The Straw Yard by JMW Turner, estimated £100,000-150,000 at Dreweatts.
Dreweatts to offer Turner paintings at the double
Two works by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) have emerged from a private collection and will be offered at Newbury saleroom Dreweatts on June 12.
One of the pictures is the only known oil sketch from the artist’s famous Liber Studiorum (Book of Studies) – an ambitious project for which the artist produced a large body of etchings and mezzotints of landscapes, seascapes, historical and pastoral scenes.
Titled The Straw Yard, the oil study depicts a rustic scene and was published in 1808 (the engraved version appeared as plate 7 in part II of the Liber).
It is estimated at £100,000-150,000 in Dreweatts’ Old Master, British and European Art sale.
The other work by Turner from the same source is a study titled River Landscape in France. Depicting a riverbank with trees and a building in the distance, it is estimated at £70,000-100,000.
Elizabeth II dress heads to auction
A floral dress worn by Elizabeth II has come to auction.
The c.1930 dress was worn by a young Princess Elizabeth and will be offered with an estimate of £2000-3000 at Kerry Taylor Auctions on June 11.
Princess Elizabeth’s c.1930 dress, estimated £2000-3000 at Kerry Taylor.
The green and pink print cotton dress with a ruffled collar, puff sleeves and two-tiered ruffle skirt is accompanied by a photograph of the late queen wearing the dress with a pony.
The dress was the possession of the late queen’s nanny, Clara Knight (1879-1946). She was allowed to keep the clothes after the princess had outgrown them and many were sent to her nieces in East Sussex at Christmas time. It was her family in Sussex that rediscovered the box of dresses under a bed before being loaned to a local museum and later sold at auction.
Sotheby’s hosts ‘crossroads’ show
Sotheby’s is hosting an exhibition in London this summer of 12 works loaned from museums all by artists who were born overseas but passed through or settled in the UK.
Titled London: An Artistic Crossroads, the show is staged in partnership with Art UK and runs at Sotheby’s New Bond Street rooms from May 25 - July 5.
The earliest work in the exhibition is a portrait of Frances Howard, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, from c.1621 by Flemish painter Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (c.1561-1636). It comes from the collection of Compton Verney in Warwickshire.
Other works featured include paintings by André Derain, Piet Mondrian, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Bowling and R.B. Kitaj.
The exhibition is open to the public and is free of charge.
ILAB announces June symposium
The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) is organising a symposium on June 12 in Paris to discuss provenance, theft and ‘the conservation of our written heritage’.
The symposium will bring together an international panel of experts who will highlight current issues in the rare book trade, with the aim of encouraging cooperation between all players in the market.
Topics to be discussed include the provenance challenges booksellers and libraries are facing, issues of theft, fraud and forgery, and a debate on security and the protection of written heritage.
And it’s good buy from him…
A memento of comedian Ronnie Barker’s second career as an antiques dealer was offered at Surrey saleroom Ewbank’s on May 30.
After retiring from the entertainment industry, Barker and his wife Joy opened up an antiques shop called The Emporium in 1989 on Chipping Norton High Street. Barker, who famously appeared as the shopkeeper Arkwright in BBC sitcom Open All Hours, was passionate about antiques and collectables. He once joked: “I lose money every week but it’s a hobby.”
The sign for Ronnie Barker’s antiques shop The Emporium, £1100 at Ewbank’s.
On offer at Ewbank’s was the main shop sign for Barker’s shop. The vendor had bought it in the 1990s as part of a collection from the antique shop which was also sold later.
Measuring 10ft 10in x 15in (330 cm x 38 cm), the sign was estimated at £500-1000 and sold at £1100.
Most read
The most clicked-on stories for week May 23-29 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 Extraordinary Fabergé animals head back to market
2 Sotheby’s new pricing structure comes into effect
3 Roma Numismatics to close doors
4 New auction high for an English silver coin
5 British Museum recovers more stolen works but over 800 objects still missing
In Numbers
85
The age of metal detectorist Tom Clark who discovered a gold seal ring belonging to George Grenville (1712-1770), prime minister between 1763-65.
An 18th century gold seal ring thought to have belonged to British Prime Minister George Grenville, estimate £6000-8000 at Noonans.
He also found a Roman bronze coin and Georgian brooch in the same Buckinghamshire field. The ring will be sold at Noonans Mayfair on June 11. See page 38 for a preview of this lot.
