?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 25,000 - $ 35,000
MARTIN LEWIS Relics (Speakeasy Corner).
Drypoint, 1928. 302x252 mm; 11 7/8x9 7/8 inches, full margins. Edition of 111. Signed in pencil, lower right. A brilliant, luminous impression of this important print with richly-inked, velvety burr.
According to McCarron, the location of this scene is at the intersection of Charles Street and West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village. The location of the speakeasy alluded to in Lewis's title was on the ground floor of the building across the street in the upper left, a space that was later occupied by Camilla's Village Garden restaurant. Kennedy Galleries changed Lewis's title to Relics, probably in an attempt to tone down the subject.
This was Lewis's most popular print during his lifetime. He sold out the entire intended edition of 100 soon after its completion, and it remains one of his most sought after prints today.
Property sold by order of the Trustees of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to benefit acquisition funds. McCarron 74.
