# Sebald Beham artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/sebald-beham/
Profile generated: 2026-05-02T13:42:16.760Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Death date: 1550-11-22
- Nationality: German
- Movements: German Renaissance, Little Masters (Kleinmeister)
- Common media: Engraving, Painting, Drawing, Woodcut

## About Sebald Beham

Sebald Beham (c. 1500, Nuremberg – 22 November 1550, Frankfurt am Main) was a German painter, printmaker, and draftsman, best known for his remarkably small and detailed engravings. He is counted among the so-called Little Masters, a circle of German Renaissance printmakers working in the generation after Albrecht Dürer who specialized in intimate, finely wrought compositions. Beham trained and began his career in Nuremberg, where he was briefly exiled in 1525 on charges of heresy alongside his brother Barthel Beham and fellow artist Georg Pencz. By 1532 he had relocated to Frankfurt, gaining citizenship in 1540, and he remained there until his death. His surviving body of work spans engravings, woodcuts, paintings, and drawings, with subjects drawn from scripture, classical mythology, secular allegory, and everyday life. The artist signed his work "Sebald Beham" with the monogram HSP; the prefix "Hans" was a later addition not used by the artist himself.

## Common works and media

The most frequently encountered works at auction are small copperplate engravings — typically under 10 cm in their largest dimension — depicting biblical narratives, classical myths, allegorical figures, and genre scenes. Woodcuts and chiaroscuro woodcuts also appear, along with a smaller number of pen-and-ink drawings and panel paintings. Print subjects range from Old and New Testament episodes to scenes of peasant life, coats of arms, and ornamental designs. Works are typically catalogued under Sebald Beham or Hans Sebald Beham and bear the HSP monogram.

## Market and appraisal context

Sebald Beham's auction market is overwhelmingly centred on Old Master Prints — specifically small-format copperplate engravings — which account for the great majority of his 23 tracked lots. Priced results span from 1999 to 2025 and cluster in a narrow band: the interquartile range is roughly €450–€900 (mixed currencies), with a median near €550. Nine of the ten priced lots are prints and fall within this band. A single drawing — a pen-and-ink study of the Arrest of Christ sold at Tajan in 2005 for €21,767 — sits far above the print range, confirming that works on paper outside the engraving corpus occupy a substantially different value tier. Recent activity is thin but steady at two lots per year, primarily through European specialist houses (Arenberg Auctions, Venduehuis der Notarissen, Old Master Print). The artist's prints appear at both major houses (Christie's, Sotheby's) and regional specialists, suggesting a broad but low-liquidity collector base. Prices have not shown meaningful directional movement over the observed period; value remains driven by the specific plate, impression quality, and condition of each individual lot rather than by macro artist-demand trends.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Sebald Beham's auction market is overwhelmingly centred on Old Master Prints — specifically small-format copperplate engravings — which account for the great majority of his 23 tracked lots. Priced results span from 1999 to 2025 and cluster in a narrow band: the interquartile range is roughly €450–€900 (mixed currencies), with a median near €550. Nine of the ten priced lots are prints and fall within this band. A single drawing — a pen-and-ink study of the Arrest of Christ sold at Tajan in 2005 for €21,767 — sits far above the print range, confirming that works on paper outside the engraving corpus occupy a substantially different value tier. Recent activity is thin but steady at two lots per year, primarily through European specialist houses (Arenberg Auctions, Venduehuis der Notarissen, Old Master Print). The artist's prints appear at both major houses (Christie's, Sotheby's) and regional specialists, suggesting a broad but low-liquidity collector base. Prices have not shown meaningful directional movement over the observed period; value remains driven by the specific plate, impression quality, and condition of each individual lot rather than by macro artist-demand trends.

### Appraisal notes

An Appraisily appraisal for a Sebald Beham work would use this auction-record evidence alongside photographs of the piece, measured dimensions, medium confirmation (engraving, woodcut, drawing, or painting), signature or monogram verification (HSP), and a detailed condition report. The appraiser would identify the specific catalogue raisonné entry for the print plate, determine the state of the impression, note the paper type and watermark if visible, and compare the lot against the priced comparables in this dataset — adjusting for condition, margins, and provenance. For drawings or paintings, the Tajan result and broader Old Master Drawings market benchmarks would replace the print-comparable set. Provenance history, exhibition records, and any museum or scholarly references would further refine the valuation.

### Valuation factors

- Medium and format: engravings dominate the auction record and trade in the €400–€900 range; drawings and paintings are far rarer and, when authenticated, may command multiples of typical print prices — as demonstrated by the €21,767 Tajan drawing result.
- Impression quality and state: plate tone, paper type (laid vs wove), margin width, and whether the impression is an early or late pull all significantly affect value. Early-state impressions on contemporary laid paper with full margins command premiums.
- Subject matter: mythological subjects (Hercules, Leda and the Swan), allegorical coats of arms, and narrative series (Prodigal Son, Four Evangelists) appear regularly. Specific subjects may carry different collector interest than devotional or ornamental plates.
- Condition: 16th-century works on paper routinely show foxing, trimming into or loss of the plate mark, creases, staining, and laid-down sheets. Condition reports are essential for accurate valuation.
- Attribution and monogram: works should bear the HSP monogram and be cross-referenced against the accepted catalogue raisonné. Some lots are catalogued under 'Hans Sebald Beham' or 'Hans Sebald Becham' (misspelling), which can affect searchability and attribution confidence.
- Currency and market: lots are sold in EUR, GBP, and USD across European and North American houses. Exchange-rate movements over the 26-year observation period mean direct price comparisons require currency normalization.

### Collector notes

- Sebald Beham engravings appear regularly at accessible price points (€400–€900 for typical impressions), making them one of the more affordable entry points into 16th-century Old Master print collecting.
- Rarer impressions — early states, full margins, fine laid paper, or unusual subjects — command premiums within the print range. The €1,125 Christie's result and the €900 Showplace result likely reflect above-average impression quality or desirability of the specific subject.
- Drawings by Beham are exceptionally rare at auction; the single €21,767 Tajan result (2005) is not directly comparable to print pricing but indicates that drawings occupy a fundamentally different value tier.
- Many auction listings lack images and category tags in the tracked data; always request condition reports and high-resolution photographs before bidding.
- The artist's name appears in catalogues under multiple variants (Sebald Beham, Hans Sebald Beham, Hans Sebald Becham); searching all name forms will surface more comparable results.
- Liquidity is low — roughly two lots per year in recent periods — so collectors should not assume quick resale at a specific price point.

### Market caveats

- Only 10 of 23 tracked lots have realized prices; the remaining 13 lots lack price data, which limits the reliability of the price distribution and may underrepresent both low-value and high-value results.
- Prices are reported in three currencies (EUR, GBP, USD) and are not normalized; the min/p25/median/p75/max figures mix currencies and should be interpreted as directional indicators rather than precise benchmarks.
- The €21,767 Tajan result is a single drawing that skews the maximum and upper distribution; excluding it, the highest priced print in the dataset is $1,125 at Christie's (2013).
- No category field was populated on any lot in the source data; category assignments above are inferred from lot titles and the existing artist profile's medium list.
- Attribution quality varies: some lots use misspellings ('Becham') and not all may carry authoritative catalogue raisonné references. Buyers should verify attribution independently.
- The dataset spans 26 years with only 23 lots, so year-over-year trend analysis is unreliable. The two-per-year rate in recent periods is consistent with long-term averages but represents very thin liquidity.

### Market evidence sources

- Appraisily auction record index: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/sebald-beham/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- Invaluable / Old Master Print: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-sebald-beham-1500-1550-prodigal-son-wastes-his-fortune-79-c-c45ae5fcd6
- Invaluable / Hill Auction Gallery: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-sebald-beham-16th-century-leda-and-swan-engraving-302-c-01a4b4b8a0
- Invaluable / Old Master Print: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-sebald-beham-hercules-killing-nessus-6-c-16d42c787a
- Invaluable / Old Master Print: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-sebald-beham-hercules-abducing-lole-5-c-7494c78a87
- Invaluable / Tajan: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-sebald-beham-1500-1550-larrestation-du-christ-au-mont-des-oliviers-plume-et-encre-brune-lavis-gris-et-rose-indications-de-couleurs-49-c-sg4tn21rie
- Invaluable / Sotheby's: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-sebald-beham-1500-1550-20-c-by5uw91g1s

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from authority files, museum records, and scholarly sources with auction-house lot records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable results when those records are available. For Sebald Beham, identity data is drawn from the Library of Congress Name Authority File, RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie), VIAF, and Wikidata, with biographical context corroborated through academic publications.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80024446
- RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie): https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/5977
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebald_Beham
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q507825
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/59167585/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500115491