Aug 03, 2023 - Sale 2643
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Sale 2643 - Lot 72

Unsold
Estimate: $ 60,000 - $ 90,000

ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939)

[ALPHONSE MUCHA POSTCARDS]. Collection of 115 postcards. Circa 1898-1911.

Each approximately 5 1/2x3 1/2 inches, 14 1/2x9 1/2 cm.
Condition varies, generally fine, some mint.

This is a near-complete collection of Mucha's French and American era postcards: an exceptional deltiological archive.

A full accounting of the number of postcards Alphonse Mucha designed during his French years is elusive. The two major sources in the field (Weill and Martin) present different numbers.

Mucha's postcards were an offshoot of his contract with the printer Champenois, who was constantly exploring new ways to capitalize on the master's art. He printed Mucha's multitude of posters and decorative panels, and by the end of the 1890s, realized that postcards were a new, thrilling, inexpensive field of collecting yet to be fully explored; Champenois printed the vast majority of them.

This collection includes 114 of 126 postcards catalogued in The Postcards of Alphonse Mucha: The Art Nouveau Period (Q. David Bowers and Mary L. Martin, 2016). The collection also represents 108 postcards (plus variants) of the 123 postcards catalogued in Alphonse Mucha: All the Postcards (Alain Weill, 1983), with three additional postcards not mentioned by Weill: two for the Ricordo della Fiera di Beneficenza Bergamo (Bowers and Martin, cat. no. 650 and 651) and one for Sarah Berhardt's 1910-1911 American Tour (Bowers and Martin, cat. no. 120).

"A convincing case could be made that Alphonse Mucha is the greatest artist to be represented on original picture postcards. If he is rivaled in talent by Egon Schiele or Oskar Kokoshka, he clearly outdistances them on the number of cards bearing his images" (Dorothy Ryan's forward to the first edition of Mary Martin's book).

This is the largest single collection of Muchas postcards to be offered at auction.

With - Mucha's 1922 Czech postcard for the C.S. Y.W.C.A. (Weil, cat. no. 159).

Provenance: Collection of Mary Martin; thence by descent to her daughter, Mary L. Martin, private collection.
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Additional Details

Provenance: Collection of Mary Martin; thence by descent to her daughter, Mary L. Martin, private collection.