious photographer--but here we are. In 1922, the 18 Beekman Place address became the office for the magazine Younger Set, described in another magazine as "the venture of a number of young New York society women"--of which Joan Whitney certainly was. The photographs are captioned tersely in manuscript. A young African-American girl is captioned "Harlem NYC," a boy banging a drum is titled "Nantucket Auction," and another is "City Gypsies, Orchard Street, NYC" (illustrated). Also included are a water tower in Hoboken, NJ, and nature scenes in Massachusetts and Cornwall Bridge, CT.