24 28th July 2012 art market hartleys’ ilkley sale


Local attraction boosts recovery of Royle prices


continued from page 22


who died aged 21 and to whose memory Braaq, who died himself at just 46 of a brain haemorrhage, dedicated all his subsequent paintings. His works are difficult to date but the


ones which collectors find more desirable are those that better capture the 1950s and ‘60s. Since these turn up pretty regularly at auction, buyers can afford to be selective, hence the disparity in prices. The two here seemed to capture the


post-War era particularly well and their Northern vendor was well aware of their value – so much so that the high reserves led to estimates above any previous auction results for Braaq. First up was Kinder Street in Winter,


a 19¾ x 16in (50 x 41cm) oil on canvas estimated at £20,000-25,000. It depicted a scene in Liverpool city


centre with figures walking past a church spire. Adding to its appeal was a young boy pulling a sledge and Braaq himself can just be seen peeping around the corner of the building to the right of the canvas. A very similar work of the same size


and location made £10,500 at Hartleys just over a year ago, but here the artist (who often produced more than one painting of a scene but with varying details) had included a few more figures, different graffiti and the Kinder Street road sign. Even so, the pitch still looked


rather punchy before the sale but, demonstrating the solid growth of Braaq


Right: A Spring Morning in Nesfield Woods by Herbert Royle – £7500 at Hartleys.


prices in the course of a year, the picture sold at £19,500 to a private buyer from the North of England who was bidding on the phone. This record price may have come as


something of a surprise to those who thought a Braaq picture needed to feature a sporting event or seaside resort to make over £15,000. And they would have been more surprised when within minutes the record was broken again. Entered by the same vendor and going


to the same buyer, another urban scene in winter entitled Can’t Come Out Today ‘Cos I Wet the Bed Last Night, sold at £30,000. The 20in x 2ft 6in (51 x 76cm) oil


on canvas came with an even heftier estimate of £30,000-40,000 – not just on account of its larger size but also because it was deemed a crisper composition and included period advertising such as the billboards for Bisto gravy and Persil washing powder. Taking the artist to a new level in the


saleroom, these sums would have been considered ‘gallery prices’ six months ago. Since there are plenty more Braaqs out


there, it will now be interesting to see if these results lead to a greater supply heading to the market on the back of this success.


However, whether demand can keep


pace also remains to be seen – it may be that there was only one interested collector prepared to go to the heights of what were, after all, the lower estimates. Elsewhere at Hartleys were five works


by the longer-established Yorkshire painter Herbert Royle (1870-1958), an artist whose prices have been slipping over the last decade but have shown some signs of recovery lately. All five got away here for a combined


£22,600, which was a useful contribution to the £270,000 overall hammer total at a sale that included furniture, antiques and works of art as well as pictures. Four of the Royles came from a local


source, including the most sought after, which had the advantage of a local setting. Depicting two girls among bluebells


on a colourful hillside, it was entitled A Spring Morning in Nesfield Woods, a beauty spot just above Ilkley. The signed 20in x 2ft (51 x 61cm)


oil on canvas was in good condition and drew decent competition against a £4000-6000 estimate before selling to a local collector at £7500. Although it may have perhaps made


£10,000 in the past, only around five works by Royle have made more at auction in the last two years.


Local advantage obviously helped but


there were also hopes that this was an indication that prices for Royle may be recovering. The same buyer purchased three other


Royles at the sale. Two oils of Northern landscapes took


£5500 apiece and views of Scottish scenes took £2600 and £1500. While the Scottish scenes tend to be


sketchier and lacking in detail, as they were mostly produced on the artist’s brief holidays in the Western Isles, the signed 20in x 2ft (51 x 61cm) oil on canvas Loch Cravadale – North Harris was thought particularly well conceived – hence the £2600 bid against a £2,000-4,000 estimate. The picture section at Ilkley also


included an interior scene by another artist whose prices have struggled over the last decade, the genre and sporting specialist Gilbert Scott Wright (1880- 1958). A rather nostalgic and fairly typical


oil-on-canvas depiction of an ailing old man by the fireside with his dogs, the Favourite Hounds, was estimated at £1500-2500. In fair condition and measuring


20in x 3ft (51 x 91cm), it went to the trade at £1700 – a mid-range price in the current market for a non-equine painting by the artist.


INVEST IN NORTHERN ART


Most people have heard about the record prices being achieved for paintings by L.S. Lowry, but a number of other Northern School artists have seen the price of their work rise considerably in recent years. Clark Art Ltd holds the largest stock of Northern Art in the country and can advise on the most suitable artists to invest in.


We hold work by the following Northern Artists:


L.S. Lowry, Helen Bradley, Theodore Major, Alan Lowndes, Braaq, John Thompson, William Turner, Adolphe Valette, Sheila Fell, Liam Spencer, Reg Gardner, Harold Riley, Peter Brook, Roger Hampson, Fred Yates, Simeon Stafford, Geoffrey Key, Stacey Manton, Tom Dodson, Geoffrey Birks, Trevor Grimshaw and many others.


Opening times: Tuesday – Saturday 10am - 5.30pm We also buy works by the above artists


155, Ashley Road, Hale, Cheshire, WA14 2UW • Tel: 0161 929 5150 • email: art@clark-art.co.uk London Office: 14 Old Bond Street, London W1 (by appointment)


www.clark-art.co.uk


Helen Bradley, Do Come Along Children, oil on board, 16 x 20in


William Turner, Coronation Street Set, 1961, oil on board, 20 x 24in


Braaq, Winter Landscape, oil on board, 16 x 20in


L.S. Lowry, Seascape, 1938, oil on canvas, 8 x 12in


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