A striking portfolio of "creative and decadent" costume designs was the star lot at Swann Auction Galleries' Modernist Posters Auction in New York, yesterday (May 3).
Walter Schnackenberg's (1880-1961) Ballet Und Pantomine includes 22 plates of costume designs for performers in ballets and pantomimes.
From an edition of just 850, the 1920 portfolio far exceeded its lower $15,000 pre-sale auction estimate, realising $19,200 including buyer's premium.
 Schnackenberg often used animals in his works to symbolise the unsatisfied lusts and addictions of the petty bourgeois |
Particularly inspired by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, German artist Schnackenberg mainly devoted himself to poster art, but was also a well-known designer of stage scenery and costumes.
His tastes for high fashion and frivolous ladies are clearly evident in the portfolio, which includes a foreword by the German writer and philosopher Alexander von Gleichen-Russwurm.
This essential artefact of 1920s German culture was a great acquisition and investment for its lucky buyer.
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