At another end of the price spectrum, a double foxhound portrait by Cuthbert Bradley (1861-1943) nearly tripled its top guide to sell for £2200. Signed and dated 1926, the 11 x 23in (29 x 60cm) oil on canvas was deemed a particularly fine example of the artist’s hound portraiture. It came from a country house in Hertfordshire.
Self-taught Bradley is ranked among the second tier of sporting painters with an auction record of $11,000 (around £7900) for a larger work of foxhounds outside a kennel, that sold in the Marshall B Coyne collection at Sotheby’s New York in June 2001.
Sporting pictures also featured among the 390-lot collection from Baythorne Park, a Grade II listed estate in Essex owned by the late sporting enthusiast Sir Julian Watson.
A highlight included a hunting scene by John Emms (1844-1912), famous for his depictions of foxhounds and terriers. The 23in x 2ft 11in (60 x 90cm) oil on canvas, depicting a farmer pointing a huntsman and his pack of hounds in the direction of a fox, sold on bottom estimate, contributing £7000 to the eventual £145,000 total for Baythorne Park.
