Scot tops the international scene at Sussex sale

In terms of both quality and price, the coastal scenes of the Edinburgh painter William Marshall Brown (1863-1936) could be regarded as a sort of poor man’s Robert Gemmell Hutchison, but his best subjects have plenty of decorative appeal that can command hefty enough prices in the £10,000-20,000 range.

The signed 10 x 14in (25 x 36cm) canvas, Romping, depicting three young girls running through sunlit shallows, was just such a commercial subject.

Furthermore, the painting had been consigned to Gorringes by a private vendor, who had inherited it from his father, in its original gilt frame with an artist’s label on the reverse.

At least seven telephone bidders contested the lot before it was eventually knocked down to the trade at £12,000 against an estimate of £3000-4000.

Similar levels of interest were also inspired by a group of three privately entered and similarly untouched watercolours of Corfu by the Greek watercolourist Angelos Giallina (1857-1939), all of which were signed and measured a substantial 151/2 x 2ft 4in (39 x 71cm).

Giallina has a lengthy track record of auction sales and the £4000, £3800 and £3400 bid by Greek buyers here in Lewes for his lyrical images of one of the Mediterranean’s most beautiful islands fell in the middle range of recent prices which have been paid for the artist. Pre-sale estimates had been £1000-1500 apiece.

James Randolph Jackson (1882-1975) was to 20th century Australia what Giallina was to 19th century Greece, and one of Jackson’s inoffensively traditional topographical views of the Australian coast also made a solid middle-range price at this East Sussex sale.

Again privately entered and in untouched condition, Jackson’s signed 16 x 20in (41 x 51cm) of a deserted Manley Beach – now one of the most popular hang-outs in Sydney – rated £4800 against an estimate of £2000-3000. The new edition of Art Sales Index records a high of £6375 among the 15 results listed for the artist in the 2002-2003 season.