From the Library of Gayfryd Steinberg
A life-long bibliophile and board member of the New York Public Library, Gayfryd Steinberg amassed a remarkable collection of books that reflected her interest in, and patronage of, the arts. Her library housed books in a wide range of fine and decorative arts subjects, including paintings, furniture, porcelain, and a few notable collection catalogues from well-known collectors. Two highlights from Gayfryd Steinberg’s library being offered on October 20, 2021 include Artistic Houses and a group of twenty-two volumes of Vieux Hôtels de Paris.
Artistic Houses, published between 1883-1884 by D. Appleton and Company of New York, features black and white photographs of the people who were influential during the Gilded Age and their finely decorated homes. The interiors were selected to represent “the triumphs of contemporaneous American interior architecture and decoration” and were photographed by Frederick Gutekunst, a photographer who gained recognition for his portraits during and after the Civil War. Artistic Houses was printed in a limited run of five hundred copies for a group of preselected subscribers. The subscriber’s name can be found on the secondary title page of Volume I, Part I of each numbered copy.
The twenty-two volumes of Les Vieux Hotels De Paris, Decorations Exterieures et Interieures included in our auction are a rare find, especially in a group this large. Each volume contains a title page denoting the arrondissement in Paris that the plates illustrate and approximately thirty black and white heliogravure plates in each folio. These were published between 1910-1930 by Chez F. Contet in Paris.
In addition to these two lots, other notable books from Gayfryd Steinberg’s library include Old Wedgwood by Friedrich Rathbone, Zeichnungen von Albrecht Dürer in Nachbildungen: Abtheilung I-IV (Replicas of Drawings by Albrecht Durer: Volumes I-IV) published by Dr. Friedrich Lippmann, and a first edition of A Parallel; In the manner of Plutarch: Between a most celebrated Man of Florence; And One, scarce ever heard of, in England by the Reverend Joseph Spence that was printed at Strawberry Hill and once in Horace Walpole’s library.
Time & Location
Property from the Collection of Gayfryd Steinberg
Wednesday, October 20 at 11am