Fine Art

A Spanish oil billed as an early work by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) sold for €8m (£7m) at the Madrid auctioneers Abalarte on April 25.

Several single-owner collections boosted the total of Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) Spring Fine Art Sale in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, on March 25.

This flock of five sheep, Nouveaux Moutons, by the popular French designer François-Xavier Lalanne, will feature in Palm Beach Modern Auction’s two-session sale of around 500 lots on May 6 in Palm Beach.

A painting by British landscape artist Harry Epworth Allen (1894-1958) drew a flurry of bids at Gardiner Houlgate (20% buyer’s premium) in Corsham near Bath on March 29-31.

From Arthur Rackham to Gerald Scarfe, there is a burgeoning market for original illustration art of the 19th and 20th centuries.

With prices lagging behind modern limited editions, Old Master prints may be the market’s best-kept secret...

The name of William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) is enshrined in the Oxford English Dictionary. Definition: “Ingeniously or ridiculously over-complicated in design or construction”.

A millennia after the technology was first used in China, the earliest printed images in Europe were created in the 14th century. Simple woodcuts intended for private devotion, they served as cheap substitutes for book illuminations. Few survive today.

Held several times a year, the all-Cymru affair has been a regular fixture of Rogers Jones’ calendar for 16 years, offering primarily Welsh art and pottery.

A French School painting, catalogued as early 18th century, drew strong bidding at Stride & Son’s (20% buyer’s premium inc VAT) sale in Chichester on March 31.

The London Original Print Fair, now in its 32nd year, takes place at the Royal Academy from May 4-7 and features 51 international dealers and print publishers.

Johannes Schröder (1870-1942) was not only a wealthy German merchant but also a globetrotter and a pioneer in utilising the invention of photography to document his time.

An ‘Unfashionable’ single-owner collection from a London club attracted trade and private buyers. The 98-lot sale on April 5 was held by British pictures specialist Harry Moore-Gwyn at 25 Blythe Road (20% buyer’s premium) in West Kensington.

The next Chelsea Art Fair takes place from April 27-30 and, as fair director Ben Cooper sees it, the attraction of the event comes down to two key elements: quality and breadth of selection.