In a saleroom packed predominantly with private collectors, all but five of the 164 lots found buyers. Among over half a dozen new auction highs for different artists were the £60,000 (plus premium) paid for Peter Oliver’s 17th century portrait of the Countess of Leicester and the £28,000 bid for Richard Cosway’s portrait of George IV as Prince of Wales.
The highest price of the evening was the £110,000 paid over the phone by a private collector against three underbidders in the room for the opening lot, Nicholas Hilliard’s portrait of Henry Wriothesely, Earl of Southampton.
Success in miniature
BONHAMS notched up a clutch of auction records and an impressive £1.28m total for the Albion Collection of portrait miniatures in Bond Street on April 22.
