This 1947 work by English Surrealist Tristram Hillier (1905-83) features in John Nicholson’s next paintings sale on March 29 in Haslemere.
Likely to have been painted on one of Hillier’s extensive trips to the continent, this 7 x 10in (18 x 25cm) oil on board depicts hilltop buildings in the parish of Nadadouro on the coast of Portugal. It bears a gallery label for London dealer Arthur Tooth & Sons and is guided at £5000-8000.
An act of daring during a training exercise in the trenches resulted in William Marychurch Morgan being awarded the Albert Medal.
In May 1916, Lt Morgan, of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, saved several men from death or serious injury when he discovered a live grenade from their training exercise sunk deep into the trench mud. After some difficulty, he managed to pull it out and threw it over the parapet just in time. Only 290 Albert Medals, awarded for saving a life, were given out between 1866 and its termination in 1971.
Later in the war, Morgan also received the Military Cross for leading a series of daring but successful raids on enemy trenches in the Arras sector, taking four prisoners and inflicting multiple casualties. Both medals and a clutch of others awarded to Morgan have been consigned to Halls’ fine pictures, silver, jewellery and coins auction on March 22-23. The group is valued at £12,000-18,000.
Two years after Woolley & Wallis made £42,000 for At Prayer, a canvas by the Russian painter Richard Karlovich Zommer (1866- 1939), three more oils by the artist have been consigned to the Salisbury saleroom.
Like At Prayer, the trio were acquired by the vendor’s grandfather, Captain Douglas- Withers. He fought in the Gallipolli Campaign from 1915-16 with the Prince of Wales Volunteers and was awarded the Military Cross.
He acquired the canvases directly from Zommer in Tbilisi in Georgia, when he was sent there as part of a small British force to stabilise Tbilisi during the aftermath of the Russian revolution. Zommer was teaching in the city at the time and selling his paintings locally. The paintings were stored in army map containers for transport home.
The most valuable of the trio to go under the hammer on March 15 is The Ferry, Lake Van, shown here, a 17 x 2ft 6in (43 x 77cm) oil on canvas guided at £20,000-30,000.
