Bidders at Auction Hungry for Wedding Feast...
23rd April 2021
The oldest pictures in Lawrences’ recent auction dated from the late 15th Century and the most recent were barely 10 years old. This great span was reflected in the range of styles and subjects on offer. A wooded landscape scene in watercolour by John Middleton (who died in 1856 at the age of just 29) made £6250 and two watercolours of Drury Lane in London and High Street in Salisbury by Louis Rayner made £11250 and three watercolours by Sir William Russell Flint totalled £25,000, led by the £10000 paid for `Nameless Flowers, Tripoli`.
A group of etchings and other pictures by William Lionel Wyllie totalled £12160 with a view of Aldeburgh, formerly owned by the artist’s niece, that made £5625. A charmingly sentimental large oil, entitled `Puzzled` showing a dog gazing at a frog by John Sargent Noble made £5500; and a boxy shorthorn cow by William Luker, painted in 1845, adorned the front cover and was bid to £7500. Two very different oils by Italian `Primitives` attracted many enquiries. A Sienese School tempera on panel of Mary Magdalene, probably a wing from a small domestic devotional triptych, was painted in the mid-late 15th Century and made £7500; and a Tuscan scene of a wedding feast, once a panel from a cassone or marriage chest, dated from c.1500 and made £32500.
