Fine Art

Quirky subjects generate the most eye-catching results at the latest Old Master auction series

One of the Old Masters attracting significant interest at Lyon & Turnbull’s (25/20% buyer’s premium) latest Five Centuries sale in Edinburgh was a small still-life that drew strong competition against a £5000-8000 estimate.

The handstitched booklet titled Balls & My Partners, 1844-1845 was written by Adelaide Horatia Elizabeth Seymour (1825-77) as she enjoyed the life of a debutante.

It’s Robert Mapplethorpe but not, perhaps, as you know him.

A couple of views of London were strongly contested at the latest Old Master auction series in the capital.

Willoughby Gerrish is a sculpture specialist trading from Yorkshire and London, and is among the exhibitors at London Art Fair.

Picture on exhibitor’s stand depicts an equestrian act when Islington's Business Design Centre hosted agricultural shows

Bonhams’ (28/27% buyer’s premium) latest Old Master sale at its New Bond Street rooms was hard going, with almost half the lots unsold and two-thirds of those that did get away either going on or below their low estimate.

A lot in a recent Andrew Jones (25% buyer’s premium) auction that will doubtless merit further research was an early 19th century French self-portrait.

A fascinating personal collection of items relating to Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) that sold in a south London auction included what are among the last photographs ever taken of her.

Many of Cyril Edward Power’s (1872-1951) most sought-after subjects for his futurist-style linocuts involve different methods of public transport.

The most remarkable result at Cheffins’ Fine Art Sale in Cambridge was provided by a group of four ‘English School’ plumbago on vellum portrait miniatures.

The highest auction prices for Mary Adshead (1904-95) all came at Sotheby’s Olympia back in 2006.

When it was last on public view, at a Berlin exhibition in 1981, the Portrait of a Black Courtier was attributed to the early 18th century Prussian court painter Antoine Pesne.

Plenty of potential takers emerged for an early copy of Leonardo’s 'Madonna of the Rocks' at the Dorotheum (25/20.84% buyer’s premium) sale of Old Masters.

Once believed to be by Rubens, work hidden away during the war is now thought to be a copy by a pupil

A group of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) watercolours and drawings were sold on behalf of the Glasgow Art Club at Lyon & Turnbull’s (26% buyer’s premium) Design since 1860 sale in Edinburgh.

Auctioneer congratulates ex-pat bidder in Welsh as she buys a Kyffin Williams for the first time