Clars is excited to present our Winter Furniture, Art & Jewelry Auction on December 15th and our Fine Asian Art & European Décor Auction on December 16th. These sales will offer a splendid variety of art, jewelry, Asian works, furniture and decorative arts.

Furniture & Decorative Arts

The December 15th auction will showcase a diverse range of items, including Mayan style carved vessels, Native American pottery, Patriano Barela carved sculptures and Kachina figures. Additionally, English and German sterling silver, gold and silver coins, fine porcelain dinner services, and glass stemware and vases from renowned makers and artisans such as Moser, St. Louis, Michael Nourot, and Marialyn Hawke will be featured.

The auction will also present a variety of antique decorative arts, furniture, and rugs, as well as a contemporary furniture collection from an exclusive St. Helena winery. To round out the holiday season, a delightful selection of oversized stuffed animals and a miniature Christmas house will be available.

Fine Jewelry & Timepieces

The Fine Jewelry & Timepieces department is excited to offer a selection of diamond, colored gemstone gold jewelry, and timepieces in their upcoming December 15th sale. This sale features a variety of wardrobe staples to build up the foundation of your jewelry collection and elevate your festive celebrations. To be featured in the sale are a nice selection of diamond jewelry, including a diamond and 14k gold wedding ring set, estimated at $3,000–$5,000, as well as a colorful gemstone selection, including a ruby, diamond and 14k gold brooch by Seaman Schepps, estimated at $5,000–$7,000.

Other wearable pieces that will highlight your everyday life include items such as a diamond, onyx and platinum dog brooch, estimated $7,000–$10,000, complemented by classic timepieces like a Patek Philippe 18k gold ‘Calatrava’ wristwatch, estimated at $6,000–$8,000.

Fine Art

Clars’ Fine Art department is pleased to offer a selection of works from diverse and talented artists this December, with highlights by three painters whose influence can still be seen in contemporary art today. First, we are excited to present an oil on canvas portrait by African-American artist, Bob Thompson. Thompson was active in the bustling mid-century art scene in New York City and is known for his colorful figurative paintings that blend traditional Renaissance and Baroque composition with the energy and experimentation of 20th century Abstract Expressionism. In the painting offered in this month’s sale, titled Portrait of a Lady, we see a woman with a disproportionately large head and an aloof expression. Thompson marries traditional portraiture conventions, like the three-quarter view of the subject and the bust-length focus, with abstracted elements of shadow, color, and dimension to create a distinctive and unique image.

Second, we are featuring a striking work by celebrated Chinese-American artist, Hung Liu. Liu was born in Changchun, China in 1948, and emigrated to California in 1984 where she experimented with different methods and media to create a signature painting style. The mixed media work in this month’s auction, titled Yellow Current, is an outstanding example of this style, for which Liu is best known. The image shows a bust view of a young Chinese woman in a fuchsia robe against a golden-yellow background. We see Liu’s trademark technique of using a wash of linseed oil over heavy brushstrokes — giving a drippy, melting, almost underwater appearance to the composition.

Lastly, we will offer an oil on canvas genre scene from American Impressionist, Edward Potthast. Potthast was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and studied in Paris and Munich before settling in New York City. He worked primarily as a lithographer during his early career, only shifting his focus to painting at age 39. Potthast was likely stylistically influenced by his European studies, as techniques of French Impressionists, including Monet, Renoir, and Berthe Morisot can be seen in Potthast’s work. The painting in this month’s sale is a beach scene — the subject for which Potthast is most known. Figures are gathered in groups on a sunny seaside, seated on blankets and under umbrellas, with emphasis on painterly brushstrokes and soft yet vibrant colors. The atmosphere is relaxed, warm, and inviting, a trademark of Potthast’s work.

Asian Art

The Asian Art department will have its year-end offerings of fine Chinese and Japanese works of art sourced from various private collections and estates at the Fine Asian Art & European Décor Auction on December 16th.

The auction is highlighted by a set of three Chinese ‘qianjiang’ enameled ‘landscape’ plaques by the famous late Qing dynasty porcelain artisan, Cheng Men (1838–1908), a late Qing dynasty imperial style zitan lantern, a pair of huanghuali lantern stands, a late Qing dynasty silver-inlaid bronze figure of Guanyin bearing the Shisou mark, a late Qing dynasty uncut purple ground ‘dragon’ robe, a Qing dynasty white jade ruyi scepter, and a magnificent Japanese Meiji period Shibayama lacquered shodana.

Clars is excited to present our Fine Interiors & Design Auction on November 17th and our Art, Furniture and Asian Auction on November 18th. These sales will offer a splendid variety of art, furniture and Asian decorative pieces.

Fine Art

This November at Clars Auctions we are pleased to offer a selection of highlights showcasing the American landscape. One standout is a large oil painting by American artist, Joseph Rusling Meeker, titled Bayou Barbary – Near Lake Maurepas, Louisiana. Meeker was well-known for his depictions of Louisiana swampland, and his work is regarded as a great example of American Luminism — which focused on the effects of light on landscapes. The piece in this month’s auction shows the bayou with a large cypress tree in the foreground and Spanish moss hanging from its branches.

Also featured in our Friday sale is an oil painting by Utah artist, Kirk Randle. This large-scale narrative piece shows a group of Native American men on horseback, riding over the snowy ground, with teepees and trees in the middle ground and the moon glowing over mountains far in the distance. Finally, we present an oil by California Impressionist, Samuel Hyde Harris. The piece depicts a familiar view of green farmland with a house in the background and a large tree in focus, with its branches full with voluminous leaves.

Furniture & Decorative Arts

In our Fine Interiors & Design Auction we will offer a diverse collection of decorative arts and furniture from the 18th to the 20th century. These highlights feature a wide range of items, such as sterling silver, Meissen porcelain, and Steuben glass.

The variety continues with a NY Giants Baseball Club sterling season pass, a Hawaiian Poi bowl, a Wooly mammoth tusk and Bronze Age fragments. Contemporary furniture from a St. Helena cult winery rounds out the selection.

Asian Art

The Asian Art department will present an array of works of art and decorations from China, Japan, and the Himalayas. Some of the highlights from the sale include a Japanese red coral carving of the lucky god Jurogin, a 19th century Chinese export gilt-lacquered desk, and several lots of Chinese export porcelains spanning the period of late Ming dynasty to the late Qing dynasty. There is also a nice group of antique and decorative Tibetan bronze Buddhist statues and figures on offer.

Clars Auctions is delighted to be offering 3 timed auctions in October. These timed auctions allow bidders to register and place one or more bids on lots of interest until the last day listed. If you are outbid, you will be notified and will be given the opportunity to raise your bid.

(please note: you can retract 3 bids per sale)

Art Within Reach: Bidding Closes October 16th, 2 PM PDT

This month in our Art Within Reach sale we are featuring a duo of oil paintings by Dutch Impressionist Paul Rink, paintings by early California artists Victor Hugo Basinet and Luther Evans de Joiner, and contemporary pieces by Carrie Lederer and Jack Ogden. We are also pleased to include prints and photographs by George Demont Otis, Carol Jablonsky, Jim Millett, and more.

The Discovery Sale: Bidding Closes October 16th, 3 PM PDT

In this month’s Discovery Sale we will offer a diverse range of items, including sterling flatware and hollowware from renowned brands like Tiffany, Gorham, and Dominick Haff. This sale will also feature collectibles, such as Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola paraphernalia, as well as carnival architectural elements.

For those interested in antique furniture, we have George III armchairs, a Hepplewhite table, a Biedermeier parlor suite, Federal mirrors, an Art Deco headboard, and Arts & Crafts desks. If you prefer contemporary designers, we carry pieces from brands like Bernhardt, Restoration Hardware, Henredon, and Cisco Home. Additionally, we will showcase exquisite porcelain pieces by Royal Crown Derby, Meissen, Herend, Royal Copenhagen, Lenox, Wedgwood, and Spode. For modern ceramics enthusiasts, our collection includes works by Marja Vallila, Dorren Blumbardt, and Tom Colman. Rounding out this sale is a selection of carpets, including Persian Bidjars, Aubusson styles, and Indo-Nains.

Asian Decorative Arts: Bidding Closes October 16th, 4 PM PDT

This month’s Asian Decorative Arts Auction presents a wide array of Japanese works of art — encompassing exquisite metalwork in bronze and cloisonné along with a captivating selection of lacquered objects. Additionally, we are delighted to offer a noteworthy collection of suiseki viewing stones from a private collection. As a longstanding tradition, we prominently showcase Chinese works of art in this auction, featuring an impressive range of ceramics, intricately carved jade pieces, and various scholarly objects.

A notable work in our October Collections Auction is a large print by funk artist, William T. Wiley. Wiley began his artistic studies at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), and later taught at U.C. Davis alongside artists Roy DeForest and Robert Arneson.

As an associate of the Funk Art movement, Wiley was a purveyor of using unconventional materials, eschewing the Minimalist trend and embracing chaos. He often described himself as a sort of spiritual descendent of Marcel Duchamp, building upon the Dadaist tradition of absurdity. One of Wiley’s graduate students was Bruce Nauman, who would go on to become one of the biggest names in American Conceptual art. Nauman remembered Wiley as keeping his studio open at all hours for students. In doing this, young artists could practice their craft and work through creative blocks.

Wiley’s work has been the subject of major exhibitions, including showings at the 1980 Venice Biennial, the de Young Museum, and a retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The monumental woodcut print featured this month is titled Mr. Bones, and features hand coloring by the artist.

The piece demonstrates Wiley’s eclectic visual style, including sketchy, movement-heavy lines and text interspersed throughout, with a humorous, surrealist-inspired subject. Wiley was known for wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots around his Marin County home, a look that is replicated on the aforementioned character of Mr. Bones. His peers and neighbors lovingly referred to the artist as a frontiersman for his choices in wardrobe, but within the artistic community of the San Francisco Bay Area he was exactly that — a pioneer of experimentation.

Clars is excited to present our October Collections Auction on October 13th. This sale will offer a splendid variety of art, jewelry, and furniture.

Asian Art

Highlights from the Asian Art department include a group of Chinese monochrome glazed ceramic bowls and vases from Song and Yuan dynasties, and Chinese export underglaze blue items from the Ca Mau shipwreck acquired from Sotheby’s Amsterdam in 2007.

Additionally, there will be a selection of Japanese works of art, such as two Edo era tanto daggers and various Meiji period metalwork vases.

Furniture & Decorative Arts

The Furniture & Decorative Arts department will offer a collection for the discerning connoisseur, including 18th and 19th century furniture and rugs, such as a Francoise Linke table, a collection of Regency Chinoiserie furniture and a Palace Kashan carpet.

Russian bronze sculptures and decorative arts, including Czarist examples and Grachev Bros enameled flatware, will also be up for auction. In addition, there will be a group of modern and contemporary pottery and art glass, and a selection of cameras and lenses available.

Fine Jewelry & Timepieces

The Fine Jewelry & Timepiece department is excited to offer a selection of diamonds, colored gemstone gold jewelry, and timepieces in their upcoming October 13th sale. This sale features a variety of wardrobe staples to build up the foundation of your jewelry collection at accessible price points. To be featured in the sale are a nice selection of diamond jewelry, including a diamond and 14k white gold tennis bracelet, estimated at $4,500–$5,500, and a colorful gem-set 18k gold bracelet, estimated at $3,500–$4,500.

Other wearable pieces that will highlight your everyday life include items such as a diamond and 18k bi-color gold starburst pendant brooch, estimated $1,200–$1,800. This brooch is complemented by classic timepieces, including a Rolex two-tone Oyster Perpetual lady’s wristwatch, estimated at $2,000–$3,000.

Fine Art

This month the Fine Art department is pleased to feature a number of works by contemporary and early California artists, including an oil on canvas painting by painter George Demont Otis. Otis first came to California in 1924, where he worked as a scene designer for Metro-Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). He later moved to San Francisco and eventually settled in Marin County. He is known for landscapes of central and Northern California scenes, often depicting eucalyptus trees and rolling hills. In the featured painting this month, titled Marin Redwoods, he depicts a grove of the California state trees with sunlight peeking in through the canopy.

Another highlight this October is a large print by funk artist William T. Wiley. Wiley began his artistic studies at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), and later taught at U.C. Davis alongside artists Roy DeForest and Robert Arneson. Wiley’s work has been the subject of major exhibitions, including showings at the 1980 Venice Biennial, the de Young Museum, and a retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The monumental woodcut print featured this month, titled Mr. Bones, features hand coloring by the artist. The piece demonstrates Wiley’s eclectic visual style, including sketchy, movement-heavy lines and text interspersed throughout, with a humorous, surrealist-inspired subject. Also to be featured this month are an important print by Roberto Matta, paintings by Guy Anderson and Arthur Grover Rider, sculptures by Squeak Carnwath, and much more.

“I seek the power of the rock, the magic of the water, the religion of the tree, the color of the wind, and the enigma of the horizon,” George Morrison (American, 1919–2000).

George Morrison was a Native American artist well known for his abstract paintings and landscapes. Morrison captured the American landscape and environment in vibrant multicolored paintings through the lens of the Chippewa tribe’s culture.

Morrison was born Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Ga Bo (Standing in the Northern Lights) in 1919 on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, MN, a rural fishing village on the north shore of Lake Superior. He began drawing as a child while he was confined to a full-body cast after a surgery. He later attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, graduating in 1938.

After graduation, Morrison associated himself with a group of Abstract Expressionist painters in New York City. He graduated from New York’s Art Students League in 1946. There he would find critical acclaim, and eventually, as a Fulbright scholar, he studied and worked in Paris and Aix-en-Provence.

He began a teaching career at Cape Ann Art School in Massachusetts and continued to teach art and Native American studies at various institutions, such as the Rhode Island School of Design and University of Minnesota, throughout his life. While teaching Morrison also produced art and showed his work — primarily in the Midwestern United States.

Later in life, he would go on to receive several important commissions and continue his work on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation — creating prolifically assembled totemic sculptures and making horizon-line paintings. In 2022, a selection of five of his paintings were commemorated by the United States Postal Service as Forever Stamps.

The Making of a Photographer

Born on October 2, 1949, in Waterbury, Connecticut, Annie Leibovitz grew up in a military family that moved frequently across the United States. It was this itinerant upbringing, and an early habit of recording places and faces she feared losing, that first drew her to image-making. She enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute in the late 1960s, intending to study painting, but a darkroom class changed everything. Within a short time, photography had become her primary language.

In 1970, at 21, Leibovitz walked into the offices of Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco with a portfolio of photographs. Jann Wenner, the magazine’s founding editor, was struck by what he saw and gave her an assignment immediately. Her first published photograph ran on the cover of Rolling Stone in January 1971: a portrait of John Lennon taken during a session that would become one of the defining moments of her early career. She was hired as a staff photographer, and by 1973 had been named the magazine’s chief photographer, a title she held until 1983, during which time she produced some of the most memorable celebrity portraiture of the era.

The thirteen years she spent at Rolling Stone established the visual grammar that would define her reputation. She photographed musicians, actors, athletes, and politicians with an intimacy that felt genuinely earned rather than performed. Her subjects included the Rolling Stones on tour, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bette Midler. Her approach was immersive: she would spend extended time with subjects, often traveling with them, building enough trust that the camera seemed to disappear. The resulting photographs felt less like posed portraits and more like brief, honest glimpses into private lives.

Vanity Fair, Vogue, & the Portrait at Scale

In 1983, Leibovitz transitioned to Vanity Fair, where she would spend the next several decades producing work that would extend and deepen her reputation. The editorial budgets and production scale available at Vanity Fair allowed her to realize increasingly ambitious visual concepts. Her portraits from this period are among the most widely reproduced magazine images in American publishing history: Demi Moore, visibly pregnant, photographed nude on the August 1991 cover; Whoopi Goldberg submerged in a bath of milk; a reclining Keith Haring covered in body paint. These images were not simply photographs; they were cultural events.

Alongside her editorial work for Vanity Fair, Leibovitz has contributed extensively to Vogue, photographing fashion campaigns and portraits for both the American and international editions. Her advertising clients have included American Express, Honda, and Louis Vuitton. The latter campaign, which featured major cultural figures, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Catherine Deneuve, and Keith Richards, in travel settings, became one of the most celebrated advertising series of the 2000s.

December 8, 1980, produced what many consider the most significant single photograph of her career. In the hours before John Lennon’s assassination, Leibovitz photographed him curled around Yoko Ono in their Dakota apartment. The image, a nude Lennon in fetal embrace around a fully clothed Ono, ran on the cover of Rolling Stone following his death and has since become one of the most iconic photographs of the twentieth century. Leibovitz was the last professional photographer to photograph Lennon alive.

Museum Recognition & Institutional Legacy

In 1991, Leibovitz became the first woman to stage a solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The show, drawn from two decades of portraiture work, established her within a tradition of formal portraiture that extended well beyond magazine photography. The accompanying monograph, Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970–1990, remains a key reference for collectors and researchers.

Subsequent exhibitions have included Women (1999), a collaboration with writer Susan Sontag featuring portraits of women from diverse backgrounds and professions; American Music (2003), which documented musicians across genres; and A Photographer’s Life: 1990–2005, which originated at the Brooklyn Museum before traveling internationally. That exhibition was significant for its candor; it interwove professional editorial work with deeply personal photographs documenting the final years of Susan Sontag’s life and the early childhood of Leibovitz’s daughters.

Her work is held in the permanent collections of major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 2006, she was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress. She is currently represented by Hauser & Wirth, one of the world’s leading contemporary art galleries, a relationship that situates her work firmly within the contemporary fine art market rather than solely within the world of editorial photography.

Her Most Iconic Photographs

A handful of images have come to define Leibovitz’s public identity as a photographer:

• John Lennon and Yoko Ono (1980) — Taken hours before Lennon’s assassination, this gelatin silver print is among the most reproduced photographs of the twentieth century.
• Demi Moore, Pregnant (1991) — The Vanity Fair cover that redefined how pregnancy was represented in mainstream media and generated international debate.
• Whoopi Goldberg in a Milk Bath (1984) — A conceptually daring image that remains among her most discussed early works.
• Keith Haring with Body Paint (1986) — A collaboration that merged the visual languages of two distinct artistic practices.
• Queen Elizabeth II (2007) — Commissioned portraits taken at Buckingham Palace, which generated significant press coverage and became landmarks of official royal portraiture.
• Caitlyn Jenner (2015) — The Vanity Fair cover that generated the magazine’s highest newsstand sales in decades.

These images are not simply well-known. They occupy a specific place in the broader history of photography as a medium capable of shaping public perception, reframing cultural narratives, and functioning as historical documents of their moment.

Collecting Leibovitz: What to Know

For collectors interested in acquiring work by Annie Leibovitz, understanding the structure of her market is essential. Her photographs exist in several distinct formats, and the format, print date, and edition size all have a direct bearing on value.

Print Formats & Media

Leibovitz’s photographs are produced in three primary media:

• Gelatin silver prints: The traditional photographic medium used for her black-and-white work from the Rolling Stone era and beyond. Vintage gelatin silver prints — those produced at or near the time the photograph was taken — are the most sought after by serious collectors and carry a premium over later editions.
• Chromogenic (C-print) prints: Used for her color photography, particularly the Vanity Fair and Vogue work. These are typically available in limited editions and represent the most accessible tier of her market for collectors entering at a mid-range price point.
• Digital inkjet (pigment) prints: Used for more recent work and large-format editions. These prints are often produced in very small editions and are associated with her gallery representation through Hauser & Wirth.

Edition Size & Print Date

Edition size matters significantly in Leibovitz’s market. Smaller editions command higher prices; a print issued in an edition of five will typically outperform one issued in an edition of fifty, all else being equal. Print date is equally important: vintage prints, those produced close to the time the photograph was taken, consistently achieve stronger results at auction than later reprints, even of the same image. Collector preference for vintage prints reflects the historical and material authenticity of the object rather than the image alone.

Provenance also plays a meaningful role. Prints that can be documented to private sales through Hauser & Wirth or major photography galleries, or that carry exhibition history, are generally more desirable to institutional buyers and serious private collectors.

Price Ranges at Auction

The market for Leibovitz photographs spans a wide range. At the entry level, signed prints from later editions, particularly color work from the 1990s and 2000s, have sold at auction for low thousands. Mid-tier examples, particularly vintage gelatin silver prints of iconic subjects, typically realize between $5,000 and $30,000. Major works — large-format prints, unique or near-unique vintage examples, and images with significant cultural resonance — have reached six figures at major auction houses. The John Lennon and Yoko Ono gelatin silver print from 1970 is among the most actively traded of her works, with realized prices at auction varying based on print date, size, and condition.

Collectors new to photography will find useful context in Clars’ fine art photography department, which handles a range of vintage and contemporary photographic works across price points.

Annie Leibovitz at Clars Auctions

Clars Auctions has handled Annie Leibovitz’s work at auction, including a gelatin silver print of John Lennon and Yoko Ono (1970), measuring 11″ × 7.5″ and signed, which sold for $6,300. The print originated from the same session in which Leibovitz captured Lennon for what would become the January 1971 cover of Rolling Stone, one of the pivotal early milestones of her career.

Works by Leibovitz appear at auction infrequently relative to collector demand, particularly vintage prints of her most recognized subjects. When they do come to market, they tend to attract sustained interest from collectors building collections in American photography, modern portraiture, and twentieth-century cultural history.

For Buyers

If you are building a collection in American photography or fine art portraiture, we recommend reviewing our auction calendar and live catalogs to stay informed when a Leibovitz work enters one of our sales. Our team of fine art specialists is also available to assist with research and pre-sale inquiries.

New to the auction process? Our guide for first-time bidders walks you through registration, bidding options, and what to expect on sale day. You can also explore ways to buy, including absentee and telephone bidding.

For Sellers

If you own a work by Annie Leibovitz — whether a vintage print, a signed later edition, or a large-format gallery work — Clars Auctions is well-positioned to help you understand its current market value and bring it to the right buyers. Our specialists provide professional appraisals for fair market, insurance, and estate purposes, and our established presence in fine art and photography auctions means your consignment reaches a targeted, qualified collector base.

We work with individual sellers, estate executors, fiduciaries, and institutions. To begin, you can request a complimentary valuation online, contact our team directly, or visit us at our auction house in Oakland, California.