Apr 29, 2015 - Sale 2381

Sale 2381 - Lot 50

Price Realized: $ 32,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 20,000
MARTIN SCHONGAUER
The Annunciation.

Engraving, circa 1480. 163x114 mm; 6 1/2x4 1/2 inches. Coat-of-arms with lilies, a flowered crown and pendant initials watermark (Lehrs 32). Ex-collection the British Museum, London, with the museum duplicate ink stamp and pencil initials of the deaccessioning curator, Sir Sidney Colvin, Keeper of Prints, 1884-1912 (Lugt 300 and 305, verso); sold C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, November 10-12, 1926, lot 1287; and Herbert Greer French (Lugt 1307a, verso). With narrow margins outside the black border line. A superb, richly-inked and dark impression of this extremely scarce, early engraving, with very strong contrasts.

We have found only 3 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years. Bartsch 3; Lehrs 1.