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Lot 18
Wilson A. Bentley(American, 1865-1931)Group of six Snowflake photographs 6
1 – 11 September 2025, 12:00 EDT
Online, Skinner Marlborough, MassachusettsSold for US$1,280 inc. premium
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American & European Works of Art (Bonhams Skinner)
Wilson A. Bentley (American, 1865-1931)
Group of six Snowflake photographs, c. 1900
Six gelatin silver prints; framed. (6)
each up to 5 x 3 1/4 in. (12.6 x 8.3 cm)
overall 30 1/2 x 9 1/4 in. (77.5 x 23.5 cm)
framed 31 1/2 x 10 1/4 x 1 in. (80.0 x 26.0 x 2.5 cm)
Six gelatin silver prints; framed. (6)
each up to 5 x 3 1/4 in. (12.6 x 8.3 cm)
overall 30 1/2 x 9 1/4 in. (77.5 x 23.5 cm)
framed 31 1/2 x 10 1/4 x 1 in. (80.0 x 26.0 x 2.5 cm)
Footnotes
N.B.
Wilson Alwyn Bentley—also known as 'Snowflake Bentley'—was born in Jericho, Vermont. Bentley was the first person to make detailed photographs of individual snow crystals. His technique of gently catching snowflakes on black velvet allowed him to create precise images of crystals before they melted.
Growing up in Jericho, Bentley experienced his share of snowy winters. He developed an interest in snowflakes at a young age, recalling that "From the beginning, it was snowflakes that fascinated me most. The farm folks up in this country dread the winter, but I was supremely happy" (Bruce Watson, 'The Ice Flowers of Snowflake Bentley', 2019, accessed February 2025). After receiving a microscope for his fifteenth birthday and then a camera for his seventeenth, Bentley began puzzling out how to make an image of a snowflake, with all its intricacies, before it melted. In 1885, after years of trial and error, he became the first person to photograph an individual snow crystal.
Over the following decades, Bentley perfected his technique and made hundreds more photographs of snowflakes - or as he called them, 'ice flowers'. In 1898, Bentley collaborated with University of Vermont natural history professor George Henry Perkins to publish an article theorizing that no two snow crystals were alike. This groundbreaking theory caught the attention of museums, meteorologists, natural historians, and photographers worldwide. His work helped advance study in numerous fields, including meteorology and photomicrographics, and his writings were published in Scientific American, National Geographic, and The National Weather Service Research Journal. Bentley died at his family's farmhouse in Jericho in 1931, and today a plaque in the village commemorates him and his pioneering snowflake images.