Fine Art

Somerset auction shows how bidders are very sensitive to how works are estimated.

Landscape painter Sidney Richard Percy (1821-86) is described in Christopher Wood’s Dictionary of Victorian Painters as “a prolific and variable painter, and his prices vary accordingly”.

An Art Deco bronze by Demétre Chiparus (1886-1947) sold for more than £20,000 at the latest 'Art and Antiques for Everyone' fair – the first edition under the management of MAD Events.

While the vast majority of works at Old Master sales are by European artists, an unusual offering at Bonhams’ sale on July 3 was a Latin American work by a painter with Afro-Caribbean ancestry.

Christie’s highest price for an Old Master this summer came in the stand-alone Masterpieces from a Rothschild Collection sale on July 4.

MADAM – The BBC’s 'Fake or Fortune?' returned to TV screens last month with a Thomas Gainsborough mystery. I watched with great interest, and a degree of trepidation.

Original lithographs by Joan Miró and Marc Chagall star at Eames Fine Art’s exhibition 'Behind the Mirror'. Held at the Bermondsey galley from August 8-September 1, the show is named for the magazine, Derrière le Miroir, the leading modern art publication in 20th century Paris along with Verve.

MADAM – I’m sure I’m not the first to write about this but could the inscription on the mount of the picture attributed to Glyn Philpot (Art Market, ATG No 2399) have read or was meant to be C Phillott?

It may be a well-rehearsed refrain, but the Old Master market is much more subject to vagaries of supply than demand. Almost without fail, when high-quality fresh material is offered, bidders will come. Just getting it in the first place is the hard part.

MADAM – I have just read the article on the painting by Richard Lin sold recently in the McCartneys Ludlow auction for £84,000 (Art Market, ATG No 2401).