Pretty fishwife nets £15,000

AN almost life-sized portrait of a pretty Breton fishwife carrying a basket of sardines netted five times its lower estimate when it was auctioned in Cirencester last week.

Painted in the Newlyn School style by Middleton Alexander Jameson, RA in 1882, the oil on canvas measured 4ft by 3ft and graced the cover of the Moore Allen & Innocent sale catalogue.

With an estimate of £3,000 and £5,000, auctioneers were delighted when five bidders on the telephone and two in the saleroom pushed the hammer price to £15,000 – the top price of the day.

The prickly subject of which piece would take the second highest price of the day was resolved when the hammer fell on a still life study of a cactus by the French sculptor and painter Andre Lhote at £8,200, a shade over its £5,000 to £8,000 estimate.

Painted in 1958, the 60cm by 73cm oil on canvas was last seen at auction at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Sale in London in 1995.

The surprise of the day was the price achieved by a dramatic watercolour, unsigned but attributed to the English 19th century Romantic painter, John Martin.

The painting, Moonlit – Chepstow Castle, carried an estimate of £500 to £800, but at least two bidders were convinced they were buying an authentic John Martin, and the hammer fell at £5,000 – ten times the lower estimate.

Almost as surprising was the sum paid for English Partridge Dead on Bank, by the 19th century impressionist country sports painter Heywood Hardy. Bearing a typed label to the rear inscribed ‘Hayward Hardy sold by Christie’s to Hammonds’ 1880 for £9/19s/6d, the oil on paper sold for £2,300 against a £300 to £500 estimate.

And two oils by the 19th century painter Thomas Bush Hardy, Fishing Boats on Shore by Figures on a Beach, and Beached Three Masted Vessel with Figures, both carrying estimates of £300 to £500, sold for £1,450 and £2,000 respectively.

Elsewhere, a 51cm by 76cm oil on canvas, Spring Morning, Camden Hill, by 20th century painter Algernon Newton, many of whose London scenes hang in the Tate, made £3,200 against a £2,000 to £3,000 estimate.

And an acrylic of the island of Jura by an Englishman born of Scottish parents who has become one of the most collected artists in Wales – Donald McIntyre – achieved £1,450 at the top end of the £1000 to £1,500 estimate.

McIntyre is renowned for touring the country in a campervan, from which colour sketches that form the basis of his work are made. And a book featuring a caravan holiday from 100 years ago captured many hearts, including that of the auctioneer.

In 1909, CW Budden and his wife spent their summer holiday traveling around Argyll in a horse-drawn caravan.

Budden’s handwritten record – With a Caravan in the Highlands – featured lovely scenic watercolours, black and white photographs, maps, and schematics of the caravan.

“It’s an amazing record of a holiday and life in Scotland 100 years ago, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” enthused auctioneer Philip Allwood.

The hammer fell at £600, comfortably within the £500 to £800 estimate.

The next sale at Moore Allen & Innocent is the antiques and general sale on Friday, November 6. For more information log on to www.mooreallen.co.uk/furniturefinearts

A Breton fishwife carrying a basket of sardines, by Middleton Jameson RA	Nature Morte au Pot de Cactus by Andre Lhote
English Partridge Dead on Bank by Heywood Hardy	Moonlit – Chepstow Castle by John Martin