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36 13th November 2010


art market Discovering Liverpool


■ Atkinson Grimshaw and Old Master come to light to break auction houses’ records


Alex Capon reports


APPEARING at regional sales in different parts of the country, two sought-after paintings emerged fresh to the market last month and drew strong levels of interest, breaking house records for the auctioneers in question.


One of them was a John Atkinson


Grimshaw (1836-1893) which was offered at Railtons (15% buyer’s premium) sale in Alnwick, Northumberland, on October 16-17. The other was an Italian Old Master that came up at Tayler & Fletcher (15% buyer’s premium) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire a week later. The Atkinson Grimshaw came to


Railtons from a local couple who had apparently paid less than £100 when they bought it from a dealer in London’s Burlington Arcade around 50 years ago. The 11¾ x 17½in (30 x 44cm) oil on


canvas was a trademark nocturnal view of the Salthouse Docks in Liverpool by the Leeds-born painter and was signed and dated 1892. In Atkinson Grimshaw’s day, these


dock scenes were in great demand, not only from Liverpool collectors but also from Irish-Americans, many of whom had made transatlantic voyages from these docks. The artist, therefore, produced a great


many of these pictures and although his golden evening landscapes generally tend


to make the higher sums, his record at auction is for a large docks scene, the 2ft x 3ft (61 x 91cm) Liverpool Custom House and Wapping that made £540,000 at Sotheby’s December 2006. While in July 2009 another identically


sized view of the Liverpool docks made £300,000 at Sotheby’s, a more comparable example to the work at Railtons in terms of size and composition was the 12in x 18in (31cm x 46cm) oil on canvas of the same location (but from the opposite end of the Salthouse docks) which took £190,000 at Sotheby’s in December 2007. The picture at Railtons ticked all the


right boxes. It featured figures, carriages, ships’ masts, gas lamps, atmospheric light shining on the pavements and shops as well as the Customs House visible to one


Two pictures setting house records in the provinces during October. Above: Salthouse Dock, Liverpool by John Atkinson Grimshaw – £185,000 at Railtons. Right: The Holy Family with St. John The Baptist and St Elizabeth attributed to Francesco Albani – £44,000 at Tayler & Fletcher.


side. It was also in attractive, untouched condition. Featured on the cover of the catalogue


and given a £100,000-150,000 estimate, it made £185,000, selling to the London trade. This was not only a house record for


Railtons but it appears to be among the highest prices for the artist ever seen outside London. The price also beat the £80,000 seen for another Atkinson Grimshaw sold by the Northumbrian auctioneers 15 years ago. The October sale also included a pair


of hunting pictures which came from a local source. In gilt frames, the 13½ x


10½ (34 x 27cm) oils on board depicted huntsmen crossing a fence and a brook and were signed Dalby. This refers most likely to John Dalby (fl.1826- 1853) although it could also be another member of the York-based family of sporting artists. Offered together with a £300-400 estimate, they sold to the trade at £880.


THE Italian Old Master offered at Tayler & Fletcher on October 28 came from a private house in a local Cotswolds village where the auctioneers conducted a general valuation. The picture of The Holy Family with


A Derbyshire farm – what the bidders really liked


SOTHEBY’S weren’t the only auctioneers to stage a sale at Chatsworth last month. Derwent-Wye (20% buyer’s premium) hold two picture sales a year at Cavendish Hall in the little village of Edensor on the Chatsworth Estate and the latest took place on October 30. The viewing was attended by the Duke of Devonshire


himself, just a short walk from his famous family pile. But while the Duke may have been attracted to a


collection of Modern and Contemporary art on offer which included minor works by the likes of Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, the most notable price in the sale was the auction record seen for the Sheffield artist George Hammond Steel (1900-60).


While his works became more experimental in his later


years, this picture of a farm in the snow with attendant sheep was a relatively early painting from 1929 in a style more reminiscent of that of his teacher Stanley Royle (1888-1961). Entitled Derbyshire Farmstead – Winter, the signed 23½


x 2ft 7in (60 x 80cm) oil on board depicted the stackyard of Cordwell Farm, near Holmesfield. This is a well known part of Derbyshire; the village of Holmesfield lies at the head of the Cordwell Valley at the edge of the Peak District. The local vendor had once lived near Cordwell Farm and had bought the painting when it came up in an


auction in 1995 when it was being sold by the Council for the Protection of Rural England. They themselves had received it after it was left to them by Ethel Ward, the daughter of Sheffield steel magnate Thomas W. Ward, who, presumably, bought it soon after it was painted. Works by George Hammond Steel do not appear too


often in the saleroom, and early works in this style are even rarer. Added to this were the facts that the picture had a particularly attractive subject, good provenance and was in good condition. The £3000-5000 estimate seemed a bit punchy


given the previous record for the artist was the £2800 for Polperro from a Window sold at Phillips back in


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