The painting of cottages on the West coast of Ireland soared to £24,000 against an estimate of £8000-12,000.
It had been entered by a retired clergyman from Kent whose parents had been personal friends of Henry and had spent a number of summer holidays in the West of Ireland with the artist.
The signed 13 1/2 x 15 1/2in (34 x 39cm) canvas was thought to have been painted c.1950 - when Henry was in his seventies - and was reputed to have been given by the artist to the vendor's brother, who died in the late 1990s, making this the first time it had ever appeared on the market.
Condition was untouched, complete with the original frame.
Predictably, given this provenance, there were at least a dozen serious pre-sale inquiries from Ireland and two prospective buyers flew over for the sale itself. However, on the day, it was knocked down at £24,000 to a Belfast dealer on the telephone, underbid by an Irish collector in the room.
This was a long way short of the £200,000-plus prices that prime early landscapes by Henry have achieved in recent years, but it was an extremely solid price for a painting of such a late date.
Elsewhere in this Surrey sale, the currently parlous state of the market for middling-quality Victorian pictures was tellingly illustrated by the fate of a signed and dated and perfectly preserved landscape by Lewis John Wood (1813-1901).
Wood, a London-born painter who specialised in landscapes and picturesque architectural subjects, was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, the Society of British Artists and the New Watercolour Society.
Back in the late 1980s his watercolours were tending to sell for around £500 and his oils for £2000-3000.
This 1851 canvas, measuring 20 1/2 x 17 1/2in (52 x 44cm), might not have been the most exciting subject, but it was in untouched condition in its original frame.
It was knocked down to a London-based private at just £550 - the sort of price being paid for this Victorian artist's watercolours 15 years ago.
