Drawings & Pastels

Viennese auction house Tiberius (27% buyer’s premium) recently sold the inventory of Laudon Castle, a privately owned, moated baroque residence on the outskirts of the Austrian capital.

Works on paper by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) are regularly strong sellers at Austrian auctions, but even so, the result for one of his coloured pencil drawings at a Dorotheum (30/25% buyer’s premium) sale in Vienna was quite a surprise.

In a fortuitous coincidence, two Old Master drawings linked to leading Netherlandish painters emerged in the same auction at Roseberys (26/25/20% buyer’s premium) in south London.

In its latest edition London Art Week (LAW) showcased 35 participants, including four taking part in LAW Digital, and also the three major London auction houses: Bonhams, Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

Portrait sketch of pianist by Dame Laura was one of the eye-catching works on paper offered in the run-up to summer

Pictures by two leading women of the Modern British art movement sold strongly at a Lyon & Turnbull (26/25/20% buyer’s premium) auction in London.

A 78-page manuscript bought at a Bonhams auction could help to shed light on author Jane Austen.

A remarkable sketchbook compiled after its creator had been taken prisoner at the fall of Singapore in the Second World War sold for £1650 (estimate £500-700) as part of a timed online sale.

If you wanted to sum up the current state of the watercolours and works on paper sector in a single sentence, you might say something like ‘flatter than ever for general works but exceptional lots routinely generating strong interest’.

The Paris auction houses will also be hosting plenty of sales devoted entirely or in part to works on paper.

One of the stand-out results at a three-day auction of a huge American book collection came for a very British lot.