Watercolours

A marble relief, 'Sleep' by French sculptor and doll-maker Albert Marque (1872-1947), is among the highlights on offer at this winter’s edition of London Art Week (LAW).

New York exhibition orginally for Halloween seems to suit the crazy year as a whole

The highest price to date at Parker Fine Art Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) came at its latest Fine Paintings sale when a rare ornithological watercolour caught the eye of a number of bidders, including from abroad.

The term ‘works on paper’ encompasses a diverse range of media from artist’s prints to posters, ephemera and documents. Pictured here, along with an array of books, is a section of items available to buy from dealers or bid for at auction.

This 4 x 3in (10 x 8cm) oil on ivory miniature, offered by Lawrences (20% buyer’s premium) of Bletchingley, is attributed to the English miniature painter William Mineard Bennett (1778-1858).

Leonard Squirrell (1893-1979) is most associated with East Anglia, producing a significant body of rural scenes of Suffolk and Norfolk as well as cityscapes of Norwich and Ipswich.

Derek Newman is a specialist dealer in 18th-20th century watercolours and drawings. His annual exhibition of 18th-20th century British watercolours runs from November 12-15.

The Decades of Design sale at Fieldings (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Stourbridge on October 15-16 included 52 works from the family of Albert Wainwright (1898-1943). He was a Castleford artist who trained at the Leeds School of Art in 1914.

This month, London Art Week (LAW) uses the digital platform it launched over the summer to run Art History in Focus. The event combines online discourse with exhibitions and objects on offer in galleries (and on gallery websites), putting the spotlight on two major themes: women artists and framing.

The October 10 auction at New York’s Arader Galleries includes the collection of the surgeon Dr Seymour Schwartz (2020) – a map collector Graham Arader considered something of a mentor.

Separated for many years, portraits of two brothers by WBE Ranken (1881-1941) came up at auction at different London salerooms last week. The fact that they emerged on the market simultaneously was seemingly pure coincidence.

Edward Bawden (1903-89) was one of a number of artists invited to submit designs ahead of Britain’s changeover to decimal coinage. Designs were invited for six coins: the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p pieces.

A group of works by famed Victorian art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) features in Guy Peppiatt’s latest exhibition of British drawings and watercolours.

The collection of pictures formerly owned by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, offered at Bellmans included 42 lots relating to the 10th Royal Hussars.

A group of three watercolours depicting Indian scenes attributed to Major General John Brownrigg Ballasis (1806-90) attracted interest at a timed sale held this summer by 1818 Auctioneers (20% buyer’s premium) in Milnthorpe, Cumbria.

An intriguing Indian miniature portrait drew strenuous competition against an estimate of just £30-50 at Clarke’s (18% buyer’s premium) in Shaftesbury, Dorset.

Indian miniatures are a common sight at UK auctions. With a keen, dedicated and often very knowledgeable collecting base, they remain a somewhat independent but active sub-set of the art market.

The contents of a country house in Exmouth turned up not one but two large watercolours by Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935), the pre-eminent British painter of ornithological subjects.