42 29th May 2010
art market
Power on price escalator
■ Record £51,000 underlines that the age of accessible linocuts is over
■ British Futurism specialists see world interest in a market they have cultivated
THE star of British Futurism – and particularly the inter-War prints by the Grosvenor School which are rated among the finest achievements of the movement – has been rising for some time. Once an accessible collecting area, the best Sybil Andrews (1898-1992) and Cyril Power (1874- 1951) linocuts are now priced comfortably in excess of £25,000 each by specialist dealers who have helped cultivate this market both at home and abroad.
Interest is particularly strong in North America (including Canada where Suffolk- born Andrews made her home in 1947) and in Australia, which proved a lucrative market for the Grosvenor School in the inter-War period. Two years ago Power’s rowing boat
crew The Eightmade £36,000 at Crewkerne auction house Lawrences. Accordingly, when West Midlands
auctioneers Fieldings (15% buyer’s
premium) discovered a Power linocut among a small group of works brought into their Hagley rooms in a black dustbin bag, specialist Will Farmer knew he was onto something good. The vendors, who were having a clear-out before moving houses, had found the picture in the back of a wardrobe and were quite unaware of its value.
Right: The Escalator
by Cyril Power – £51,000 at Fieldings.
Far right: Canal at
Ghent by Nevinson – $60,000 (£40,820) at William Bunch.
Measuring 131 x 141 /4 /2 in (34 x 37cm),
and printed on buff Japanese tissue from three blocks of yellow, Chinese orange and blue-green viridian, this well known, c.1929 image depicting the exit from Charing Cross tube station is known as
The Escalator.
Power was fascinated by the London
Underground as a symbol of a new machine age and several of his works depict its various aspects. This particular impression of The
Escalatorwas of added interest because of the inclusion of both colour references and the annotation specimen to the margins. It was possibly an artist’s proof.
In view of all this, and mindful of auction precedent, the estimate of £600- 800 was modest to say the least, but the market more than compensated for that and, as Will Farmer put it, the price “went into orbit”.
It is some time since a copy of The Escalator has been seen at auction
Captain Charles leads portraits of gilt
DISTANTLY related to the aristocratic family of Ker, Marquess of Lothian, the Kerr family of Edinburgh were styled ‘gentlemen goldsmiths’ in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Above: Charles Kerr by David Martin – £15,500 at Sworders.
Gold plated would be a more accurate description of eight of the family portraits offered at Sworders
(20% buyer’s premium)sale in
Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex on April 27, but all of them got away for a hammer total of £26,300. All consigned by a descendant, one depicted James Ker of Bughtrig (1700-1768), the well- known goldsmith who was elected as Edinburgh’s MP at the height of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion and who changed the family name to Kerr in 1750. The portrait was by the little-
known Andrew McIlwraith (fl.1715-
1753) and was a contemporary copy of the original by Allan Ramsay (1713- 84) painted in 1754 which now hangs in the National Gallery of Scotland. Estimated at £2000-3000, it sold at £2800.
A more impressive picture, however, was the portrait of his son, Captain Charles Kerr of Calderbank (1753- 1813), painted by Fife-born David Martin (1737-98). A pupil of Allan Ramsay, Martin painted a number of notables – his 1772 portrait of Benjamin Franklin sold at Sotheby’s New York for a record $850,000 (£531,250) in December 1999.
Undoubtedly the finest work in the collection at Sworders, Martin’s c.1795
oil on canvas of Charles Kerr had been on loan to the National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle from 1937 until 1994. Kerr was shown in the uniform of the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers, founded in 1794 and formed of civilians and ex-soldiers. Kerr himself was in the 43rd Monmouthshire Regiment of Foot and in 1775 was wounded at Bunker Hill in the American War of Independence. He later became a bookseller and was the King’s Printer for Scotland.
Estimated at £10,000-15,000, the 4ft 3in x 3ft 4in (1.29 x 1.02m) oil sold at £15,500 to a Scottish dealer. Elsewhere in the sale were four
works by Sir William Rothenstein
(1872-1945) consigned by descendants
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