Old Masters

Just like buses, you wait a long time and then three significant house contents sales turn up at once. This week saw the auction of items from the Scottish families the Forbes of Pitsligo and the Earls and Marquesses of Lothian at Sotheby’s. This was followed the next day at Bonhams by the sale of the contents of Lord Harlech's Welsh family home Glyn Cywarch in Gwynedd. A selection of the highlights are pictured here:

Intimate letters from a recently widowed Jackie Kennedy and a painting by Queen Elizabeth I’s portraitist are among the lots being auctioned from Lord Harlech’s estate. After inheriting Glyn Cywarch, the family house and grounds in Talsarnau, Gwynedd in Wales on the death of his father in February, Jasset Ormsby Gore, now the seventh Lord Harlech, decided to put his film production career on hold to focus on the estate. To fund the upkeep of the Grade II-listed property he made the decision to auction off 400 lots at Bonhams on March 29.

The latest series of Old Master auctions in New York posted a total of $52.662m (£41.8m) including premium. With Christie’s moving their main sales in this category to April, this figure was always bound to come in below the $113.3m (£78.14m) for the equivalent series last year. Yet, the auctions performed relatively well overall and provided a decent selection of individual highlights, seven of which are pictured here.

The main series of Old Master auctions in New York traditionally take place in January. This year Sotheby’s are holding four sales while Christie’s are staging two – a sale of drawings and an auction of prints only – having moved its main paintings sale in this category to the ‘Classic Week’ scheduled for April.