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A PAINTING entitled “George V lying in state Westminster Hall’’ by Frederick William Elwell sold for £18,000 during Dee Atkinson and Harrison’s first Antique and Fine Art Auction of 2011.
The sale at The Exchange was dominated by high prices for paintings, particularly by local artists.
The Elwell painting formed the front cover of the catalogue and sold well above the estimate of £10000 to £15000.
The picture depicted His Majesty on a catafalque surrounded by guards on each corner with three mourners standing respectfully to the right being his wife Queen Mary, his daughter-in-law Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and his grand-daughter the future Queen Elizabeth II, all beneath the wonderfully painted hammer beamed roof of Westminster Hall. The buyer is a collector of Elwell paintings who bid by phone.
Paintings by Walter Goodin always create interest in this auction room and a coastal study of High Stacks Flamborough head was no exception, realising £3000. Another unsigned painting of a Huntsman and Hounds attributed to Walter Goodin made £950 – perhaps showing the importance buyers attach to having a signature on a painting.
Graham E Paddison, Auctioneer and Valuer, said: “A surprise in the picture section was an oil painting by J. H. Dell of a farmyard scene with milkmaid, cow, chickens and ducks which created a lot of interest during the two busy view days prior to the auction, resulting in a frenzied bidding battle on the saleday between eight telephone bidders and numerous internet bidders - pushing the price up to £2700 against an estimate of £400 to £600.
“Most of the telephone bidders stayed on the line for the following two lots, both from the same deceased estate - a winter sunset scene by G. A. Williams which again exceeded expectations at £2800 and a study of a lady reclining on a bench in the manner of Matthew Ridley Scott which realised £3500.”
The high bullion price of silver and gold meant the sale got off to an excellent start with every lot selling, the best price being for an Edwardian silver mounted tortoiseshell carriage clock which made £1000. Jewellery also proved popular with gold watch alberts making £250 to £450 depending on weight, a pair of solitaire diamond stud ear-rings £1000 and an alexandrite ring £750 both in 18ct white gold.
Chinese ceramics have featured prominently in the media recently and continue to sell well at auction, particularly with the help of far distant bidding by internet buyers. Most of these lots sold in excess of the estimates with one lot in particular, a blue/white Ming style jar, realising £850.
Clocks and barometers performed as expected and there were further signs that the furniture market is improving. A good proportion of the Georgian and Victorian furniture lots sold within estimate. or above but it was left to a late 20c piece to make the highest price in the section – a Robert “Mouseman’’ Thompson oak smoking chair at £1200.
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