A contemporary copy of John Smart’s (1742-1811) celebrated 1792 portrait miniature of British Army officer Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805) will be offered at Chiswick Auctions in London on March 20.
The watercolour and ivory copy, estimated at £2000-3000, is likely to have been painted by the Irish artist Samuel Andrews (1767-1807), who knew Smart when the pair lived in India.
Cornwallis was an important figure in the mid-Georgian era. He played a major role in the American War of Independence, and also held office as the master-general of the ordnance within William Pitt’s cabinet. In 1801, he negotiated a brief peace with France when he met Napoleon at Amiens.
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A mixed-media work depicting hop pickers by Laura Knight (1877-1970) will go under the hammer at Halls on March 21 in Shrewsbury.
The signed 15 x 11in (38 x 28cm) watercolour over pen and ink has been consigned by a private south Shropshire collector and is valued at around £3000.
The artist was inspired to paint marginalised communities during her four-year stay in Kent during the 1930s. This inter-war work depicts a young boy resting while two adults continue to work behind him.
This modernist solid silver tea and coffee set by English silversmith Christopher Lawrence (b.1936) is estimated at £3000-5000 in the March 6 sale at House & Son of Bournemouth.
Lawrence was 13 when he decided he wanted to become a silversmith, following a trip with the scouts to a silver factory.
His father built him a workshop at the bottom of the garden where he practised until going to the Central School of Arts & Crafts in London. He is regarded as one of the top silversmiths working in the field.
Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and Euan Uglow all admired his work, but the artist Patrick George (1923-2016) is little known.
A painter of landscapes and portraits, George spent 40 years at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, first as a professor and then later as director. But his modesty and apparent lack of ambition has meant that his work remains relatively unknown.
This 17 x 22in (43 x 57cm) portrait by George possibly shows his mother and is dated 1950.
It comes from the artist’s studio in Suffolk and is priced at £2500 from Horton London.
