Art Market

Dreweatts’ Modern and Contemporary art sale in Newbury on April 3 will offer a range of Modern British pictures, including a selection of St Ives School group works. However, one of the main highlights in this category is a wartime painting by John Armstrong (1893-1973) which carries an estimate of £20,000-30,000.

Bonhams’ (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) latest sale of 19th century pictures in London may have been small – running to just over 100 lots – but what it lacked in size it made up with the broad scope of its contents.

Helped by conservatively pitched estimates, a clutch of middle-market Orientalist pictures achieved some modest growth in value on their first return to auction in three decades.

This study (below) was one of 10 drawings by Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-98) consigned by an unidentified charitable trust to Bonhams’ 19th Century European, Victorian and British Impressionist Art sale on February 20.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales below £800, including an 18th century oil on canvas

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales below £1700, including a a Francis Cyril Rose self-portrait.

Drawing interest from the US was a portrait of a fierce-looking Scottish laird by John Pettie (1839-93).

A little-known work by a prolific Newlyn School artist became the top lot of Scottish saleroom Elgin Auction Centre’s (15% buyer’s premium) February 6 sale.

An original drawing by Henry Moore (1898-1986) – which the artist labelled as a lithograph – was among the top-sellers of European art at Skinner (23/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Boston.

The bullish Modern British art market fuelled the performance of three market-fresh paintings by George Hammond Steel (1900-60) which appeared at an Essex auction.

A lengthy provenance was key to the success of a large watercolour by the 19th century artist David Cox (1783-1859).

That rare beast – a good old-fashioned single-owner sale – is a format that seldom fails to produce decent results.

A painting by one of Picasso’s mistresses drew considerable interest at Halls (20% buyer’s premium) of Shrewsbury on February 6.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales below £900, including a David Bates view of the Wye.

Rare work by artist best known for his Lincolnshire views is a highlight of Dorset sale.

Works by two artists who made the ocean their muse were the focus of a small collection at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium) on January 29.

Portrait miniatures and sporting pictures were chief among the solid sellers in a traditional assemblage of paintings at Chorley’s (20% buyer’s premium) Country House sale in Gloucestershire on January 29.

Good art at a great price in regional sales.

This inter-war ‘English school’ portrait of a seated gentleman wearing a bow tie, bought for around £150 three decades ago, sold for an unexpected £7600 at Charterhouse (21% buyer’s premium) on January 17. The unfinished 4ft 2in x 3ft 4in (1.27 x 1.01m) oil was dated 1922 but unsigned.

A painting by Scottish artist Dorothy Johnstone (1892-1980), executed near the peak of her career in 1921 made £3250 at Edinburgh saleroom Franklin Browns (15% buyer’s premium).