Art Market

The story of James Gillray’s (1757-1815) print plates is something of a mixture of comedy and tragedy – not unlike the great caricaturist’s life itself.

A number of high prices for works modelled on or inspired by ancient sculpture have been recorded at different auctions this month.

A pair of characterful studies of cranes, a penguin and a boatbill heron set a high price for Henry Stacy Marks (1829-98) at Lyon & Turnbull (26% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh earlier this month.

The Château Royal de Blois in France has launched a fundraising campaign to buy a terracotta bust of Louix XIII's brother Gaston d'Orléans.

A posthumous cast of George Frampton’s (1860-1928) best-known sculpture was the subject of strenuous bidding at Dreweatts this week.

Two Dutch and Flemish Old Masters offered fresh to the market and with a sense of rediscovery drew notable competition at Woolley & Wallis’ latest Old Masters, British & European Paintings sale.

The sticky wicket in terms of the market for cricketing pictures was in evidence this summer as Dreweatts (27% buyer’s premium) sold off a large group of works from the collection of the late Mark Loveday.

Two works on paper caught bidders’ eyes at a sale at Stamford Auction Rooms (24% buyer’s premium) this summer.

If this small portrait of Edward VII looks a bit like a postage stamp, that’s no surprise.

One of the largest groups of pictures by Robert Jobling (1841-1923) ever to come to the market in a single sale appeared at Anderson & Garland’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest fine art auction.

In an auction that helped establish a secondary market for the artist and sculptor Peter Jackson (1930-2019), Suffolk saleroom Lacy Scott & Knight (22.5% buyer’s premium) offered a group of 245 works from the collection of the artist’s widow.