Olympia Studio Sale 8 October by Olympia Auctions

BERNARD MYERS

CYRIL MANN

DAVID BATES

DAVID BLACKBURN

EARDLEY KNOLLYS

GEORGE ALLEN

HANS FEIBUSCH

HUGH CRONYN

JAMES HULL

KATHLEEN GUTHRIE

LEO DAVY

LESLIE MARR

LILIAN COLBOURN

LIONEL BULMER

MARGARET GREEN

MICHAEL UPTON

MIRIAM SACKS

PIETRO LAZZARI

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON

VALLANCE RICHARD GREGSON

FROM THE STUDIO:

WORKS FROM TWENTY ARTISTS’ ESTATES

WEDNESDAY 8TH OCTOBER 2025

INDEX:

ALLEN, G 70-77

BATES, D 34-45

BLACKBURN, D 132-139

BULMER, L 15-26

COLBURN, L 160-165

CRONYN, H 174-181

DAVY, L 120-131

FEIBUSCH, H 46-69

GREEN, M 27-33

GREGSON, V.J 78-89

GREGSON, V.R 90-96

GUTHRIE, K 1-4

HULL, J 112-119

KNOLLYS, E 105-111

LAZZARI, P 97-103

MANN, C 5-14

MARR, L 152-159

MYERS, B 182-205

SACKS, M 166-173

UPTON, M 140-151

TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION: 25 Blythe Road, London W14 0PD

AUCTION: Wednesday 8th October 2025, 12pm, precisely

PUBLIC EXHIBITION: Sunday 5th October, 12pm to 4pm Monday 6th October, 10am to 8pm Tuesday 7th October, 10am to 5pm

SALE NUMBER OA0166

ENQUIRIES:

Adrian Biddell, Head of Sale adrian.biddell@olympiaauctions.com

Tazeena Thorowgood, Assistant and Administrator tazeena.thorowgood@olympiaauctions.com

Charlotte Norman-Butler charlotte.normanbutler@olympiaauctions.com

+44 (0)20 7806 5541 pictures@olympiaauctions.com

ONLINE CATALOGUE AND LIVE INTERNET BIDDING AVAILABLE THROUGH: www.olympiaauctions.com www.the-saleroom.com www.invaluable.com www.drouotonline.com

This auction is conducted by Olympia Auctions in accordance with our Conditions of Business printed in the back of this catalogue.

She makes one realise that one already knew it, but had never seen it with quite that intensity, that quick eye for a silhouette or that gentle feminine touch of humour, [Kathleen Guthrie] is an interpreter.

(Eric Newton, 1945)

KATHLEEN GUTHRIE (LOTS 1-4)

Eric Newton, leading critic and broadcaster of the day, was quick to appreciate how Kathleen Guthrie incorporated everyday life into her work with a certain wry understatement in his review of her exhibition at the Little Gallery, Piccadilly. Likewise, in his monograph on the artist Jonathan Eastaway comments how ‘Kathleen Guthrie was an inveterate people watcher, who found the behaviour of human beings and the humour that it inspired a source of endless fascination.’ (Eastaway, A Poet’s Eye, p. 5). The fruits of the artist’s unassuming deadpan observations are in abundant evidence in the following four lots.

All four works were painted in Hampstead, where Guthrie lived for most of her adult life, initially with her first husband, the painter Robin Guthrie, subsequently with her second husband, artist John Cecil Stephenson. Like Kathleen, Robin Guthrie had been at the Slade where they had studied under the influential Henry Tonks. Tonks recommended Robin Guthrie for a teaching position at the Boston School of Fine Art in Massachusetts. In the USA Kathleen’s work blossomed, and the intriguing whimsy of her subject matter found a ready audience. In an exhibition of her work at the Grace Horne Gallery, Boston a reviewer commented how ‘a delightfully humorous undercurrent is present in all her small figures.’

On the couple’s return to England two years later, however, although Kathleen showed with the Leicester Galleries, the New English Art Club, and at the Royal Academy, income from sales and portrait commissions was in short supply. Robin resorted to looking for teaching posts in London, embarked on an affair, and the marriage collapsed. Kathleen was distraught, the rupture precipitating a nervous breakdown. However, her recovery coincided with her burgeoning acquaintance with John Cecil Stephenson.

Unlike her former husband, Stephenson enjoyed a position at the centre of the London avantgarde. Herbert Read called him ‘one of the earliest artists in the country to develop a completely abstract style.’ His studio at 6 Mall Studios in Hampstead had been that of Walter Sickert, and his neighbours were fellow modernists Ben Nicholson,

Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Kathleen’s marriage to Stephenson in 1942 heralded a renewal of her creative energies. She began exhibiting her work with the Women’s International Art Club (WIAC), serving on the selection committee, and together with Stephenson co-founded the Hampstead Arts Council (HAC), that subsequently became the Camden Arts Centre.

The incidental life of Hampstead Heath became her preferred subject matter. In the late 1940s HAC began exhibiting their work in the summer months by Whitestone Pond, Hampstead. There her talent was spotted by Kenneth Clark, recently retired from the directorship of the National Gallery, who purchased two of her paintings. In 1950 she was commissioned to decorate the Maternity and Child Welfare Centre on Haverstock Hill which drew extensively on her paintings of the Heath. Her work was the subject of an exhibition in Manchester at the Kalman Gallery. Friends with the Czech designer Jacqueline Groag, she started designing fabric, took up silkscreen printing, and explored writing and book illustration for children, publishing The Magic Button with considerable success in 1958.

Working in parallel with Stephenson, Kathleen was inspired to explore abstraction, and began to paint with acrylics, the flatness of which she found to her liking. She exhibited at the New End Gallery in 1962, and at the influential Drian Gallery in 1966 in Bayswater. Kathleen Goss in Art Review noted how Guthrie’s figurative works ‘…are delightful paintings of deliberately simplified and stylised figures. She invests them with the charm of Ardizzone’. Two years later Kathleen was the subject of a joint exhibition of her and Stephenson’s work at the Brighton Pavilion. Subsequent solo exhibitions of her work during her lifetime were held at Camden Arts Centre; Erica Bourne Gallery, Golders Green and the Centaur Gallery, Highgate. Further afield she was the subject of shows at the Trentham Gallery, Emsworth; Forge House Gallery, Cookham and Coach House, Guernsey.

Kathleen Guthrie with her second husband John Cecil Stephenson

KATHLEEN GUTHRIE (BRITISH 1905-1981)

LOOKING THROUGH

signed KATHLEEN GUTHRIE lower right

acrylic on canvas

60 x 40.5cm; 23 1/2 x 16in

63 x 43cm; 22 3/4 x 17in (framed)

⊕ £500-700

KATHLEEN GUTHRIE (BRITISH 1905-1981) YOUNG GIRL

signed KATHLEEN GUTHRIE lower right

acrylic on canvas

60.5 x 45.5cm; 23 3/4 x 18in

63 x 48cm; 24 3/4 x 19in (framed)

Painted circa 1972.

Literature

Jonathan Eastway, A Poet’s Eye: The Paintings of Kathleen Guthrie, Carmel Press, 1999, p. 33, no. 31, illustrated

⊕ £500-700

KATHLEEN GUTHRIE (BRITISH 1905-1981)

SUNDAY WALK ON THE HEATH

signed KATHLEEN / GUTHRIE lower left

acrylic on canvas

122 x 81cm; 48 x 32in

124 x 83.5cm; 48 3/4 x 33in (framed)

⊕ £600-800

KATHLEEN GUTHRIE (BRITISH 1905-1981) MEETING BY THE POND, HAMPSTEAD oil on canvas

61 x 76cm; 24 x 30in unframed

⊕ £400-600

I am convinced that Cyril will one day be recognized as of the ‘greats’ of British art. (Renske Mann)

CYRIL MANN (LOTS 5-14)

Born in London, on the outbreak of the First World War his father was conscripted into the army, and his mother with her four children moved north to Nottingham. In 1923, at the age of twelve, Cyril Mann became the youngest student ever to enrol at Nottingham School of Art. After finishing his studies Mann travelled to Canada to become a missionary. But the vast, arresting landscapes and his meeting with the Canadian Group of Seven painter Arthur Lismer rekindled his passion for painting. Returning to England in 1933 he enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools. His tuition was supported by the benefactor and patron of the arts Erica Marx (1909-1969; niece of Karl Marx); Mann also spent time in Paris studying with the Scottish colourist J. D. Fergusson (1874-1961). When the Second World War broke out he was conscripted and served as a gunner in the Royal Artillery. Later he became a conscientious objector, painted London’s bomb-scarred landscapes and taught at the London County Council Central School of Art.

The 1950s marked a stylistic shift in Mann’s work as he developed his so-called ‘solid shadow paintings’. Defined by hard-edged, stylised outlines, the style emerged when Mann was living in the basement council flat above a gold bullion dealer on Old Street in the City of London. The barred windows left him reliant on artificial light, and under the stark glare of a bare bulb he began producing heavily worked canvases with bold outlines and exaggerated shadows. Works such as Milk Bottle and Wild Agave on the Beach, Ibiza (lots 5 & 6) exemplify this distinctive phase, their bold, unnatural colours and densely painted surfaces reflecting both the intensity of his method and the unusual conditions under which he worked. After he moved to a light-filled flat in Islington, however, the darkness dissolved, the shadows giving way to a softer, more natural treatment of form and light (lots 8), which coincided with his burgeoning relationship with Renske Van Slooten.

His first marriage, to Mary Jervis Read, had been marked by financial strain, ill health, and the lingering effects of war. By 1950 the relationship had collapsed, Mary later remarking, To live with Cyril you had to love him very much. I suppose that in the end I didn’t love him enough. But maybe no one could have done… A decade later Renske van Slooten, a Dutch-born art student almost thirty years his junior became his muse, model and wife, shaping many of his works of the 1960s, which often explore the intimacy of their shared domestic world. Her memoirs describe both devotion and difficulty: the long hours spent posing, the instability of his health, and the precariousness of life with a mercurial, uncompromising artist.

Renske recalled Mann’s intractability, including his resolute rejection of the gallery system: They’re not interested in art, only money, and I won’t give them the satisfaction of rejecting me. They don’t know what I know. Despite his intransigence, from the 1950s when he was teaching at Kingsway Day College and the Sir John College, he had enjoyed a string of exhibitions, including in the West End at the Brook Street Gallery and Hanover Gallery. And in the 1960s was given further shows in Mayfair at St Martin’s Gallery and Alwin Gallery.

Through Renske’s eyes Mann emerges as a man fiercely devoted to his vision, for whom love and creativity were inseparable even as financial pressures mounted. The strain on them both, however, proved overwhelming. Renske ultimately left him, and in 1979 Mann was admitted to Claybury mental hospital, and died a year later. Renske Mann’s book on her husband was published in 2022.

CYRIL MANN (BRITISH 1911-1980)

WILD AGAVE ON THE BEACH, IBIZA

signed Mann lower right oil on canvasboard

21.5 x 30.5cm; 8 1/2 x 12in

27.5 x 36cm; 10 3/4 x 14 1/2in (framed)

Painted in 1955.

⊕ £400-600

CYRIL MANN (BRITISH 1911-1980) MILK BOTTLE

signed MANN lower left oil on panel

39 x 29cm; 15 1/2 x 11 1/2in unframed

Painted circa 1955.

⊕ £400-600

CYRIL MANN (BRITISH 1911-1980)

STILL LIFE OF FRUIT AND BOTTLES

signed and dated MANN 1973 lower left oil on board

58 x 59cm; 22 3/4 x 23 1/4in

66 x 67cm; 26 x 26 1/2in (framed)

Provenance

Sale, Mallams Oxford, 10th December 2015 lot 519 (purchased by the artist’s estate)

⊕ £300-500

CYRIL MANN (BRITISH 1911-1980)

STILL LIFE OF FISH AND VEGETABLES

signed and dated C. Mann / 58 upper right oil on board

45.5 x 56cm; 18 x 22in

61 x 71cm; 24 x 28in (framed)

⊕ £350-450

CYRIL MANN (BRITISH 1911-1980) RICKMANSLADE, SPRING HOUSE GARDENS

signed and dated MANN. 79. lower right oil on board

59.5 x 59.5cm; 23 1/2 x 23 1/2in

66 x 66cm; 26 x 26in (framed)

Provenance

Sale, Sworders Stansted Mountfitchet, 10th June 2020 lot 73 (purchased by the artist’s estate)

⊕ £500-700

CYRIL MANN (BRITISH 1911-1980) MOORED BOATS

signed and dated MANN 62 lower right oil on canvas

50 x 60cm; 19 3/4 x 23 1/2in unframed

⊕ £400-600

CYRIL MANN (BRITISH 1911-1980) CANAL VIEW

signed MANN lower right oil on canvas

50 x 40cm; 19 3/4 x 15 3/4in

61 x 52cm; 24 x 20 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £350-450 10

CYRIL MANN (BRITISH 1911-1980)

STILL LIFE OF IRISES IN A VASE oil on wooden cupboard door

73 x 42cm; 28 3/4 x 16 1/2in unframed

⊕ £350-450

CYRIL MANN (BRITISH 1911-1980) RENSKE’S BACK

signed and dated C. Mann. 62 upper left

chalk and pastel on paper

43 x 31cm; 17 x 12 1/4in

48 x 36cm; 19 x 14in (framed)

⊕ £150-250

CYRIL MANN (BRITISH 1911-1980) SEATED NUDE

signed and dated MANN 62. upper right oil on canvas

67 x 47cm; 26 1/2 x 18 1/2in

84 x 64cm; 33 x 25 1/4in (framed)

⊕ £400-600 13

LIONEL BULMER AND MARGRET GREEN (LOTS 15-33)

Margaret Green and Lionel Bulmer were people and painters of singular convictions – but from their first meeting in 1944, until Lionel’s last breath 48 years later, their lives simply merged. Friends called them MargaretandLionel.

(Ian Collins)

Bulmer and Green met in the Lake District towards the end of the War where the Royal College of Art was temporarily located, having transferred from London to Ambleside to escape the Blitz. Bulmer, the son of an architect, had originally enrolled at Clapham School of Art, but his studies had been cut short by his conscription into the military at the outbreak of the War. After being de-mobbed he transferred to the Royal College. Green, the daughter of a Teesside steelworker in West Hartlepool had been inspired to become an artist after meeting the young Patrick Heron, who drew her portrait during a family holiday in Yorkshire. She studied first at Hartlepool College of Art before enrolling at the RCA. From their first meeting the two painters became inseparable.

On the return of the RCA to Kensington, Bulmer and Green were taught by, among others, Ruskin Spear and Carel Weight. When Green received an RCA travel scholarship the couple embarked on a tour of discovery, painting their way through France and Ireland for the best part of a year. The French sun and deep greens of the Irish landscape left a permanent mark on both artists, whose works of the familiar and everyday are dappled with soft warm light and a vibrant freshness. Once back in England they settled in Chelsea. Bulmer took up a teaching position at Kingston School of Art while Green taught at Walthamstow School of Art and they both exhibited at the Royal Academy and New English Art Club.

Keen to depart the austerity and smog of post-war London, however, they sought out life in the countryside. Initially they lived above a boat house in Littlehampton, on the Sussex coast, but later moved into Lodge Cottage a dilapidated medieval hall-house surrounded by rundown gardens on the banks of the River Rat in Shelland near Stowmarket, Suffolk, which they lovingly restored. From there they set out on their frequent painting expeditions to the seaside communities of Southwold, Aldeburgh and Walberswick.

Relatively untouched by heavy industry, the Suffolk coast had been popular since the 18th century as a destination for healthy living as well as artists like Philip Wilson Steer (1860-1942) who after his studies on the Continent in the 1880s was quick to introduce an Impressionist style of painting to England. Wilson Steer, together with Sargent and Clausen was a founder member of the New English Art Club in 1886. Bulmer and Green became regular contributors to the Club’s annual exhibitions.

Working side by side over many years, Bulmer and Green’s work became so close in style and technique that it was often virtually impossible to tell their work apart. In Suffolk they combatted this by Bulmer consciously developing a more pointillist approach to his painting, reflecting the influence of Wilson Steer, the Neo-Impressionists and the work of Georges Seurat (1859-1891) in particular. His new-found style lent itself to the depiction of beach scenes and bathers, and his coastal views of summer on the Suffolk coast came to define his career. As the writer Ian Collins noted of Bulmer’s work: ‘the season appears to be one of permanent summer.’ Meanwhile, Green continued to paint in her signature enigmatic manner. An acute observer of her surroundings, and the incident to be found in everyday life, she captured the essence of Post-War Britain in her thoughtful landscapes and canny figurative compositions. But on Bulmer’s death in 1992 Green was heartbroken and stopped painting for the rest of her life.

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992) GIRL AT A WINDOW

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

66.5 x 76.5cm; 26 1/4 x 30 1/4in unframed

⊕ £400-600

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992) PORTRAIT OF A MAN oil on board

41 x 30.5cm; 16 x 12in unframed

⊕ £200-300

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992) WOMAN RESTING oil on board

26.5 x 11.5cm; 10 1/2 x 4 1/2in unframed

⊕ £150-250

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992) FESTIVAL GARDENS oil on board

15 x 30.5cm; 6 x 12in unframed

⊕ £250-350

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992)

BRIGHTON PAVILION

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

41 x 53.5cm; 16 x 21in

unframed

⊕ £400-600

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992)

THROUGH THE STUDIO WINDOW

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

30.5 x 14cm; 12 x 5 1/2in

42 x 25cm; 16 1/2 x 10in (framed)

Exhibited

London, Messums, A Painting Partnership, Lionel Bulmer and Margaret, 2011, no. 87 (ex. cat)

London, Messums, The Art of Looking, Lionel Bulmer and Margaret Green, 2014, no. 54 (ex. cat.)

⊕ £200-300

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992)

STUDY OF A ROSE IN A GLASS AND VIOLETS IN A PLANT POT

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

45.5 x 61cm; 18 x 24in unframed

⊕ £500-700

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992)

FLORAL PATTERN WITH SQUARE FORMS

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

51 x 61cm; 20 x 24in

unframed

⊕ £400-600

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992) COTTAGE WINDOW AND MIRROR, SHELLAND

signed L. Bulmer lower right; signed and titled Cottage Window + Mirror / Shelland / LIONEL BULMER on a label on the reverse oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

91 x 122cm; 35 3/4 x 48in unframed

⊕ £700-900

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992) YELLOW MARSHES oil on canvas

50.5 x 61cm; 20 x 24in unframed

⊕ £400-600 23

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992) PATH THROUGH WOODS

signed L Bulmer lower right oil and pencil on board

30.5 x 30.5cm; 12 x 12in unframed

⊕ £300-500

LIONEL BULMER (BRITISH 1919-1992) RAILINGS AND MARSHLAND

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

15.5 x 23cm; 16 1/4 x 9in unframed

⊕ £200-300

MARGARET GREEN (BRITISH 1925-2003) SWANS, SEATON CAREW

signed M Green lower right oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

50.5 x 75.5cm; 20 x 29 3/4in unframed

The wooden figure-of-eight rollercoaster at Seaton Carew that appears silhouetted in the background of the present work was a local landmark. Built in the 1940s by Schipper & Van der Ville, it was demolished in 1965.

⊕ £500-700

MARGARET GREEN (BRITISH 1925-2003) IN AN INTERIOR

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board board

61.5 x 76cm; 24 1/4 x 30cm unframed

⊕ £500-700 27

MARGARET GREEN (BRITISH 1925-2003) AT THE TABLE

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

63.5 x 76cm; 25 x 30in unframed

⊕ £500-700

MARGARET GREEN (BRITISH 1925-2003) THE BOATYARD

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

61 x 92cm; 24 x 36 1/4in unframed

⊕ £500-700

MARGARET GREEN (BRITISH 1925-2003) A BOUQUET OF IRISES

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

51 x 76cm; 20 x 30in unframed

⊕ £400-600

MARGARET GREEN (BRITISH 1925-2003) WOMAN IN WHITE

signed M Green lower right oil on the artist’s prepared canvasboard

50.5 x 40.5cm; 19 3/4 x 16in unframed

⊕ £350-450

MARGARET GREEN (BRITISH 1925-2003)

STUDY OF A LADY IN NATURE

oil on the artist’s prepared muslin board

38 x 60.5cm; 15 x 23 3/4in unframed

⊕ £400-600

DAVID BATES (LOTS 34-45)

Bates enrolled as a student at the Royal College of Art in 1950, where he railed with his tutor Francis Bacon and also the young art critic David Sylvester about the rise of abstraction, arguing vehemently for realism and naturalism. Sylvester was disparaging of the so called ‘Kitchen Sink School’ to which he all too readily consigned Bates, and was especially critical of Bates’ fellow student and friend John Bratby. But Bates was not to be dissuaded. He joined the Communist Party, and his strongly held socialist convictions led him later both to campaign for nuclear disarmament and to march in protest against the war in Vietnam. His subject matter in the 1950s reflected his political views and his interest in the worker in society (lots 35, 38, 41 & 43). In London he made studies of navvies removing tram lines and emblematic studies of industrial objects such as a cement mixer.

At the RCA he met fellow art student June Moss, his wife to be. The couple were married in Nottingham in 1957 where Bates was teaching at Boots College. They first lived together in Yeovil, then In 1961 they moved with their young family to Preston where Bates became senior lecturer in painting at Harris School of Art. They remained there until the late 1970s, by the end of which the couple were running non-vocational art courses, and Bates was directing the Preston Arts Centre, overseeing a diverse programme of music, film, art and events. In 1978 he took early retirement and he and June moved further north to live and work at Newbiggin Hall, Carlisle.

Bates was born in China, the son of a Methodist missionary and headmaster. But with the rise of the Kuomintang (the Chinese Nationalist Party) his parents were forced to leave, returning with their children to England in 1931. Over the next two decades the family relocated regularly. They first lived briefly in Birmingham, then moved to Penzance, and subsequently to Nottingham before settling in Stockport in 1940, where Bates attended Stockport Polytechnic, and Bristol in 1945, where he enrolled in the West of England College of Art. In the late 1940s the family moved to Millom, South Cumbria where Bates began recording the working class community and the heavy industry of the area (lots 35-41), before starting his studies at the Royal College of Art in London. Then, in 1951 the family upped-sticks once again and moved to Stoke-on-Trent where he drew and painted the potteries (lot 40).

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024)

MILLOM METHODIST CHURCH

signed BATES lower left oil on board

22 x 37.5cm; 8 3/4 x 14 3/4in

Painted in 1949.

There is an oil sketch of bottles and fruit on the reverse.

⊕ £200-300

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024)

MILLOM CANTEEN oil on board

15 x 19cm; 6 x 7 1/2in

Painted in 1949.

⊕ £120-180 34

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024)

MILLOM SWIMMING POOL

signed and dated Bates ‘49 lower right; inscribed D. F. BATES ‘49 / MILLOM / CUMB. on the reverse oil on panel

25 x 35.5cm; 9 3/4 x 14in unframed

⊕ £150-250

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024)

HAVERIGG, MILLOM oil on board

19 x 28cm; 7 1/2 x 11in unframed

Painted circa 1960.

⊕ £150-250 36

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024) MR TUNSTALL

signed and dated BATES ‘63 upper right; inscribed with the artist’s name and address and road sweeper on the reverse oil on canvas

61 x 51cm; 24 x 20in unframed

⊕ £250-350

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024)

THE BACK OF THE TERRACE, WINTER oil on the artist’s prepared canvasboard

30 x 25cm; 11 3/4 x 9 3/4in unframed

Painted circa 1950.

⊕ £150-250 38

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024) BURLEIGH POTTERIES, STOKE-ON-TRENT oil on board

19 x 25.5cm; 7 1/2 x 10in unframed

Painted in the early 1950s.

⊕ £120-180

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024)

SEATED MAN SEEN FROM BEHIND oil on board

22.5 x 19.5cm; 8 3/4 x 7 3/4in unframed

Painted circa 1960.

⊕ £80-120

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024) THE NEIGHBOUR’S GARDEN, YEOVIL oil on board

53 x 51cm; 21 x 20in

63 x 61cm; 24 3/4 x 24in (framed)

Painted circa 1960.

⊕

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024)

MAN WITH SICKLE oil on canvas

64 x 46cm; 22 1/4 x 18in unframed

Painted in 1950.

⊕ £200-300

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024) YEOVIL GARDEN APPLE TREE

inscribed with the artist’s Preston address on a label on the reverse oil on board

74 x 46cm; 29 x 30in unframed

Painted in the late 1950s.

⊕ £300-500

DAVID BATES (BRITISH 1929-2024)

JETTY, MILLOM HODBARROW oil on board

25 x 28cm; 9 3/4 x 11in unframed

Painted in the 1970s.

⊕ £150-250

HANS FEIBUSCH

(LOTS 46-69)

To stand before an empty wall as in a trance… to let shapes cloudily emerge, to draw scenes and figures, to let light and dark rush out of the surface, to make them move outward or recede into the depths, this was bliss.

(Hans Feibusch)

The son of a Frankfurt dentist, Feibusch fought for the Kaiser in the First World War, emerged alive from the Russian Front, and studied with Carl Hofer in Berlin and with Emil Othon Friesz and André Lhote in Paris. Come the 1930s he had a dealer in Berlin, had exhibited widely, and been awarded the German Grand State Prize for painting by the Prussian Academy of Arts. But Hitler’s rise to power threatened it all. In a meeting of the Frankfurter Künstlerbund which he attended in 1933, a new member appeared in Nazi uniform, jumped on a table and pointing at the Jews with his riding crop said: ‘You’ll never show again’. It was the moment Feibusch determined to emigrate.

Arriving in London Feibusch had his first one-man exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery, and was soon a member of the London Group. Further exhibitions with Lefevre followed; then in 1938 he completed his first large scale mural: Footwashing in the Methodist Chapel, Colliers Wood. It was a commission that would result in Feibusch becoming the leading muralist in Britain. Working both for the Church of England and local municipalities, over the next thirty-five years he decorated some forty plus churches, civic buildings and private houses across England and Wales. His work contributed hugely to the re-generation of public buildings after the War and the debate on art in public places. But it also took him away from the Mayfair-centric contemporary art world and its critics, and thus to a large extent out of the eye of the commercial art world. After his last exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery in 1951 he didn’t have another gallery show until the late 1970s.

Instead Feibusch threw himself into large scale mural projects, designing the decorations for the tea room at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1946 (lot 47), and championed by George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, embarked on a series of commissions to decorate bomb-damaged churches that were being restored and re-built after the War. These included, for example, designs for a font for the baptistry of Christ Church and St Stephen’s, Battersea (lot 63). Feibusch also wrote Mural Painting a treatise on the history, theory and technique of the art in 1946, and contributed the foreward to the catalogue of the first exhibition of the Society of Mural Painters held in 1950.

A consummate draughtsman, whether sketching his surroundings (lots 46, 58-61), or studying the model before him (lot 48), he captures each scene with a fine eye for detail. And as a gifted colourist, he responded to the light of his surroundings with a breathtaking freshness and immediacy. But above all it is the manner in which he places the human form at the heart of his work with such ease and fluidity that leaves an abiding impression on the viewer and makes his work so compelling today.

Exhibition Reference: the full reference for the travelling exhibition abbreviated in lots 54 & 55 is: Chichester, Pallant House Gallery; London, Ben Uri Art Gallery; Northampton, Museum and Art Gallery; Eastbourne, Towner Art Gallery; Newport, Museum & Art Gallery, Hans Feibusch, The Heat of Vision, 1995-97

46 HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

signed with initials and dated 48 lower right pencil on paper

18 x 23cm; 7 x 9in unframed

Feibusch was fascinated by war torn London, and sketched bomb-damaged buildings with St Paul’s Cathedral in the background on several occasions.

⊕ £100-150

47 HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

CIRCUS ANIMALS

pencil on paper

20 x 28cm; 8 x 11in unframed

Drawn in the 1940s, the present work may well be a preparatory sketch for the artists’s decorations of the tea room at the Victoria & Albert Museum completed for the post-War rallying exhibition Britan Can Make It held in 1946. For other sketches that relate to the artist’s designs for the tea rooms see Sales, Olympia Auctions, 11th October 2023 lots 52 & 53 and 20th March 2024 lot 50.

⊕ £100-150

48 HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

SIDONIE

signed and dated with initials HF / 1950 lower centre; titled and inscribed with the artists’ name and address on the reverse charcoal and pastel on paper

45.5 x 53cm; 18 x 21in

64.5 x 70cm; 25 1/2 x 27 1/2in (framed)

Feibusch met Sidonie Gestetner (1888-1963) after he left Germany for England. The couple married in 1935.

⊕ £300-500

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

SIDONIE ON HOLIDAY IN CORNWALL oil on canvas

49 x 74.5cm; 19 1/4 x 29 1/4in

66 x 91.5cm; 26 x 36in (framed)

see note to previous lot

⊕ £600-800

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

RAGING CENTAURS - A PAIR

each signed with initials and dated 73 lower right each gouache on paper

32 x 47cm; 11 1/2 x 18 1/2in

54 x 68.5cm; 21 1/4 x 27in (each framed) (2)

⊕ £300-500

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

(I) ADAM AND EVE; (II) ELIJAH; (III) THE STORM

each coloured lithograph on paper

(i) 40 x 26cm; 15 3/4 x 10 1/4in; (ii) 43 x 26.5cm; 17 x 10 1/2in; (iii) 40 x 23cm; 15 3/4 x 9in all unframed (3)

Executed in the mid-1930s.

⊕ £100-150

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1989)

(I) DESCENT TO HELL AND (II) DEVILS IN HELL - A PAIR

(i) signed and dated Hans Feibusch 1941 lower left margin each coloured lithograph on paper each 58 x 46cm; 23 x 18in each unframed (2)

⊕ £100-150

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

NUDE MALES - A PAIR

each charcoal and chalk on paper with blue wash each 63 x 49cm; 24 3/4 x 19 1/4in each unframed (2)

One with a sketch of drapery on the reverse.

⊕ £300-500

54 HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

THE FOUR SEASONS: AUTUMN

signed with initials and dated 67 lower right gouache on paper

51.5 x 102cm; 20 1/4 x 40 1/4in

69.5 x 120cm; 27 1/4 x 47 1/4in (framed)

Exhibited

Chichester, Pallant House (and travelling), Hans Feibusch: The Heat of Vision, 1995-96, no. 59 (illustrated in the catalogue)

⊕ £500-700

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

THE FOUR SEASONS: SUMMER

signed with initials and dated 68 lower right; signed and titled H.Feibusch / “Summer” and inscribed with the artist’s address on a label on the reverse gouache on paper

52.5 x 102.5cm; 20 3/4 x 40 1/4in

69 x 119cm; 27 1/4 x 47in (framed)

Exhibited

Chichester, Pallant House (and travelling), Hans Feibusch: The Heat of Vision, 1995-96, no. 60 (illustrated in the catalogue)

⊕ £500-700

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

PETER, JAMES AND JOHN IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

signed with initials and dated HF 68 lower right gouache and pencil on paper

50.5 x 64.5cm; 20 x 25 1/2in

56 x 76cm; 22 x 30in (sheet) unframed

⊕ £300-500

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

THE MAGI & THE ADORATION OF ANGELS AND SHEPHERDS (BOTH RECTO & VERSO)

each gouache and pencil on card (i) 53 x 42cm; 21 x 16 1/2in (ii) 45 x 69.5cm; 17 3/4 x 27 1/4in each unframed (2)

Executed in 1940, the present two works feature preparatory studies on both recto and the verso for the mural in the Lady Chapel of St Winifred’s Elm Grove, Brighton painted the same year. Designed by Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendell and built in the early 1930s, John Betjeman described St Wilfred’s as ‘about the best 1930s church there is’. De-consecrated in the 1980s the building was saved from demolition and has been converted into flats for the elderly. Within the development the chancel and Lady Chapel, including Feibusch’s mural remain largely intact.

⊕ £400-600

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

A SOUTHERN LANDSCAPE, PROBABLY ABOVE TAORMINA, SICILY gouache and pencil on paper

38 x 53cm; 15 x 20 3/4in unframed

Painted circa 1950.

⊕ £200-300

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998) BRACKEN IN THE WYE VALLEY gouache on paper

43 x 53cm; 17 x 21in unframed

Painted in the early 1960s when Feibusch was living in Brockweir in the Wye Valley, Gloucestershire and working on the the commission from Newport Borough Council to paint the large mural cycle for the Central Hall in Newport Civic Centre (see lot 64).

⊕ £200-300

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

WOODS NEAR THE ARTIST’S COTTAGE IN BROCKWEIR, GLOUCESTERSHIRE gouache on paper

39 x 51.5cm; 15 1/2 x 20 1/4in unframed

Painted in the early 1960s. see note to previous lot

⊕ £200-300

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

VIEW ALONG THE COAST, PROBABLY ABOVE TAORMINA, SICILY gouache and pencil on paper

38 x 52.5cm; 15 x 20 3/4in unframed

Painted circa 1950.

⊕ £200-300

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

AN EXOTIC BESTIARY

signed with initials and dated 83 lower right gouache on paper

30 x 19.5cm; 11 3/4 x 7 3/4in (image)

45 x 30cm; 17 3/4 x 11 3/4in (sheet) unframed

Study for a mural to decorate the artist’s daughter’s home in Wavel Mews, West Hampstead.

⊕ £200-300

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

FIGURES PLAYING MUSIC AND DANCING

gouache and black chalk on card

28 x 34.5cm; 11 x 13 1/2in unframed

Executed circa 1969, the present work likely relates to Feibusch’s designs for the decoration of the Baptistry of Stephen’s Church, Battersea for which he completed a mural covering the east end of the Sanctuary and a mural behind the font. For another design of a similar group and for a study fir the finished Baptistry mural

see: From the Studio: Works from Artists’ Estates, 11th October 2023 lot 60 and 2nd October 2024, lots 66 & 67.

⊕ £150-250

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT

gouache and pencil on card

65.5 x 45.5cm; 25 3/4 x 18in unframed

Executed in the early 1960s as a study for the large scale composition of the same subject that formed part of Feibusch’s major cycle of murals to decorate Newport Civic Centre.

see note to lot 63

⊕ £400-600

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

SUNFLOWERS IN A VASE

signed with initials and dated 82 lower right oil on canvas

91.5 x 51cm; 36 x 20in unframed

⊕ £300-500

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998) CHRIST IN GLORY

dated 25.6.61 lower right chalk and charcoal with blue wash

62 x 47.5cm; 24 1/2 x 18 3/4in unframed

Executed in the late 1950s, very likely as a preparatory sketch for the central figure of Christ in Glory in the artist’s mural for the East End of St Sidwell’s church, Exeter, Devon built in 1958 to the designs of local architects Lucas, Roberts and Brown following war damage to the original church. The mural has since been covered over and the building converted into a community centre.

⊕ £300-500

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

FIGURE STUDIES - A PAIR charcoal with green chalk on paper each 57 x 44.5cm; 22 1/2 x 17 1/2in both unframed (2)

⊕ £250-350

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

STUDY FOR A MAGUS

signed with initials HF lower centre

charcoal and coloured chalk on paper

52 x 39cm; 20 1/2 x 15 1/4in unframed

There is a sketch of a man on the reverse.

⊕ £200-300

HANS FEIBUSCH (GERMAN-BRITISH 1898-1998)

AN ARCHITECTURAL TRIO - CHRISTOPHER WREN, JOHN VANBRUGH AND NICHOLAS HAWKSMOOR

dated 4.1.71 lower right

charcoal and white chalk on paper

64.5 x 47.5cm; 25 1/2 x 18 3/4in unframed

Feibusch’s sketches of Wren, Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor relate to his friendship with Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect, writer, landscape designer and conservationist who purchased his uncle’s estate in 1931 and over saw its transformation into Portmeirion in Wales. Williams-Ellis innovatively incorporated fragments of demolished buildings and different architectural styles to evoke a Mediterranean coastal village. He commissioned Feibusch to supply murals for a number of buildings including the Anchor, the Arches, Lady’s Lodge, the inside of the Pantheon and the vaulted ceiling of the Gate House at Portmeirion.

⊕ £200-300

GEORGE ALLEN (LOTS 70-77)

[Allen’s] reveries are not worked up into a forced romanticism: they steal upon the mind as naturally as they might in the course of a country walk

(Brian Thomas, 1952)

George Allen is celebrated for his landscapes of post-war England transformed into arcadian idylls, combining pastoral, mythical and religious themes to capture the poetic spirit of the English countryside. A great admirer of the work of Charles Ricketts who advocated that style should be based on an intelligent study of the art of the past, and influenced by the strong sense of the local to be found in Stanley Spencer’s work, the landscape around Allen’s home in Long Wittenham near Wallingford in Oxfordshire became the setting for his verdant compositions in which Allen blended the present with the past.

Allen’s distinctive style traditionally falls under the umbrella label of the Neo-Romantics, although it was a moniker that the artist regarded with displeasure. Others so labelled range from Paul Nash to John Craxton. Nash was similarly fascinated by the wooded chalk valley of Wittenham Clumps, Nash, like Allen, captivated by the inherent spirit of the place. The following eight lots are preparatory sketches for some of Allen’s most significant compositions including Christ with Martha and Mary (lot 74), Picnic at Wittenham (lot 76), Love in a Valley (lot 70), Sleeping Venus (lot 70), The Return from Cythera (lot 71) and Portrait of Mrs Rose Butcher (lot 75), the only painting he showed at the Royal Academy.

Born in Paris, George Allen was the only son of writer and oenophile Herbert Warner Allen who was the official British war correspondent with the French army and worked for many years for the Morning Post. Allen was educated at Lancing College before attending Byam Shaw School of Art (1933-39) on the advice of the decorative artist Robert Anning Bell. There he was taught by F. Ernest Jackson, regarded as the best drawing teacher of his generation, and fraternised with fellow student and muralist Brian Thomas (1912-1989) whose style he greatly respected and who was appointed Principle of Byam Shaw (1946-1954).

During the war years Allen was deployed to work in the Camouflage Directorate in Leamington Spa. After the war, he experimented obsessively with the traditional materials and methods used by the old masters, especially Venetian painters. He ground his own paint and applied oil glazes to tempera underpainting to enhance colour and form. He became an associate of the International Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and a member of the Artworkers Guild.

In 1952 Walker’s Galleries in Bond Street mounted the first one-man show of his work for which Brian Thomas wrote the introduction to the catalogue. Its success led to a second show at Reading Art Gallery a year later. His style was popular with private collectors, including with poets John Betjeman and T.S.Eliot, the latter an old friend of his father’s and for whom Allen painted a scene from his play The Family Reunion. In 1954 his portrait of Mrs Rose Butcher was shown at the Royal Academy (lot 75).

The strain of these exhibitions, however, drained Allen of energy, and he stopped painting for the next eight years, instead dedicating himself to teaching at Byam Shaw School of Art and to tending his elderly parents. But by the time he returned to painting in earnest in the early 1960s his style had fallen out of fashion. And it wasn’t until the last years of his life that his work once more returned to favour. Shortly after he died Picnic at Wittenham and Christ with Martha and Mary were featured in the 1989 exhibition The Last Romantics at the Barbican Gallery.

GEORGE ALLEN (BRITISH 1916-1988)

(I) & (II) TWO STUDIES FOR LOVE IN A VALLEY; (III) STUDY FOR SLEEPING VENUS

each inscribed by another hand with the artist’s name, the titles, date of each work and other annotations lower edge (i) black and red chalks and watercolour heightened with white gouache on buff paper; (ii) & (iii) pencil on paper each approx. 29.5 x 39cm; 11 1/2 x 15 1/2in all unframed (3)

Allen’s painting Love in a Valley of 1951 (private collection), was inspired by verses from the eponymous poem by George Meredith (1928-1909). Allen’s painting Sleeping Venus painted in 1967-8 is in the collection of Swindon Art Gallery.

⊕ £100-150

GEORGE ALLEN (BRITISH 1916-1988)

FIVE STUDIES FOR THE RETURN FROM CYTHERA (I-V)

each inscribed by another hand with the title and the artist’s name lower edge each pencil on paper each approximately 39 x 28cm; 15 1/4 x 11in all unframed (5)

Studies for the large oil and tempera painting The Return from Cythera that Allen painted in 1985-86 (Collection of Tate Britain).

⊕ £100-150

GEORGE ALLEN (BRITISH 1916-1988) LIFE STUDIES (I-IV)

(iv) inscribed by another hand Byam Shaw lower left (i, ii & iv) pencil on paper; (iii) pen and ink on paper smallest 25 x 20cm; 10 x 8in largest 38.5 x 28cm; 15 1/4 x 11in all unframed

(4)

Studies from life, either completed at the Byam Shaw when Allen was a pupil there or after he returned there to teach in the 1950s.

⊕ £100-150

GEORGE ALLEN (BRITISH 1916-1988) SELF PORTRAIT (I); PORTRAIT OF TOM HIGGINS (II)

(i) inscribed by another hand G.W.A self-portrait lower left (i) pen and ink and pencil on tracing paper (ii) pencil on paper

(i) 30.5 x 21cm; 24 x 8 1/4in (ii) 38 x 28cm; 15 x 11in unframed

(2)

⊕ £100-150

GEORGE ALLEN (BRITISH 1916-1988)

(I) STUDY OF HEAD OF CHRIST AND (II) HAND STUDIES

(i) inscribed by another hand with the title, name of the artist and date lower right; (ii) bears inscription by another hand Study for Martha & Mary 1949 / George Warner Allen lower right

(i) black and red chalks with touches of blue pencil on beige paper

(ii) pencil on paper

(i) 25.5 x 38.5cm; 10 x 15 1/4in

(ii) 37 x 28.5cm; 14 1/2 x 11 1/4in both unframed

(2)

Preparatory sketches for the artist’s early painting Martha and Mary (1949) considered one of his finest works (see Edited by John Christian, The Last Romantics, Burne-Jones to Stanley Spencer, London, 1989, p, 197, no. 485, the oil catalogued; p. 26, the oil illustrated).

⊕ £100-150

GEORGE ALLEN (BRITISH 1916-1988)

STUDY OF MRS ROSE BUTCHER - RECTO AND VERSO (I); STUDY OF MRS BUTCHER (II)

(i) inscribed by another hand upper right recto

(i) pencil and pen on ink on paper

(ii) pencil, pen and ink and gouache on paper

(i & ii) 39 x 30cm; 15 1/4 x 11 3/4in both unframed

(2)

Studies for his finished oil painting of Mrs Rose Butcher exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1954.

⊕ £100-150

GEORGE ALLEN (BRITISH 1916-1988)

(I) PORTRAIT OF DIANA INGE; (II) PORTRAIT OF A GIRL

(i) pencil on paper

(ii) pencil and watercolour on paper

(i) 23.5 x 26cm; 9 1/4 x 10 1/4in

(ii) 39 x 27.5cm; 15 1/4 x 10 3/4in both unframed (2)

(i) Executed in 1946, the drawing of Diana Inge is a preparatory sketch for the seated woman in a blue dress in Allen’s large scale painting Picnic at Wittenham of the same year in the collection of Tate Britain.

⊕ £100-150

GEORGE ALLEN (BRITISH 1916-1988)

(I) LIFE STUDIES AND (II) BIRD OF PREY (i) pencil on paper

(ii) watercolour on paper

(i) 28.5 x 37cm; 11 1/4 x 14 1/2in

(ii) 29.5 x 21.5cm; 11 3/4 x 8 1/2in both unframed (2)

⊕ £100-150

VALLANCE RICHARD GREGSON & VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (LOTS 78-96)

The fascinating art of Vallance Richard Gregson and Vallance Jean Gregson, father and son respectively, appears in the Studios sale as a remarkable tribute to two painters now little known outside their family, a small number of acquaintances and professional associates. There are no records of work by either artist having been offered for sale at auction before.

Vallance Richard Gregson, a highly capable painter, remained an amateur and did not exhibit his work in public during his lifetime. However, a representative collection of his portraits, landscapes and still-lifes in the Whitaker, Whitaker Park, Rossendale in Lancashire, amply bears witness to his considerable artistic talents. The Whitaker collection includes his composition Kissing the Shuttle – revered as a rare record of the technique of threading a shuttle on an industrial weaving loom. There is also a portrait by him in Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery.

In contrast, his son Vallance Jean Gregson who trained as a commercial artist as well as a painter, exhibited his work regularly during his lifetime, including in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and Manchester City Art Gallery in the 1930s, and the Royal Academy in London in 1952, 1954 and 1980. Yet, unlike his father, his work appears to be completely unrepresented in public collections now.

Vallance Richard Gregson was the son of Thomas Gregson and Margaret Gregson of Bacup, Lancashire, a mill town long associated with the cotton and woollen industries. He was baptised at St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn, on 14th February 1892, when his father was recorded as a ‘Hawker’. By 1901 the family had moved to Clitheroe, Lancashire, where Thomas worked in a cotton factory. Vallance Richard married Jennie Taylor in 1910, with whom he fathered Vallance Jean Gregson (1911-1992). During the First World War he was a bombardier in the Royal Field Artillery, fought at the Somme and was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal. He re-married after the War in 1922 Emily Ashworth (1887-1936), with whom he had two further sons. By the late 1930s he was living once more in Bacup, employed as a ‘Sheeting Weavers Cotton Operator’.

Vallance Jean Gregson worked in a local slipper factory in Rossendale, but, unlike his father, later enrolled in the nearby art school: Rochdale School of Art. After his studies he worked for a shoe company in London, drawing their shoes to use in advertising, whilst continuing to develop his own work, painting a large modernist oil Feline Fantasy. In 1938 he enlisted in the Royal Artillery and during the Second World War served in the 1st Army Corps in North Africa. He exhibited the sketches and watercolours he completed while abroad of Algeria and Tunisia at Salford Art Gallery in the autumn of 1943. The following May he exhibited Watercolour Drawings of the Middle East at the Corporation Gallery in Rochdale.

After the War he continued to ply his trade as a commercial artist. Later he moved to live in Church Stretton, South Shropshire where he produced the artwork for Tanners Wine Merchants, Shrewsbury, still in use today and the design for the souvenir brochure of the South Shropshire Arts Festival while also pursuing his own work. Locally he is remembered fondly both for his ownership of a LE200 Velocette and his great gifts as a teacher, especially in the life-drawing classes that he ran.

As the present works by Vallance Jean Gregson attest, he was comfortable using a range of different media, from oil on canvas to highly detailed works on paper, collage and print while exploring a remarkably diverse number of styles. His strong interest in Surrealism stands out, and seems to have influenced his father too, as in Vallance Richard’s final years he explored the style for himself (lots 90-92).

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

RADIAL FORMS

signed and dated V.J Gregson 1967 lower right gouache on paper mounted on board

37.5 x 41.5cm; 14 3/4 x 16 1/4in

51 x 54.5cm; 20 x 21 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £400-600

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

MARGERY AND LUCY

signed and dated V.J. GREGSON 1969 lower right watercolour and pen and ink on paper mounted on board

23 x 29.5cm; 9 x 11 1/2in

37.5 x 44cm; 14 3/4 x 17 1/4in (framed)

Margery in the title refers to the artists’s partner, Margery Ann Rimmer (1921-1993), who was born in Liverpool; Lucy refers to the couple’s pet dog.

⊕ £500-700

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

VESSELS IN A LANDSCAPE

signed and dated V.J. GREGSON 1976 lower right oil on canvasboard

41 x 32.5cm; 16 1/4 x 12 3/4in unframed

⊕ £500-700

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

A TOWN WITH MOUNTAINS BEYOND

signed with initials and dated 1945. lower left; annotated purple / light / earthy lower right

watercolour, pen and ink and pencil on paper laid on board

24 x 33cm; 9 1/2 x 13in unframed

⊕ £300-500

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

MAN WEARING ROUND GLASSES

signed V.J.G. lower right red chalk on paper

40 x 26cm; 15 3/4 x 10 1/4in

57.5 x 41.5cm; 22 3/4 x 16 1/4in (mount) unframed

Executed circa 1950.

⊕ £200-300

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

MAN WEARING ROUND GLASSES, HEAD TURNED THREE-QUARTERS

signed V.J.G. lower right red chalk on paper

40 x 26cm; 15 3/4 x 10 1/4in

57.5 x 41.5cm; 22 3/4 x 16 1/4in (mount)

Executed circa 1950.

⊕ £200-300

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

SEATED MAN IN PROFILE WITH GLASSES

signed and dated V.J.Gregson 1950 lower right pencil on paper

23 x 26cm; 9 x 10 1/4in

42.5 x 42.5cm; 16 3/4 x 16 3/4in (framed)

Drawn circa 1950.

⊕ £100-150

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

HEAD STUDY OF A MAN

signed with initials V J G lower left Conté crayon on paper

25 x 19cm; 9 3/4 x 7 1/2in

36 x 29.5cm; 14 1/4 x 11 1/2in (mount) unframed

⊕ £100-200

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

INTERLACE DESIGN AND OTHER MOTIFS

signed and dated V.J.GREGSON 1966 lower left hand coloured block print

44 x 70.5cm; 17 1/4 x 27 3/4in

54.5 x 80cm; 21 3/4 x 31 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £200-300

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

UNTITLED - ABSTRACT FORMS

signed and dated V.J. GREGSON 1970 lower left monotype and oil on paper

41.5 x 67cm; 16 1/4 x 26 1/4in

55.5 x 80.5cm; 21 3/4 x 31 3/4in (framed)

⊕ £100-150

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

SEATED MAN WITH HANDS ON HIS KNEES

signed with initials VJG lower right Conté crayon on paper

29 x 20.5cm; 11 1/2 x 8in

40 x 31cm; 15 3/4 x 12 1/4in (mount)

⊕ £100-150

VALLANCE JEAN GREGSON (BRITISH 1911-1992)

SELF-PORTRAIT

signed with initials lower right pen and ink, watercolour and photocollage on paper

23.5 x 16.5cm; 9 1/4 x 6 1/2in

43 x 30.5cm; 17 x 12in (mount)

⊕ £200-300

VALLANCE RICHARD GREGSON (BRITISH 1892-1950)

THREE SISTERS OF VAL D’OCA

signed with initials lower right oil on canvas

35 x 28cm; 13 3/4 x 11in

49 x 42cm; 19 1/4 x 16 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £200-300

VALLANCE RICHARD GREGSON (BRITISH 1892-1950)

FIGURATIVE FORM (WHITE)

signed and dated V.R. GREGSON 1950 lower left oil and sewn cotton thread on canvas

36 x 26cm; 14 1/4 x 10 1/4in

42 x 31.5cm; 16 1/2 x 12 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £200-300

VALLANCE RICHARD GREGSON (BRITISH 1892-1950)

SCALLOP SHELL ON THE BEACH

signed and dated V.R. GREGSON.1950 lower left oil on canvasboard

26 x 18.5cm; 10 1/4 x 7 1/4in

34 x 26cm; 13 1/2 x 10 1/4in (framed)

⊕ £200-300

VALLANCE RICHARD GREGSON (BRITISH 1892-1950)

DEATH MASK

oil on canvasboard

31 x 18.5cm; 12 1/4 x 7 1/4in

43.5 x 31.5cm; 17 1/4 x 12 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £200-300

VALLANCE RICHARD GREGSON (BRITISH 1892-1950) VIEW ACROSS EDGESIDE PARK, ROSSENDALE VALLEY

signed with initials lower right oil on board

26.5 x 26.5cm; 10 1/2 x 10 1/2in

36 x 36cm; 14 1/4 x 14 1/4in (framed)

Painted circa 1949-50.

⊕ £200-300

VALLANCE RICHARD GREGSON (BRITISH 1892-1950) FARMHOUSE IN A HILLY LANDSCAPE

oil on canvas laid on board

15.5 x 19.5cm; 6 x 7 3/4in

19 x 22.5cm; 7 1/2 x 9in (framed)

Painted circa 1949-50.

⊕ £100-150

VALLANCE RICHARD GREGSON (BRITISH 1892-1950)

A FARM SURROUNDED BY FIELDS

signed and dated V.R. GREGSON / 49 lower right oil on canvasboard

24 x 35.5cm; 9 1/2 x 14in

35 x 47cm; 13 3/4 x 18 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £200-300

PIETRO LAZZARI (LOTS 97-103)

Enlivening, fresh and rich… lyrical handling of colour, rhythm and general form

(James Johnson Sweeney, curator of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum)

Multi-disciplinary artist Pietro Lazzari first trained in Rome with the sculptor Francesco Jerace (1853-1937) before serving as a soldier at the Front during the First World War. After the Armistice he studied at the Scuola di Arti Ornamentali in Rome, graduating in 1922. He became an illustrator for the local newspaper Il Messaggero and had his first exhibition at the ‘Theatre of the Independents’ in Rome. Mixing with the Italian Futurists, including Balla, Boccioni, Marinetti and Severini, he spent time in Paris, but with the rise of Facism in 1925 he made the first of several visits to the USA, before settling there permanently in 1929.

He married Elizabeth Paine in 1926, the year his work was included in an exhibition of nine European artists alongside Picasso, Modigliani, Gauguin, Douanier Rousseau and Jules Pascin at the New Gallery, New York. Working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), an agency that commissioned projects as part of the New Deal during the Depression, Lazzari developed innovative methods of painting and casting in coloured concrete, for a time sharing a studio with Mark Rothko. In 1935 his work was selected for the major survey exhibition Abstract Painting in America at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Among the other sixty-five artists represented were works by Arthur B Davies, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Arshile Gorky, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Georgia O’Keefe and Max Weber. The same year Lazzari was commissioned by a newspaper to make court room sketches during the trial of Gruno Hauptman, convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the twenty-month old son of the celebrated aviator.

In 1936 Lazzari married Evelyn Cohen and became one of a raft of artists commissioned by the United States Section of Fine Art to produce high quality site-specific murals and sculpture for new federal buildings across the country, in particular Post-Offices. Like the WPA, the public art programme was aimed to bolster work during the economic Depression and engage artists with local communities. During the six years he was contracted to the Section

Lazzari completed four large scale projects. Judging an early example of his mural work Max Weber singled out Lazzari for an award, commenting how the artist had the ‘touch of an uncommon personality’. The public programme closed in 1942 when the USA entered the Second World War. Lazzari relocated to Washington DC, but his Bleeding Civilian, a life-size concrete polychrome, was included in the huge Artists for Victory exhibition mounted at the Metropolitan Museum, New York that opened at the year’s end.

In DC he taught at the American University and was represented by Caresse Crosby at her eponymous Modern Art Gallery. He showed at the Venice Biennale in 1947 and was taken on the same year by the influential Betty Parson’s Gallery in New York. Parsons recalled that Lazzari ‘has a very original feeling for materials of all kinds… [and] is a magnificent draughtsman’. From the American University he became head of art at Dumbarton College (1948-50), and in 1950 received a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue research in multiple media. During the 1960s he produced a series of sculptures of leading humanitarian figures of the age, including Pope Paul VI (Vatican Collection) and Eleanor Roosevelt (Franklin Roosevelt Library, New York). Throughout the post-War years his work was shown widely in commercial galleries and public exhibitions in Europe and the USA including at the Corcoran Biennal, the Rome Quadriennal, the Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris. In his later years Lazarri continued to teach, holding posts at the Graduate School of the US Department of Agriculture and the Corcoran School of Art, George Washington University.

PIETRO LAZZARI (ITALIAN-AMERICAN 1898-1979)

SIX FIGURE STUDIES

two signed LAZZARI lower left; two signed LAZZARI lower centre; one inscribed NEW YORK lower right five pen and ink and pencil on paper, one watercolour smallest 16.5 x 12.5cm; 6 1/2 x 5in largest 27 x 18.5cm; 10 3/4 x 7 1/4in all unframed (6)

⊕ £200-300

PIETRO LAZZARI (ITALIAN-AMERICAN 1898-1979)

SIX HEAD STUDIES

four signed LAZZARI lower left; one signed LAZZARI lower right each charcoal and pencil on paper smallest 17.5 x 17cm; 7 x 6 3/4in largest 25 x 17.5cm; 10 x 7in all unframed (6)

⊕ £200-300

PIETRO LAZZARI (ITALIAN-AMERICAN 1898-1979)

EIGHT MALE FIGURE STUDIES

one signed LAZ / ZARI lower right each charcoal and pencil on paper smallest 21 x 14.5cm; 8 1/4 x 5 3/4in largest 26 x 19cm; 10 1/4 x 7 1/2in all unframed (8)

⊕ £200-300

100

PIETRO LAZZARI (ITALIAN-AMERICAN 1898-1979)

ELEVEN CARICATURES

one inscribed IMPRESSIONI PARIOLI upper right charcoal, pencil and pen and ink on paper smallest 16 x 12.5cm; 6 1/4 x 5in largest 27 x 19.5cm; 10 1/2 x 7 3/4in all unframed (11)

⊕ £200-300

(2 of 11)

101

PIETRO LAZZARI (ITALIAN-AMERICAN 1898-1979)

CITY FIGURES

oil on canvas mounted on board

91cm x 76cm; 35 3/4in x 30in

unframed

Painted circa 1945.

⊕ £150-250

102

PIETRO LAZZARI (ITALIAN-AMERICAN 1898-1979)

CITY DWELLERS

signed LAZZARI lower right oil on canvas

67cm x 56.5cm; 26 1/4in x 22 1/4in

84cm x 73cm; 33in x 28 3/4in (framed)

Painted circa 1945.

⊕ £300-500

PIETRO LAZZARI (ITALIAN-AMERICAN 1898-1979)

HEAD OF A MAN

signed LAZZARI lower right pen and ink on paper

25.5 x 20.5cm; 10 x 8in

45 x 39.5cm; 17 3/4 x 15 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £150-250

No lot

EARDLEY KNOLLYS (LOTS 105-111)

Such courageous enthusiasm… he is one of the purest painters I know (Duncan Grant)

Artist, gallerist, dealer, advertising executive and aspiring Hollywood director are just a handful of the pursuits Eardley Knollys engaged in during his life. A descendant of the Earls of Banbury, after Christ Church College, Oxford, he worked for Lever Brothers and J Walter Thompson before travelling to America to work on silent films in California. Returning to London eighteen months later he was appointed private secretary to Lord Hambleden, and in 1936 joined the Storran Gallery opposite Harrods on the Brompton Road where his partner, the artist Frank Coombs, was assistant to the owner Ala Story.

After buying out Story, Knollys and Coombs consolidated the Storran Gallery into a hub of avant-garde art, building up a strong culturally influential network in both London and Paris. Their deceivingly prosaic opening exhibition Flower Paintings featured works by Gauguin, Vlaminck, Modigliani and Monet. The show explored the innovative ways such everyday subject matter had been reinterpreted in modern art (something which would come to influence Knollys’ work), and they welcomed a raft of esteemed collectors on to their premises, including Lady Ottoline Morrell and others of the Bloomsbury set as well as the influential George Eumorfopoulos. But the tragic death of Coombs in an air raid in 1941 whilst serving in the Royal Navy in Belfast signalled the end of The Storran Gallery’s activities. Knollys lost his enthusiasm for the venture and closed it for good shortly after the end of the War.

Thereafter he took a job with the nascent National Trust and moved to live near Wimborne in Dorset. At the Trust he worked as assistant to the secretary, Donald Macleod Matheson. He joined James Lee-Milne on his visits to estates and country houses across Wessex and Wales and served as the South-West representative for the National Trust for some fifteen years. At Crichel House near Wimborne he set up a communal menage with the music critics Edward

Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe-Taylor, later joined by the literary critic of the New Statesman Raymond Mortimer. Crichel became a house for creatives and intellectuals. Lees-Milne came to regard it as a second home, and visitors ranged from the interior designed Sybil Colefax to film director Anthony Asquith, writers included Nancy Mitford and Laurie Lee, among visiting artists were Graham Sutherland and Ben Nicholson, while musicians included the composer Benjamin Britten and soprano Elisabeth Schumann.

It was thus only when in his fifties that Knollys began his career as an artist when he was encouraged to paint by the artist Edward Le Bas during a holiday in Brittany. As a dealer, Knollys had encountered a wide range of contemporary art and developed a particular love for vibrant colour and pattern through his encounters with Post-Impressionism and Fauvism, stating that ‘I have always loved bright strong colours – muddy ones seem to me symbols of gloom’.

Often sketching en plein air to be later translated to canvas in his studio, or from memories of his travels in Spain, France and Italy, Knollys deployed colour to build space and form. Of his working practice he commented ‘When people ask me what place a landscape painting shows, I can only say it is based on a sketch I made here or there. And if they ask, ‘Was it really that colour?’ the answer is ‘No’.

Knollys had his first solo exhibition in 1960 at the Minories, Colchester and a plethora of subsequent shows including with Michael Parkin in London and Achim Moeller in New York and at Southampton City Art Gallery. Remembered by his peers for his charm and sense of humour, Frances Partridge recalled that ‘everyone loved Eardley, you couldn’t help it’.

Knolly’s joie de vivre left a mark on his contemporaries which continues to radiate from his playful and typically colourful works today.

105

EARDLEY KNOLLYS (BRITISH 1902-1991)

REFLECTIONS AT MOTTISFONT

signed Knollys lower right; titled REFLECTIONS AT MOTTISFONT on the overlap oil on canvas

90 x 62cm; 35 1/2 x 24 1/2in

106 x 77.5cm; 41 3/4 x 30 1/2in (framed)

Exhibited

London, Messums, Eardley Knollys: Selected Works from the Studio Estate, 2011, no. 36

London, Messums, Eardley Knollys: Selected Works from the Studio Estate, 2014, no. 35

Mottisfont Abbey near Romsey in Hampshire was acquired in the mid-1930s by Maud and Gilbert Russell, wealthy patrons of the arts. As well as Knollys painting the gardens, Rex Whistler decorated the dining room of the house, and Russian artist Boris Anrep became Mrs Russell’s companion after her husband’s death. The house was acquired by the National Trust in 1957.

⊕ £500-700

106

EARDLEY KNOLLYS (BRITISH 1902-1991)

SUMMER, RENISHAW

signed with initals EK lower right; titled Summer, / Renishaw on the reverse oil on canvas

74.5 x 39cm; 29 1/4 x 15 1/4in

91.5 x 56.5cm; 36 x 22 1/4in (framed)

Renishaw Hall, to the south of Sheffield in Derbyshire has been the seat of the Sitwell family for more than four hundred years. Sir George Sitwell, father of the literary trio Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell, laid out the remarkable Italianate gardens in the early part of the last century.

Exhibited

London, Messums, Eardley Knollys: Selected Works from the Studio Estate, 2011, no. 21

London, Messums, Eardley Knollys: Selected Works from the Studio Estate, 2014, no. 33

⊕ £400-600

107

EARDLEY KNOLLYS (BRITISH 1902-1991)

ARLES, SUMMER

titled and dated Arles, Summer, ‘67 on the reverse oil on canvas

53.5 x 41cm; 21 x 16in unframed

⊕ £400-600

108

EARDLEY KNOLLYS (BRITISH 1902-1991) THE PARK

signed Knollys lower right; titled The Park on the overlap oil on canvas

76.5 x 61cm; 30 x 24in unframed

⊕ £400-600

109

EARDLEY KNOLLYS (BRITISH 1902-1991) HEATHLAND BUILDINGS

titled Heathland Buildings on the reverse oil on canvas

31 x 61.5cm; 12 1/4 x 24 1/4in unframed

⊕ £300-500

110

EARDLEY KNOLLYS (BRITISH 1902-1991)

MANTILLA, CROFTON HALL

signed Knollys lower right; titled “Mantilla”, Crofton Hall on the reverse oil on canvas

51 x 76.5cm; 20 x 30in unframed

Crofton Hall was for many years the home to the Brisco family until the family became impecunious after World War II and the house demolished in 1955.

⊕ £400-600

111

EARDLEY KNOLLYS (BRITISH 1902-1991)

THAMES WAREHOUSE

signed Knollys lower left; titled THAMES WAREHOUSE on the overlap oil on canvas

49 x 64cm; 19 1/4 x 25 1/4in

60.5 x 75.5cm; 23 3/4 x 29 3/4in (framed)

⊕ £400-600

Hull aptly summed up his work as ‘a tension of objects in space’. And at his solo ‘come-back’ exhibition at Adrienne Resnick Gallery in 1989 Resnick described him as ‘a giant, both physically and as an artist’.

Hull’s reputation flourished in the 1950s, when he established himself as one of the leading abstract painters of the postWar years in Britain. His first one-man exhibition was at the Brook Street Gallery in 1949 where Herbert Read gave the opening address. In 1951 he designed a mural for the Dome of Discovery at the Festival of Britain and started showing regularly with Gimpel Fils (1951-56). Elsewhere in London he exhibited with the Redfern Gallery and at the ICA and took part in the renowned This is Tomorrow exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1956; the same year Gimpel held a joint exhibition of Hull and Roger Hilton’s work. Abroad he showed with Galerie de France, Paris, Passedoit Gallery, New York (together with Peter Lanyon and William Gear), and at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh.

JAMES HULL (LOTS 112-119)

But in 1960 Hull turned his back on painting full time after winning a competition to design the interior of the Daily Mirror building. He spent the next ten years as a full-time design consultant for the International Publishing Corporation (IPC), before moving with his family to Ibiza where he designed jewellery. After the death of his daughter in a car accident in the early 1970s he left to embark on a solo travel odyssey. Over the next few years he held down a variety of jobs, including as a consultant designer for NASA’s space shuttle building in the USA. Returning to London in 1980 he took up painting once more. It took him a few years to re-establish himself, but by the end of the decade his work was starting to get traction once again, first at the Strickland Gallery in 1986, and then with Adrienne Resnick Gallery and Whitford & Hughes in 1989. His death a year later was all too premature.

James Hull (right) with Adrienne Resnick

Catalogue cover of Hull’s joint exhibition with Roger Hilton at Gimpel Fils in 1956

112

JAMES HULL (BRITISH 1921-1990)

COMPOSITION III 90

signed and dated HULL / III 90 lower right gouache, wax crayon and house paint on canvas mounted on card

43.5 x 77cm; 17 1/4 x 30in unframed

⊕ £300-500

113

JAMES HULL (BRITISH 1921-1990)

COMPOSITION IV 90

signed and dated HULL IV 90 lower right gouache, wax crayon and house paint on canvas mounted on card

54.5 x 80cm; 21 1/2 31 1/2in unframed

Offered together with a poster advertising the exhibition of the artist’s work at Whitford & Hughes in 1989.

⊕ £300-500

114

JAMES HULL (BRITISH 1921-1990)

COMPOSITION I 90

signed HULL / I:90 upper right

gouache, wax crayons and house paint on card

63.5 x 82cm; 25 x 32 1/4in unframed

⊕ £300-500

115

JAMES HULL (BRITISH 1921-1990)

COMPOSITION X 84

signed and dated HULL X 84 lower right

gouache and pencil on paper

69.5 x 99.5cm; 27 1/4 x 39 1/4in unframed

⊕ £200-300

113

112

116

JAMES HULL (BRITISH 1921-1990)

COMPOSITION X 84

signed and dated HULL X 84 lower right gouache on paper

70.5 x 99.5cm; 27 3/4 x 39 1/4in unframed

⊕ £250-350

117

JAMES HULL (BRITISH 1921-1990)

COMPOSITION X 84

signed and dated HULL X 84 upper right gouache on paper

70 x 99.5cm; 27 1/2 x 39 1/4in (unframed)

⊕ £200-300

118

JAMES HULL (BRITISH 1921-1990)

COMPOSITION VII 84

signed and dated HULL VII 84 upper right pencil and gouache on paper

70 x 99.5cm; 27 1/2 x 39 1/4in unframed

⊕ £200-300

119

JAMES HULL (BRITISH 1921-1990)

COMPOSITION VII 84

signed and dated HULL VII 84 upper right pencil and gouache on paper

70.5 x 99.5cm; 27 3/4 x 39 1/4in unframed

⊕ £180-250

LEO DAVY (LOTS 120-131)

There have been those who seem to have been artists, almost it appears from the day of their birth; such people are incapable of deviating from their natural and compulsive obsession in a world of their own, a world in which their lives are entirely consistent with their work and their being are one and the same thing.

Leo Davy was one of these.

(Sir Kyffin Williams, ‘Leo As I Knew Him’, in A Passion to Paint, Piano Nobile, exhib. cat., London, 2010)

Born on Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire, Davey was one of nine children. He refused to attend school with his siblings and instead was home schooled by his painter-art teacher father and musician mother. He became an accomplished artist and pianist early in his life and aged fourteen entered one of his drawings into a National Newspaper Art Competition; he won and enrolled in the Kingston School of Art under Reginald Brill. Unable to be conscripted due to his inherited deafness, in 1942 he started at the Slade which had been evacuated to Oxford during the Blitz. One of only a few male students and with a keen interest in philosophy, Davy often sneaked into the university to attend lectures and made many friends among the philosophy students. Art was for him a philosophical enquiry. It was at the Slade that Davy met Kyffin Williams who had been invalided out of the army. Both men later became teachers and lived for a while in Highgate North London where Williams became Head of Art at Highgate School. But Davy left teaching to concentrate on his art.

Often described as an outsider or unconventional in his approach to life he communicated best through his work. His art was a very personal manifestation of himself - his maxim being ‘to paint as only I can paint.’ Determined not to make a living from his painting he worked as a toolmaker and tomato picker while living in an abandoned coastguard’s cottage in Lancing and later became an accomplished framer and gilder, firstly in London and then living on the North Cornwall coast with his wife Antonia. Davy spent most of his life surviving with very little money, moving from garret to garret in London - the archetypal bohemian artist. For the majority of his life he shied away from the art world and was hostile to showing his work. In fact, he rarely exhibited at all and sometimes turned down prospective purchasers for his deeply personal works. However, in 1950 Davy’s work was included in a summer show at Gimpel Fils alongside the pre-eminent artists of the day including William Gear, Victor Pasmore, Prunella Clough, Alan Davie and Patrick Heron. Having spent most of his life refusing to travel in his later life he did visit Paris twice with Antonia. He was mesmerised by the city. Davy died unexpectedly of a heart attack at his home in North Cornwall in 1987.

120

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979)

UNTITLED (RED AND BLACK FORMS IN SPACE)

signed and dated LEO DAVY / 53 on the reverse oil on board

61 x 45.5cm; 24 x 18in unframed

⊕ £400-600

121

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979)

UNTITLED (TRIANGULAR STRUCTURES)

signed and dated twice L DAVY 53 / LEO DAVY 53 lower centre oil on board

68.5 x 40.5cm; 27 x 16in unframed

⊕ £350-450

122

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979)

UNTITLED (YELLOW WINDOW)

signed LEO on the reverse oil on board

56 x 44.5cm; 22 x 17 1/2in unframed

Painted in the 1950s.

⊕ £300-500

123

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979)

UNTITLED (MOVING FORMS) oil on board

38 x 30.5cm; 15 x 12in unframed

Painted in the 1950s.

⊕ £180-250

124

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979) DECONSTRUCTION

oil on paper

75.5 x 62cm; 29 3/4 x 24 1/2in

96 x 82cm; 37 3/4 x 32 1/4in (framed)

Painted in 1962.

⊕ £500-700

125

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979) ORGANIC FORM

oil on board

59.5 x 30cm; 23 1/4 x 12in

76.5 x 46cm; 30 x 18in (framed)

Painted in 1953.

Exhibited

London, Piano Nobile, Leo Davy: Early Work 1950-1963, 2014

London, Piano Nobile, Leo Davy: Abstract Scenes: 1973-1987, 2017

⊕ £500-700

126

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979)

UNTITLED (GEOMETRIC FORMS)

signed and dated LEO DAVY 52 lower right oil on board

76 x 33cm; 30 x 13in unframed

⊕ £350-450

127

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979)

UNTITLED (SQUARE FORMS) - A PAIR each oil on board each 33 x 23cm; 13 x 9in each unframed (2)

Painted in the 1950s.

⊕ £150-250

128

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979)

UNTITLED (BLACK AND RED)

signed and dated Leo DAVY / OCTOBER NOV / 53 on the reverse oil on board

85.5 x 30.5cm; 33 3/4 x 12in unframed

Painted in the 1950s.

⊕ £350-450

129

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979) STREET SCENE I oil on board

76 x 30cm; 30 x 11 3/4in

92 x 46cm; 36 1/4 x 18in (framed)

Painted in 1953.

⊕ £500-700

130

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979)

SEASCAPE AS THEATRE

dated 83 upper left oil on board

76 x 121cm; 30 x 47 1/2in

96 x 142cm; 37 3/4 x 56in (framed)

⊕ £600-800

131

LEO DAVY (BRITISH 1924-1979)

FIGURES DECONSTRUCTED

signed and dated LEODAVY / 56 lower right oil on paper

76 x 66cm; 30 x 26in

96.5 x 87cm; 38 x 34 1/4in (framed)

⊕ £300-500

DAVID BLACKBURN (LOTS 132-139)

Palmer fused the fervent vision of Blake with the tradition of the landscape sketch. The result was the visionary landscape in which nature becomes an arena for the imagination… David Blackburn belongs to this tradition.

(Patrick McCaughey, Director of the National Gallery of Victoria and the Wadsworth Atheneum)

At first glance Blackburn’s work appears abstract, but it is invariably firmly rooted in reality. Wide open landscapes and his sumptuous deployment of pastel have long been the starting points for his compositions. Blackburn’s early work was strongly influenced by the wild moorland that surrounded his hometown of Huddersfield, distinguished by its unforgiving tundra crisscrossed with black grit stone walls and vast skies. He remarked ‘I love the drizzle and mist of the North of England with its sense of decay.’ But later it would be the dry heat, bright light and vast terrain of Australia and the cityscapes of America, often observed from an aeroplane, which would inform the development of his aesthetic to make ‘a sort of visionary geometry,’ uniting the sublime with the ordinary.

Blackburn was awarded a scholarship to Huddersfield School of Art in 1955 where he explored a wide range of media, including textile design and print making. He subsequently studied at the Royal College of Art in Kensington (1959-62) where he was taught by Gerhart Frankl (1901-1965), an émigré in England during the War years, and a consummate pastelist. The tradition of working in pastels on the Continent was long established, and Blackburn’s post-RCA travels to museums and collections in France, Germany and Italy undoubtedly further informed his developing proficiency in the medium.

Blackburn first visited Australia in 1963 where he lived and worked in Melbourne, lecturing at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology for the following three years. It was the first of a succession of posts he held there, returning regularly to teach and to explore the country over the following two decades. In the late 1970s he also started visiting America, travelling widely throughout the country, and in 1981 was

appointed Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC. In America he was influenced by American urban architecture and artists’ interpretation of it, in particular the work of Richard Diebenkorn. Blackburn likewise explored the genre of the cityscape, developing the idea of the urban sublime in his work.

It was during the 1970s that his palette became increasingly colourful, and his pastels shifted dramatically from the dark forbidding series of his early endeavours (lots 132-134) to focus on the way light moves across landscapes creating areas of shadow. Or of bright sunlight passing through stained glass and creating colourful patterns on the floor (lots 135-139). When creating his pastels he began by blocking out the paper with rectangles of strong colour and then adding a grid in black over the top. He built up the picture surface in layers of colour and shade, sometimes adding collage. Incidental smudges to the pastel were incorporated into the pastel, to add texture and a sense of the transient.

Blackburn’s work has been shown widely in a range of solo exhibitions in both galleries and public institutions in the UK, Australia, the USA and on the Continent, including in the UK at Mappin and Webb Art Gallery, Sheffield (1970); Agnews (1970, 1972, 1974 & 1984); Huddersfield Art Gallery (1979); Royal Institute of British Architects (1985) and Dulwich Picture Gallery (1986), in the USA at the Vorpal Gallery, San Francisco & New York (1984 & 1985); the Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven (1989) and the Hart Gallery, Chicago (1994), in Australia at the Argus Gallery Melbourne (1965) and Watters Gallery, Sydney (1967 & 1968), and on Continental Europe at Kreis Unna, Westphalia (1994), amongst many others.

132

DAVID BLACKBURN (BRITISH 1939-2016)

THAT WE SHOULD SEE THE BLOOD OF PETER FECHTER pastel on paper

28 x 44.5cm; 11 x 17 1/2in

42 x 58cm; 16 1/2 x 22 3/4in (framed)

Executed in 1962. The eighteen year old Peter Fechter was shot dead at the Berlin Wall on 14th January 1962 whilst trying to defect from East Germany to the West. His death caused uproar and was widely featured in the international press. Blackburn was moved to compete the present work in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity, which has since been commemorated in various media including film. After the reunification of Germany in 1990 a memorial was erected at the place where Fechter died.

Exhibited

London, Messum’s, David Blackburn, 2016, no. 3 (illustrated in the catalogue)

⊕ £200-300

133

DAVID BLACKBURN (BRITISH 1939-2016) THREE STUDIES FOR AN APOCALYPSE

(ii) signed, titled and dated DAVID BLACKBURN / ‘THREE STUDIES FOR AN APOCALYPSE’ / 1967 on a label on the reverse; signed, titled and inscribed with the artist’s address in Huddersfield on a label underneath each pastel on paper

each 32 x 25.5cm; 12 1/2 x 10in

each 40 x 33.5cm; 15 3/4 x 13 1/4in (framed) (3)

Exhibited

London, Messum’s, David Blackburn, 2016, no. 5 (illustrated in the catalogue)

⊕ £500-700

134

DAVID BLACKBURN (BRITISH 1939-2016) SELF-PORTRAIT

signed and dated twice David Blackburn., 1976., lower right pastel on paper

62.5 x 47.5cm; 24 1/2 x 18 3/4in

83.5 x 67cm; 33 x 26 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £150-250

135

DAVID BLACKBURN (BRITISH 1939-2016) STONES COLLAGE

signed and dated – David Blackburn., 1977., lower right pastel and paper collage on paper

38 x 40cm; 15 x 15 3/4in

52.5 x 54.5cm; 20 3/4 x 21 1/2in (framed)

Exhibited

London, Messum’s, David Blackburn, 2016, no. 8 (illustrated in the catalogue)

⊕ £300-500

136

DAVID BLACKBURN (BRITISH 1939-2016) THREE TREES

signed and dated – David Blackburn., 1983., lower right pastel on paper

65 x 50cm; 25 1/2 x 19 3/4in

80 x 64.5cm; 31 1/2 x 25 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £400-600

137

DAVID BLACKBURN (BRITISH 1939-2016)

AUSTRALIAN TREE STRUCTURE

signed and dated – David Blackburn., 1985., lower right pastel on paper

40.5 x 34cm; 16 x 13 1/2in

52 x 46cm; 20 1/2 x 18in (framed)

Exhibited

London, Messum’s, David Blackburn, 2016, no. 18 (illustrated in the catalogue)

⊕ £250-350

138

DAVID BLACKBURN (BRITISH 1939-2016)

EMERGING SUN

signed and dated – David Blackburn., 1989., lower right pastel on paper

42.5 x 37.5cm; 16 3/4 x 14 3/4in

57.5 x 53cm; 22 3/4 x 21in (framed)

⊕ £300-500

139

DAVID BLACKBURN (BRITISH 1939-2016)

MEMORY OF THE BEACH

signed and dated – David Blackburn., 2003., lower right pastel on paper

67 x 52.5cm; 26 1/2 x 20 3/4in

74 x 60cm; 29 x 23 1/2in (framed)

Exhibited

London, Messum’s, David Blackburn, 2016, no. 45 (illustrated in the catalogue)

⊕ £400-600

MICHAEL UPTON (LOTS 140-151)

Tiny, intimist interiors and exteriors exquisitely coloured like some latter day Vuillard

(John Russell Taylor)

Upton grew up in Birmingham where he attended the College of Art before joining the Royal Academy Schools in 1958. In London he became close friends with David Hockney and Patrick Proctor, shared a flat with nascent pop artist Peter Phillips, and was awarded an RA Leverhulme Scholarship. His work was featured in the influential annual ‘Young Contemporaries’ exhibitions that Phillips masterminded over four years (1959-63). The reviewer of the 1962 show in The Times commented: ‘The exhibition fairly bubbles with bright ideas and visual excitement... its weird mixture of impudence, whimsicality and beautifully tender painting is well exemplified by Derek Boshier [and] Michael Upton...’

A year later, however, after completing six identical canvases, Upton abandoned painting entirely, turning instead to conceptual art. He spent 1967-68 in New York, the recipient of a grant from the Cassandra Foundation. Others who received grants from the Foundation included John Cage, Bruce Nauman, Christo, Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton. Increasingly Upton’s interests lay in performance, and in the 1970s he founded London Calling with Peter Lloyd Jones which became an influential part of London’s performance art scene. One of his works included burying a number of his paintings on a Dorset hillside. But at the end of 1970s Upton returned again to painting, taking up a teaching role at the RA Schools.

In this later period Upton’s preference was for small scale works. He often used photocopy or newspaper print as the support and he regularly produced series of images, similar to stills from a reel of film. Upton considered them ‘conceptual paintings’, and gained a new fan for his work in John Russell Taylor the influential art critic in The Times. In a review of 1979 Russell Taylor enthusiastically described Upton’s paintings as ‘tiny, intimist interiors and exteriors exquisitely coloured like some latter day Vuillard’, and in his review of the British Council touring exhibition Picturing People, British Figurative Art since 1945, he singled out Upton as one of a handful of ‘highly sophisticated stylists’. Also won over to Upton was the critic Mel Gooding who commented on Upton’s ‘subtle allusiveness (hints of Piero, Vermeer, Sickert)...another way of deepening the game, of adumbrating the mystery. An art of intimations’.

As his work evolved so Upton also gave it more loaded political messaging, inspired in part by both his earlier pop art years and current events. But following retirement and his retreat to Mousehole, Cornwall in 1996 his artistic focus shifted to the innate beauty of the local landscape and coastal views became his primary focus (lots 148-151).

140

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) CITY ROOFTOP

gouache and watercolour on paper on board

33 x 48cm; 13 x 19in unframed

⊕ £250-350

141

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) LONDON GARDENS

signed on the reverse gouache, watercolour and pencil on paper mounted on board

(i) 39.5 x 24.5cm; 15 1/2 x 9 3/4in

(ii) 39 x 27cm; 15 1/4 x 10 3/4in

71.5 x 82cm; 28 1/4 x 32 1/4in (mounted together) (2)

Executed in 1993.

⊕ £250-350

142

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) SELF AND THE BOATS

gouache, watercolour and pencil on paper

25 x 36cm; 10 x 14 1/4in

53 x 60cm; 21 x 23 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £150-250

143

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

LANDSCAPE (TWO STUDIES)

each watercolour and gouache on paper each 16 x 36cm; 6 x 14 1/4in

82 x 58.5cm; 32 1/4 x 23in (framed together) (2)

⊕ £200-300

144

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) CHILDREN’S SWINGS (TWO STUDIES)

each gouache, watercolour and pencil on paper mounted on board

(i) 23 x 63cm; 9 x 24 3/4in

(ii) 23 x 62cm; 9 x 24 1/2in

71.5 x 81.5cm; 28 1/4 x 32in (mounted together) (2)

⊕ £250-350

145

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

(I) HARES IN FLIGHT; (II) MAN AND HORSE

each gouache, watercolour and pencil on cardboard

(i) 30.5 x 53cm; 12 x 21in

(ii) 31 x 36.5cm; 12 1/4 x 14 1/2in both unframed (2)

⊕ £150-250

146

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) STUDENT ROOM (FOUR STUDIES)

signed on the reverse each oil on board

each 14 x 21cm; 5 1/2 x 8 1/4in

56 x 67cm; 22 x 26 1/4in (framed together) (4)

Executed in 1980.

Exhibited

London, Anne Berthoud Gallery, Michael Upton, n.d., no. 25

Yale Center for British Art, Michael Upton: Paintings 1977-87, 1987, no. 8

⊕ £300-400

147

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) URBAN SCENES

(i) inscribed Florence upper right; inscribed Via Nazionale lower right; (ii) inscribed indistinctly upper right

(i, iii & iv) watercolour and pencil on paper; (ii) watercolour on paper each 21 x 29.5cm; 8 1/4 x 11 1/2in all unframed (4)

⊕ £150-250

148

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) COASTAL SCENES

(i) signed, inscribed and dated Wagners Ravello / Michael Upton / Wagners Ravello / 99 on the reverse (i) watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper; (ii) watercolour and gouache on paper; (iii) watercolour and pencil on paper; (iv) watercolour on paper each approximately 19.5 x 24cm; 7 3/4 x 9 1/2in all unframed (4)

⊕ £120-180

149

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) FOUR RURAL SCENES

each watercolour and gouache on paper each 21 x 29.5cm; 8 1/4 x 11 1/2in all unframed (4)

⊕ £120-180

150

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) TOWNSCAPES

each watercolour and gouache on paper smallest 25 x 17.5cm; 9 3/4 x 7in largest 25 x 52.4cm; 9 3/4 x 20 3/4in all unframed (4)

⊕ £100-150

151

MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) COUNTRYSIDE SCENES

(i) watercolour and gouache on paper; (ii & iii) watercolour and pencil on paper; (iv) watercolour on paper each 14.5 x 20cm; 5 3/4 x 8in all unframed (4)

⊕ £80-120

LESLIE MARR (LOTS 152-159)

Marr was born in Durham into a family of engineers and shipbuilders and studied Engineering at Cambridge. He began to paint while with the RAF in the Middle East during the Second World War. Short on supplies, he procured some brushes and paint and purportedly used his kit bag as canvas to depict the landscape around him.

On his return to London he enrolled in art school in Pimlico. But uninspired by the conventional approach offered, a chance encounter with David Bomberg’s stepdaughter, Dinora Mendelsohn, led Marr to seek the more vivacious and anything but ‘run-of-the-mill’ teaching style that Bomberg espoused at Borough Polytechnic in South London.

Bomberg’s innovative non-academic approach to painting centred around discovering what he called ‘the spirit of the mass’. It was a method that had been fuelled by his pre-War painting expeditions to far flung and isolated destinations: the rugged landscapes of Palestine, the volcanic gorges of Ronda in Spain, and the mountains of Cyprus. And his ideas had a profound influence on a number of his students, Leon Kossoff (1926-2019) and Frank Auerbach (b.1931) amongst them, as well as Marr himself. Bomberg’s non-conventional style spawned The Borough Group, founded in 1946 by Cliff Holden (1926-2020). Among its members were Bomberg himself, his wife Lillian Holt (1898-1983), Dinora Mendelson (1924-2010), Dorothy Mead (1928-1975), Edna Mann (1926-1985), Miles Peter Richmond (1922-2008), Dennis Creffield (1931-2018) and Marr.

After marrying in 1946, Marr and Dinora travelled to Cyprus with Bomberg. Painting there together Marr’s work flourished, and he would later describe his time in Greece as the point at which he achieved the ‘enlightened’ state. But with the breakup of the Group in 1950 Marr turned to other interests, including as a photographer, film maker and Formula 1 driver before returning to painting after Bomberg’s death in 1957.

Re-connecting with Bomberg’s original approach, Marr travelled far and wide to seek out wild and isolated landscapes - as far afield as New Zealand - and used extreme contrasts and thrusting diagonals to depict untamed Nature. In the present sale these wild landscapes include range from the south of France (lot 152) to views across the rugged landscapes of Wales and Scotland (lots 153 & 156) and the Shropshire hills (lot 157).

152

LESLIE MARR (BRITISH 1922-2021) ANTIBES

signed and dated Marr 62 lower left oil on board

91.5 x 71cm; 35 7/8 x 28in

99.5 x 79cm; 39 1/4 x 31in (framed)

⊕ £300-500

153

LESLIE MARR (BRITISH 1922-2021)

LANDSCAPE NEAR LLANARMON DYFFRYN CEIRIOG, WALES

signed and dated Marr ‘71 lower left oil on canvas

100 x 126cm; 39 1/4 x 49 1/2in

109 x 135cm; 43 x 53 1/4in (framed)

⊕ £400-600

154

LESLIE MARR (BRITISH 1922-2021)

TEEMING WITH LIFE

signed and dated 76 Marr lower left oil on canvas

102 x 127.5cm; 40 1/4 x 50 1/4in unframed

⊕ £300-500

155

LESLIE MARR (BRITISH 1922-2021)

HEYDON, NORFOLK

signed and dated Marr 80 lower right watercolour, wash and coloured crayons on paper

58 x 79cm; 22 3/4 x 31in

77.5 x 98cm; 30 1/2 x 38 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £100-150

156

LESLIE MARR (BRITISH 1922-2021) SCOTLAND, STACPOLLAIDH

signed Marr on the reverse oil on canvas

71 x 91.5cm; 28 x 36in unframed

Painted in 1987.

⊕ £300-500

157

LESLIE MARR (BRITISH 1922-2021) SHROPSHIRE

signed and dated Marr / 4/94 lower left oil on canvas

63.5 x 76cm; 25 x 30in unframed

⊕ £200-300

158

LESLIE MARR (BRITISH 1922-2021) SELF-PORTRAIT

signed and dated Marr / 2/06 lower left oil on canvas

45.5 x 41cm; 18 x 16 1/4in unframed

⊕ £150-250

159

LESLIE MARR (BRITISH 1922-2021) HOLKHAM FLOWERS

signed and dated Marr / 4 May ‘00 lower left watercolour, glazed and framed

75 x 55.5cm; 29 1/2 x 22in

97 x 76.5cm; 38 1/4 x 30in (framed)

⊕ £100-150

LILIAN COLBOURN (LOTS 160-165)

She is passionate, lyrical, utterly sincere… determined to express her turbulent vision with the utmost directness – she has the promise of greatness

(Eric Newton in The Listener, 1953)

Eric Newton wrote the above words when Colbourn was living in Staithes on the North Yorkshire coast. As well as important for fishing, the village had been a very active and busy artists’ colony, attracting painters there in the late 19th century, including Harold and Laura Knight who had first visited in 1894. Colbourn had not discovered its charms until she stayed there on a sketching holiday in the 1920s, and it wasn’t until 1942 that she returned to settle with her second husband Joseph Wilson and their two young daughters to live there for good. Enjoying the challenge of capturing the forces of nature and distinctive local landmarks, Colbourn relished the opportunity to record the elements, whether the foaming sea or the rugged coastline, and suggest the drama of Staithes’ old footbridge that perilously spanned Staithes Beck, the river that runs through the village (lots 163-165).

Colbourn had grown up in a strict nonconformist Methodist household in the small market town of Epworth, North Lincolnshire, the very birthplace of John and Charles Wesley, the founders of the Methodist movement. She first married Richard Colbourn in 1922, an engineer by training, and the moved to Manchester. There Lilian attended Bury School of Art where she enrolled in the drawing and painting classes of Joseph Knight and received instruction from Emmanuel Levy (1900-1986), a contemporary of L.S. Lowry. During the 1920s she showed her work in group exhibitions in Preston, Manchester, and Liverpool, as well as with the British Watercolour Society, to which she was elected an Associate in 1923. Alongside her artistic practice, she contributed exhibition reviews to the Bury Times.

Her first solo exhibition was of her watercolours at the Wertheim Gallery, May Fair in 1937, run by the innovative Lucy Wertheim who nurtured the careers of many leading women artists of the inter-war years. After moving to Staithes Colbourn’s work became ever more energetic, lyrical, and direct, reflecting both her intense and energetic personality and her enduring fascination with the rhythms of coastal life. She showed at the Paris Salon in 1947 and had a succession of four major solo shows at the Berkeley Galleries, London (1951-66), followed by an exhibition at the Stone Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1960.

After her death memorial exhibitions were staged at the Austen Hayes Gallery, York, and Billingham Art Gallery. In 1998, the touring retrospective Lilian Colbourn: A Turbulent Vision was organised by the Myles Meehan Gallery. Messum’s, London, presented a significant collection of her work in 2004, and in 2014 her work was featured in the influential group exhibtion The Elemental North, including her dramatic Staithes Bridge (lot 163).

160

LILIAN COLBOURN (BRITISH 1897-1967)

ICI EST TOMBE POUR LA FRANCE

signed COLBOURN lower right; titled Ici est tombé pour la France on the overlap; signed Colbourn on the reverse oil on canvas

109 x 84cm; 43 x 33in

132 x 106.5cm; 52 x 42in (framed)

Exhibited

London, Berkeley Galleries, 1966, no. 24

⊕ £200-300

161

LILIAN COLBOURN (BRITISH 1897-1967)

THE ADORATION IN THE STABLE

signed COLBOURN lower left oil on canvas

54.5 x 68.5cm; 21 1/2 x 27in

75 x 89.5cm; 29 1/2 x 35 1/4in (framed)

⊕ £200-300

162

LILIAN COLBOURN (BRITISH 1897-1967)

PARIS STREET SCENE I

signed COLBOURN lower right; signed Colbourn on the reverse oil on canvas

49.5 x 39.5cm; 19 1/2 x 15 1/2in

71 x 61cm; 28 x 24in (framed)

Exhibited

London, Messums, The Elemental North, 2014, no. 34

⊕ £180-250

161

160

163

LILIAN COLBOURN (BRITISH 1897-1967)

FOOTBRIDGE, STAITHES

signed COLBOURN lower left; titled FOOTBRIDGE and WHITBY on the overlap; signed Colbourn on the reverse oil on canvas

59 x 89.5cm; 23 1/4 x 35 1/4in

79.5 x 110.5cm; 31 1/4 x 43 1/2in (framed)

The present works depicts the old footbridge that crossed Staithes Beck in the fishing village of Staithes close to Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast. The bridge was replaced in 1972.

Exhibited

London, Messums, The Elemental North, 2014, no. 32

⊕ £350-450

164

LILIAN COLBOURN (BRITISH 1897-1967)

SEA MOVEMENTS

signed Colburn lower right charcoal and watercolour on paper

28 x 38cm; 11 x 15in

54 x 63.5cm; 21 1/4 x 25in (framed)

Exhibited

London, Messums, The Elemental North, 2010, no. 61

⊕ £120-180

165

LILIAN COLBOURN (BRITISH 1897-1967)

BEACH SCENE

signed Colbourn lower right pastel on paper

29 x 38.5cm; 11 1/2 x 15 1/4in

55 x 63.5cm; 21 3/4 x 25in (framed)

Exhibited

London, Messums, Twentieth Century Works on Paper, 2009, no. 58

London, Messums, The Elemental North, 2010, no. 67

⊕ £100-150

Miriam Sacks’ work is something of which one can properly use the word unique; it is the only one of its kind I know of, and it is a very particular and extraordinary kind.

(Edwin Maxwell Fry, 1969)

MIRIAM SACKS (LOTS 166-173)

Miriam Sacks’ remarkable tapestries cover a wide range of themes with her work capturing a variety of images and ideas. Some are abstract, some symbolic and some realistic. All deploy vivid colours and explore diverse themes relating to man’s condition and struggles, his relationship with nature and mechanisation.

Sack’s singular aesthetic was inspired by her childhood in South Africa: its distinctive landscape and coastline, its fauna and flora and its ethnic diversity. Her rigorous schooling was also formative: she became a talented pianist, studied ballet and was awarded a Masters in Social Anthropology at Cape Town University. But it was a trip to New York in 1956, and a visit to The Cloisters, an outpost of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that transformed her artistic production. At The Cloisters Sacks was captivated by the seven late sixteenth century tapestries that comprise The Hunt of the Unicorn. Immediately thereafter she embarked on her unique, highly distinctive and much-fêted method of tapestry making.

Sacks had moved from South Africa to London after the Second World War while her husband was studying medicine at Oxford. Upon his graduation as an eye surgeon in 1950 they moved to Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). There Sacks collaborated with the painter Thea Hunt who had trained at the Slade School of Art and had set up an art school offering lessons for children. After Hunt stepped back from teaching due to ill health, Sacks took over running the school and championed the showing of children’s art both in the USA in the late 1950s and in London at the International Exhibition of Children’s Art in 1961. The following year she had her own first solo exhibition of her work at the Henry Lidichi Gallery, Cape Town.

Returning to the UK in 1964, Sacks’ gained international prominence when her tapestries were exhibited at the British Embassy in Washington. Four were shown to great acclaim at the Embassy in May 1965; the following year Sacks

sent over a further sixteen works to form the highlight of a group exhibition promoting British tapestry in the Embassy’s Rotunda; the exhibition subsequently toured to other locations across America. Sacks’ acclaim in the USA brought her to the attention of curators in the UK. In 1967 her work was included in exhibitions at the Design Centre, the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Camden Art Centre. And two years later she had a solo exhibition at the Ben Uri Gallery, then in Soho, where the opening address was given by the prominent architect, artist and writer Maxwell Fry.

In 1970 she shared an exhibition at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge with leading potters Bernard Leach (1887-1979) and Lucie Rie (1902-1995), and her work was shown in Edinburgh, Leicester and at the Stellenbosch Museum in her native South Africa. More exhibitions followed: at Royal Festival Hall (1971), the Victoria and Albert Museum (1971 & 1973), the South African National Gallery, Cape Town and the Bevilacqua La Masa Art Foundation, Venice (1972), and a series of shows at Leighton House (1977, 1981, 1985, 1988). The last international exhibition of her work was at the Irma Stern Museum, University of Cape Town in 1996. It was postapartheid, Nelson Mandela was President and the exhibition was opened by the new South African Minister of Culture.

As well as medieval tapestries, Sacks acknowledged other formative influences in her work including Louise Bourgeois, whose mother had been a weaver, and Jean Lurçat, arguably the leading tapestry maker of the twentieth century. However, she found the latter’s loom woven tapestries too machinelike and precise in surface finish for her taste. Describing the influences that shaped her work over the years Sacks wrote ‘Threads physically and spiritually interconnect with my life experiences, talents and knowledge, gained over decades. It combines sight and insight, enhanced by my knowledge… as a social anthropologist… as well as music, not to mention dance. It goes back to memories of childhood.’

166

MIRIAM SACKS (SOUTH AFRICAN-BRITISH 1922-2004)

STILL POINT (BLUE CIRCLES)

stitched with initials lower left handmade tapestry

20 x 25cm; 8 x 9 3/4in

24.5 x 31.5cm; 9 3/4 x 12 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £200-300

167

MIRIAM SACKS (SOUTH AFRICAN-BRITISH 1922-2004)

ROCK SUNSET

stitched with initials lower right

handmade tapestry

29.5 x 32cm; 11 1/2 x 12 1/2in

44.5 x 45cm; 17 1/2 x 17 3/4in (framed)

⊕ £250-350

168

MIRIAM SACKS (SOUTH AFRICAN-BRITISH 1922-2004)

HALF AN HOUR BEFORE SUNSET

stitched with initials lower right handmade tapestry

29 x 32cm; 11 1/2 x 12 1/2in

45 x 44.5cm; 17 3/4 x 17 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £250-350

169

MIRIAM SACKS (SOUTH AFRICAN-BRITISH 1922-2004)

BURNING BUSH

stitched with intitials lower right handmade tapestry

47 x 41cm; 18 1/2 x 16in

57 x 51cm; 22 1/2 x 20in (framed)

⊕ £400-600

170

MIRIAM SACKS (SOUTH AFRICAN-BRITISH 1922-2004)

DAFFODILS IN A DAWN LIGHT

stitched with initials lower left handmade tapestry

94 x 74cm; 37 x 29in unframed

⊕ £700-900

171

MIRIAM SACKS (SOUTH AFRICAN-BRITISH 1922-2004)

CIRCLING FISH

handmade tapestry

32 x 34cm; 12 1/2 x 13 1/2in

44 x 46cm; 17 1/4 x 18in (framed)

⊕ £250-350

172

MIRIAM SACKS (SOUTH AFRICAN-BRITISH 1922-2004)

AUTUMN TREE

stitched with initials lower left handmade tapestry

27.5 x 19cm; 10 3/4 x 7 1/2in

45 x 34.5cm; 17 3/4 x 13 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £250-350

173

MIRIAM SACKS (SOUTH AFRICAN-BRITISH 1922-2004)

WINTER TREE

stitched with initials lower right handmade tapestry

27 x 23cm; 10 1/2 x 9in

45 x 34.5cm; 17 3/4 x 13 1/2in (framed)

⊕ £250-350

HUGH CRONYN (LOTS 174-181)

Young, impressionable and fresh from Toronto where Cronyn had studied with the Group of Seven painter Frank Johnston, he departed Canada in his early ‘twenties with an irrepressible can-do New World outlook. His unpublished memoirs recount his pre-war years: his time at the Arts Students League in New York in 1929; the early 1930s in Paris tutored by Jean Despujols and André Lhote; bicycling across the Alps; and on his arrival in England his immersion into bohemian life in West London.

From the mid-’thirties he rented various studios by the Thames in Hammersmith and met many of the leading artists and writers of the day. One such was Ivon Hitchens, whose second solo exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery he helped hang. But most influential in his circle of friends was the critic, humourist and politician A P Herbert (‘APH’) and his wife Gwen, herself a painter and stage-designer of note. At their home at 12 Hammersmith Terrace, Cronyn met the likes of Edward Wadsworth, Mark Gertler, Leon Underwood and John Piper. Ceri Richards lived nearby, as did poets Robert Graves and Laura Riding in St Peter’s Square. He went on painting trips to Dorset with Julian Trevelyan, his neighbour at Durham Wharf, and to the French-Spanish border with Ray Coxon and Edna Ginese at the time of the Spanish Civil War.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Cronyn was commissioned into the Royal Navy. Put in charge of the Naval bomb disposal squad in Bristol dockyards, he was the first Canadian to be awarded the George Medal (GM). In 1942 he married Jean Harris and settled in Suffolk where from 1949-69 he was tutor of painting at Colchester School of Art teaching alongside John Nash, Edward Bawden, Carel Weight and Peter Coker. From 1963 the Cronyns began to spend their summers in Quercy in the Lot (lot 181), first renting a 15th century gatehouse and studio, then a small house, Les Vergers, before buying a dilapidated farmhouse in 1970 in Caufour which they renovated.

From 1974 the Cronyns spent the winter months in 3 St Peter’s Wharf, next door to Hammersmith Terrace, in one of the artists’ studios overlooking the Thames constructed by Julian Trevelyan. Cronyn’s late paintings of the river, which capture the spectrum of colours as the seasons changed, document the river’s moods from winter mists to intense summer sun (lot 180).

174

HUGH CRONYN (BRITISH 1905-1996) LOW MOUNTAINS OF SNOWDONIA

signed CRONYN lower right; inscribed for Janey Cronyn / H.C. on the reverse oil on canvas

39 x 59.5cm; 15 1/2 x 23 1/2in

50.5 x 71cm; 20 x 28in (framed)

⊕ £300-500

175

HUGH CRONYN (BRITISH 1905-1996) SUFFOLK FARMHOUSE WINDOW

inscribed indistinctly and dated 55 on the overlap oil on canvas

63.5 x 76cm; 25 x 30in unframed

⊕ £400-600

176

HUGH CRONYN (BRITISH 1905-1996)

TREES IN A HILLY LANDSCAPE, FRANCE

signed and dated CRONYN / 71 lower right oil on canvas

51 x 61cm; 20 x 24in unframed

⊕ £250-350

177

HUGH CRONYN (BRITISH 1905-1996) GARDEN SCENE

signed CRONYN lower right oil on canvas

50.5 x 50.5cm; 20 x 20in unframed

⊕ £250-350

178

HUGH CRONYN (BRITISH 1905-1996)

BOAT ON THE THAMES BEFORE HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE

oil on canvas

51 x 40.5cm; 20 x 16in unframed

⊕ £200-300

179

HUGH CRONYN (BRITISH 1905-1996)

DURHAM CATHEDRAL

signed HUGH / CRONYN lower right oil on canvas

77 x 91.5cm; 30 1/4 x 36in unframed

⊕ £300-500

180

HUGH CRONYN (BRITISH 1905-1996)

RIVER GARDEN, CHISWICK MALL

oil on canvas

49 x 58.5cm; 19 1/4 x 23in

58.5 x 68.5cm; 23 x 27in (framed)

Painted in 1989.

Exhibited London, Highgate Fine Art, n.d. Lavenham, The Phoenix Gallery, n.d.

⊕ £200-300

181

HUGH CRONYN (BRITISH 1905-1996)

MONTLAUZUN, THE VALLEY OF THE LOT

signed and dated HUGH / CRONYN / 89 lower right oil on canvas

61 x 76cm; 24 x 30in

74 x 89cm; 29 x 35in (framed)

Exhibited Lavenham, The Pheonix Gallery

⊕ £200-300

BERNARD MYERS (LOTS 182-205)

Work and travel in the Middle East and India introduced me to a world of colour. Under the influence of Islamic tiles and textiles, and Indian and Tibetan painting I set out to teach myself colour. My work at this time was mainly abstract and loosely based on astronomical and optical diagrams. Gradually I turned to realism via still life, working very precisely...

(Bernard Myers)

Trained as a gunner in the RAF during the Second World War, Bernard Myers studied at St Martin’s School of Art, Camberwell and the Royal College of Art. Fellow students included John Bratby and Jack Smith, Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. After graduating ARCA in 1954, Myers taught, variously at Camberwell, Hammersmith and Ealing art schools, and was senior lecturer in drawing at the Architectural Association School. He returned to the RCA to teach for the following two decades, punctuated in 1968 and 1971 by stints as Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of technology, New Delhi. His final teaching post was as Chair of Design Technology at Brunel University (1979-85).

Students at the RCA treasured Myers’ good advice. James Dyson remembered him as ‘cheerful, irrepressible [and] rather dapper… with a tweed suit and bowtie…’ But as well as being upbeat Myers was also appreciated for his considerable range of mind and intellect. On being made a Fellow, in his welcome speech the Dean noted that Myers ‘…must without doubt be the most versatile graduate ever to emerge from the Painting School. Since joining the College in 1961 he has been, by virtue of an encyclopaedic knowledge which comfortably bestrides the boundaries between the humane and the technological, and of his superlative gifts as a teacher, in demand by virtually every School and Department within the College…’

The plus side for Myers was that teaching left him free to practise his own art exactly as he wished. As he noted: ‘Some artists find that teaching interferes with their work. I find it clarifies my work.’ Indeed, he had an unstoppable compulsion to paint, incessantly exploring a wide range of subject matter, in particular the landscapes he encountered on his varied travels (lots 194-196 & 202-204), the still-lifes he worked on in his studio (lots 186-189), the nudes he painted in weekly life-classes, and his not infrequent forays into abstraction, precipitated in part by his fascination with space (lots 182, 184, 185, 190 & 191).

In the 1950s Myers married Pamela Fildes, grand-daughter of the painter Sir Luke Fildes, celebrated for his painting The Doctor of 1891 (Tate Britian). They lived in Windsor and then in Kensington before moving in 1974 into one of the studios overlooking the Thames at St Peter’s Wharf, purpose built by Julian Trevelyan, next to Hammersmith Terrace (lots 193, 197, 201 & 205). Myers had several one-man shows in the West End, the first at the New Art Centre in 1969; his last with Austin Desmond Fine Art in 1991. He wrote two books on Goya, others on the history of sculpture and How to Look at Art, and co-edited The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Art (1979). He also penned articles for The Artist (May 1988) on his highly original approach to pastel (lots 183-188 & 190-192), and Artists and Illustrators (1995) on his Venice views (lots 194-196).

182

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

PYRAMID AND SPHERES

signed with initials and dated 73 lower right oil pastel on paper

52 x 54cm; 20 1/2 x 21 1/4in

67 x 67.5cm; 26 1/4 x 26 1/2in (framed)

with the studio inventory number 0209

Exhibited

London, The New Art Centre, circa 1973

⊕ £200-300

183

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

STILL WITH FLOWERS AND FRUIT

signed twice B Myers and with initials lower right oil pastel on paper

74 x 52cm; 29 1/4 x 20 1/2in unframed

⊕ £150-250

184

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

ASTRONOMY LESSON

signed and dated BM 70 lower right oil pastel on paper

29 x 29cm; 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 in

52 x 50; 20 1/2 x 19 3/4in (framed) with the studio inventory number 0211

⊕ £60-80

185

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

COSMIC REFLECTIONS - A PAIR

both signed with initials and dated 73 lower right each oil pastel on paper

each 70.5 x 50.5cm; 27 3/4 x 20in

both 82 x 61.5cm; 32 1/4 x 24 1/4in (framed) (2)

with the studio inventory numbers 0215 and 0216 on the reverse

⊕ £180-250

186

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

STILL LIFE OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS WITH FRUIT

signed twice B Myers lower right oil pastel on paper

52 x 71cm; 20 1/2 x 28in

65.5 x 85cm; 25 3/4 x 33 1/2in (framed) with the studio inventory number 0421

⊕ £150-250

187

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

STILL LIFE WITH PEARS AND VIOLETS

signed B. Myers lower right oil pastel on paper

49.5 x 69cm; 19 1/2 x 27in

72 x 89cm; 28 1/4 x 35in (framed) with the studio inventory number 0363

⊕ £300-500

188

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

STILL LIFE OF JUGS AND FLOWERS

signed B Myers lower right oil pastel on paper

52.5 x 71.5cm; 20 3/4 x 28 1/4in

67 x 85cm; 26 1/2 x 23 1/2in (framed) with the studio inventory number 0229

⊕ £150-250

189

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

STILL LIFE OF FLOWERS IN A JUG

signed BMyers lower right oil pastel on paper

37 x 27.5cm; 14 1/2 x 10 3/4in

57 x 46cm; 22 1/2 x 18in (framed) with studio inventory number 0224

⊕ £100-200

190

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

SPHERES IN SUSPENSION

signed with initials and dated 73 lower right oil pastel and watercolour on paper

66 x 46cm; 26 x 18in

82 x 61.5cm; 32 1/4 x 24 1/4in (framed)

⊕ £200-300

191

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

SPHERES AND DIAGONALS

signed with initials and dated 73 lower right oil pastel on paper

70.5 x 49cm; 27 3/4 x 19 1/4in

82 x 61.5cm; 32 1/4 x 24 1/4in (framed) with the studio inventory number 0218

⊕ £150-250

192

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

SPHERE AND WATER GLASS

signed with intials and dated 73 lower right oil pastel on paper

68.5 x 50cm; 27 x 19 3/4in

82 x 61.5cm; 32 1/4 x 24 1/4in (framed) with the studio inventory number 0219

⊕ £200-300

193

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

THE THAMES TOWARDS HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE oil on canvas

25 x 30cm; 9 3/4 x 11 3/4in unframed with the studio inventory number 0368

⊕ £150-250

194

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

(I) SAN MARCO, VENICE; (II) COLLEONI MONUMENT, VENICE

each signed with initials lower right; (i) inscribed Venice S Marks on the reverse; (ii) signed and inscribed Bernard Myers Venice / Colleoni Monument SS Giovanni e Paolo on the reverse each oil on paper

each 53 x 73cm; 20 3/4 x 28 3/4in both unframed (2)

(i) with the studio inventory number 0673; (ii) with the studio inventory number 0656

⊕ £200-300

195

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

LIGHTHOUSE, MURANO; ARSENALE, VENICE (I & II)

each signed with initials lower right; (i) signed and titled Bernard Myers Venice / Lighthouse Murano on the reverse; (ii) signed and titled Bernard Myers / Arsenal, Venice on the reverse each oil on paper

each 53 x 73cm; 20 3/4 x 28 3/4in both unframed (2)

(i) with the studio inventory number 637; (ii) with the studio inventory number 657

⊕ £200-300

196

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

BOATS ON THE CANAL AND THE BOATYARD, VENICE (I & II)

each signed with initials lower right; (ii) signed and inscribed Bernard Myers / Venice Boat Builders / Rio di S.Trevaso on the reverse each oil on paper

each 53 x 73cm; 20 3/4 x 28 3/4in both unframed (2)

(i) with the studio inventory number 0649 (ii) with the studio inventory number 0654

⊕ £200-300

197

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

TWO SAILING BOATS ON THE THAMES, WITH ST PETER’S CHURCH BEHIND

signed with initials lower right oil on paper

55 x 75cm; 21 3/4 x 29 1/2in unframed

with the studio inventory number 0594

⊕ £150-250

198

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007) YELLOW FLOWERS WITH FRUIT oil on board

45 x 54.5cm; 17 3/4 x 21 1/2in unframed

with studio inventory number 0308

⊕ £100-150

199

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

BOUQUET OF ORANGE FLOWERS signed B Myers on the reverse oil on canvas

61 x 51cm; 24 x 20in unframed

with studio inventory number 0305

⊕ £100-150

200

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

HYDRANGEAS AND ROSES IN A VASE oil on board

40.5 x 51cm; 16 x 20in unframed

with the studio inventory number 0318

⊕ £150-200

201

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

THE THAMES AT HAMMERSMITH FROM THE NORTH BANK signed B. Myers on the reverse oil on canvas

59.5 x 75cm; 23 1/2 x 29 1/2in

67.5 x 82.5cm; 26 1/2 x 32 1/2in (framed) with the studio inventory number 0361

⊕ £250-350

202

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

VIEW OF THE HARBOUR AND THE ESTUARY, PORTREE, SKYE (I & II)

each signed with initials lower right; each inscribed Portree Skye on the reverse each oil on paper

53 x 73cm; 21 x 28 3/8in both unframed (2)

⊕ £200-300

203

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007) (I) EDINBURGH CASTLE FROM PRINCES STREET GARDENS; (II) THE FORTH BRIDGE FROM QUEENSFERRY

each signed with initials lower right; (i) inscribed Edinburgh on the reverse; (ii) inscribed Forth Bridge From Queensferry on the reverse each oil on paper

each 53 x 73cm; 20 3/4 x 28 3/4in both unframed (2)

⊕ £200-300

204

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

JURA COASTLINE AND THE PAPS OF JURA (I & II)

each signed with initials lower right; each signed and inscribed Jura / B Myers on the reverse each oil on paper

each 53 x 73cm; 21 x 20 3/4in both unframed (2)

⊕ £150-250

205

BERNARD MYERS (BRITISH 1925-2007)

RIVER STUDY, THE THAMES oil on canvas

61 x 77cm; 24 x 30 3/4in unframed with the studio inventory number 0275

⊕ £400-600

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR BUYERS

SECTION A

1. INTRODUCTION

The following notes are intended to assist Bidders and Buyers, particularly those who are inexperienced or new to our saleroom. The sale of goods at our auctions are governed by our Terms of Sale (for Live Auctions or Online Auctions as applicable), our Privacy Policy, the Important Information for Buyers, and any notices that are displayed in our saleroom or announced by the Auctioneer (in the case of a Live Auction) or displayed on any Listing for a Lot in our Online Auction catalogue (in the case of an Online Auction) (collectively, the “Terms and Conditions of Business”). The Terms and Conditions of Business are available for inspection on our Website and at our saleroom on request. Our staff will be happy to help you if there is anything in our Terms and Conditions of Business that you do not fully understand.

Please make sure that you read the applicable Terms of Sale carefully before bidding. If your bid is successful, you will be obliged to comply with our Terms of Sale.

2. AGENCY

As Auctioneers we usually act on behalf of the Seller whose identity, for reasons of confidentiality, is not normally disclosed. If you buy at auction your Contract for your purchase of the goods is with the Seller, not with us as Auctioneer.

3. ESTIMATES

Estimates are designed to help you gauge what sort of sum might be involved for the purchase of a particular Lot. Estimates may change and should not be thought of as the Lot’s value or predicted sale price. The lower Estimate may represent the Reserve price (the minimum price for which a Lot may be sold) and will not be below the Reserve price. Estimates do not include the Buyer’s Premium or VAT (where chargeable). Estimates are prepared some time before the auction and may be altered by a saleroom notice or announcement by the Auctioneer before the auction of the Lot (for Live Auctions), or on the Listing for a Lot in our Online Auction catalogue before the auction of the Lot (for Online Auctions). They represent a matter of opinion and are not definitive.

4 BUYER’S PREMIUM

The Terms of Sale oblige you to pay a Buyer’s Premium at 25% on the Hammer Price of each Lot purchased. The Buyer’s Premium is subject to VAT at the standard rate (currently 20%).

5. VAT

The following paragraphs are intended to give general advice on VAT for items purchased at auction. We have covered the common situations, and this may not be comprehensive. We are unable to offer Tax advice and we suggest you seek independent advice if you require clarifications or further information.

5.1 Items in our catalogue may be marked in the following ways:

(a) (†) indicates that VAT is payable by the Buyer on both the Hammer Price and the Buyer’s Premium. VAT will be chargeable at the standard rate (presently 20%) for most Lots. Qualifying books will be charged at 0%. This imposition of VAT is likely to be because the Seller is registered for VAT within the UK and is not operating the Dealers’ Margin Scheme on their consignment to us.

(b) (‡) indicates that the Lot has been imported from outside the UK using customs Temporary Admissions procedures. Import VAT of 5% (reduced rate due to nature of the Lot) is due on the Hammer Price and an amount in lieu of VAT at 20% will be included in the Buyer’s Premium. This VAT on the Buyer’s Premium cannot be itemised separately on our invoices. The successful Bidder and therefore Buyer of the Lot will become its importer.

(c) (Ω) indicates that the Lot has been imported from outside the UK using customs Temporary Admissions procedures. Import VAT of 20% (higher rate) is due on the Hammer Price and an amount in lieu of VAT at 20% will be included in the Buyer’s Premium. This VAT on the Buyer’s Premium cannot be itemised separately on our invoices. The successful Bidder and therefore Buyer of the Lot will become its importer.

(d) Lots which do not display one of the above symbols (referred to herein as unmarked Lots) have no VAT payable on the Hammer Price. This is because such Lots are sold using the Auctioneers’ Margin Scheme. Therefore, an amount in lieu of VAT at the standard rate is included within the Premium and will not be shown separately on our invoice or be recoverable as input Tax.

5.2 For the items marked (‡) or (Ω), Buyers registered for VAT in the UK should notify us as soon as possible after the sale so that we can correctly instruct our shipping agents to complete the import into the UK under the Buyer’s VAT registration and HMRC can issue a form C79. The charge on our invoice for the import VAT is not sufficient evidence to make a claim for the import VAT.

6. REFUNDS OF VAT

6.1 For Buyers from outside the UK, the VAT charged on the Hammer Price and Buyer’s Premium or included in lieu of VAT in the Buyer’s Premium can be refunded so long as the Buyer has:

(a) registered to bid with an address outside the UK; and

(b) discussed with us the proof of export we require and the timeframes to complete the export.

6.2 Once we are satisfied that the requirements referred to in Clause 1.6.1 have been met, and with the proof of export provided, the following VAT will be refunded:

(a) For Lots marked (†): The VAT on the Hammer Price and on the Buyer’s Premium.

(b) For Lots marked (‡) and (Ω): the import VAT and, the VAT in lieu in the Buyer’s Premium.

6.3 To enable us to refund the VAT charged correctly we normally require the use of our international shippers to assist with the required paperwork. For private Buyers, we will only be able to refund the VAT if our shippers are used for the export of the Lot outside the UK.

7. REINVOICING SALES

For unmarked Lots, you can request a Lot to be reinvoiced outside the Auctioneers’ Margin Scheme. VAT at 20% will be charged on the Hammer Price and the VAT on the Buyer’s Premium will be itemised separately on our invoice. This will enable a VAT registered business to reclaim all the VAT. Please note that the item will no longer be eligible to be sold in the Margin Scheme. We recommend you seek advice before proceeding. Requests must be made within 6 months of the sale and certain conditions apply.

8. INSPECTION OF GOODS BY THE BUYER

As we act on behalf of the Seller, we are dependent on information provided by the Seller about their goods. We may inspect Lots and will act reasonably in taking a general view about them. However, we are normally unable to carry out detailed examinations of Lots to check their condition in the way a Buyer would do. You will have the opportunity to inspect the goods (upon request). Where a Lot is made available for inspection, we strongly recommend that you inspect any Lots that you are interested in prior to bidding at the auction. Please carefully note the exclusion of liability for the condition of Lots set out in the Terms of Sale for Online Auctions at Clause 22.5 and the Terms of Sale for Live Auctions at Clause 18.5.

9. GOODS WITH ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS

These are sold as “antiques” for their historical and decorative attributes, and for collection and display only. They are not intended for use. If you buy goods with electrical components and intend to use them, you must ask a qualified electrician to check them for compliance with safety regulations before you use them.

10. ENDANGERED SPECIES

If you intend to buy goods which contain endangered species, you need to find out if there is a prohibition on the purchase of goods of that character. For goods containing elephant ivory, you also need to satisfy yourself that they have been correctly registered or certified and meet the exemption conditions under applicable legislation.

11. EXPORT OF GOODS

If you intend to export goods you must find out:

11.1 whether an export licence is needed; and

11.2 if there is a prohibition on exporting goods of that character outside of the UK or on importing goods of that character in your intended country of import such as because the goods contain prohibited materials such as elephant ivory or other protected flora and fauna.

12. BIDDING

Bidders will be required to register with us before the auction starts. We Reserve the right to impose a deadline prior to the auction by which you must register or by which we must receive a commission bid. If you wish to bid on high value Lots this deadline may be several days before the auction in order to allow us sufficient time to carry out the necessary checks. Lots will be invoiced to the name and address on the registration form. Please enquire in advance about our arrangements for telephone or online bidding. You will need to provide us with proof of your identity in a form acceptable to us and such other information as we may require. Please note that we may refuse to register you if you do not provide us with all the information and documentation that we ask for or at our discretion.

13. BIDDING PLATFORMS

We offer free online bidding directly through our Website (www.olympiaauctions. com). You may also bid using an independent Bidding Platform. Bidders using an independent Bidding Platform or service should note that the platform may impose an additional fee or charge, which will be added to the total amount payable in the event your bid is successful. Please refer to the terms and conditions on the relevant independent platform for rates.

14. FINANCIAL CHECKS

As Auctioneers we may have to conduct various checks into our customers under the Money Laundering Legislation, under sanctions legislation and other related legislation. Unless we confirm we already have this information, on registration to bid you will be required to provide the following:

(a) For individuals, official photo identification (driving licence, passport or equivalent) and proof of address (if this is not included in your ID document).

(b) For corporate entities, the certificate of incorporation (or equivalent) with the entity’s official name, registered number (if any) and registered address, as well as details and ID documentation for directors and beneficial owners of the entity.

(c) For trusts and estates, details and ID documentation for executors/trustees and details of beneficiaries: please contact us for further information.

14.1 You may be asked for further information if we deem this necessary.

14.2 If you are bidding for another person (your Principal) you will be required to provide the above information for yourself and your Principal, along with a signed letter from your Principal authorising you to bid on his/her behalf.

14.3 If you require further information about ID requirements, please contact enquiries@olympiaauctions.com. If we deem that you have not provided sufficient information for us to complete our anti-money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions checks to our satisfaction, we may refuse to register you to bid and we may postpone completion of or cancel any Contract made by you and the Seller in the event you have made a successful bid.

15. COMMISSION BIDDING

You may leave commission bids with us indicating the maximum amount to be bid against a Lot (excluding the Buyer’s Premium and/or any applicable VAT). We will execute commission bids as cheaply as possible having regard to the Reserve (if any) and competing bids. If two Buyers submit identical commission bids, we may prefer the first bid received (where this can be reasonably ascertained). Please enquire in advance about our arrangements for the leaving of commission bids by telephone or fax/email or via our Website or online Bidding Platform.

16. METHODS OF PAYMENT

16.1 Online: Payment can be made at www.olympiaauctions.com/payments.

16.2 Cheque: Usually any cheques will need to be cleared before you can take the goods away. We require seven days to clear sterling cheques unless special arrangements have been made in advance of the sale.

16.3 Bank Transfer: Payments must be received from a bank account held in the name of the person or entity named on the invoice for the Lot.

16.4 Cash: £6,000 and “card holder not present” payments above £2,000 cannot be accepted.

16.5 Credit Card payments in person: Payments above £6,000 cannot be accepted.

16.6 Debit card payments in person: Payments are without limit.

17. COLLECTION AND STORAGE

Please note what the applicable Terms of Sale say about collection and storage (see Clause 13 of the Terms of Sale for Live Auctions and Clause 15 of the Terms of Sale for Online Auctions). It is important that you pay for and collect goods promptly. Any delay may involve you having to pay storage charges. You (or your agent) must bring photographic ID for collection. Please note that collection may be made during working hours only, usually Monday to Friday 09:30 to 17:00.

18. POTENTIAL CANCELLATION RIGHTS

If you purchase a Lot in an Online Auction as a Consumer in the UK or EU from a Seller who is a Trader, you may have a right to cancel your purchase of that Lot from the day of the auction up to the day which is 14 days after the date on which you take possession of the Lot. You may also have the right to cancel Services provided by us. Further information is set out in the Terms of Sale for Online Auctions.

CATALOGUING PRACTICE

SECTION B

Please note that all measurements are approximate and that illustrations are not to scale. The condition of a Lot is not usually included in catalogue descriptions, and no assumptions should be made in the absence of this information. Condition reports are available on request.

2. CERAMICS

Obvious faults may be recorded in italics at the end of a description for ceramics.

3.CLOCKS AND WATCHES

All Lots are sold “as is” and the absence of any reference to the condition of a clock or watch does not imply that the Lot is in good condition and without defects, repairs or restorations. Most clocks and watches have been repaired in the course of their normal lifetime and may now incorporate parts not original to them. Furthermore, we make no representation or warranty that any clock or watch is in working order. As clocks and watches often contain fine and complex mechanisms, the Bidder should be aware that a general service, change of battery or further repair work, for which the Buyer is solely responsible, may be necessary. The Bidder should be aware that the importation of watches such as Rolex, Frank Muller and Corum into the United States is highly restricted. These watches may not be shipped to the USA and can only be imported personally.

4. DISPLAY ACCESSORIES

Please note that armour stands and many of the display mounts used in the catalogue(s) and the sale exhibition(s) do not form part of the Lot unless stated in the catalogue, though they may be made available to the successful Buyer of the relevant Lot(s). Please contact us for prices and further details.

5. FIREARMS

Please note that all bore sizes are approximate.

JEWELLERY

It is common practice for many gemstones to be treated by a variety of methods to enhance their appearance and the international jewellery trade has generally accepted these methods. Although heat enhancement of colour is usually permanent, in some cases this could affect the durability of a gemstone. Oiled gemstones may need reoiling after a certain period. If no gemmological report is published in the catalogue, prospective Buyers should be aware that the gemstones or pearls could have been enhanced by some method.

7. PHOTOGRAPHS

In addition to the explanations set out below regarding categorising terms for works, please note the following. The date given is that of the image (negative). Where no further date is given, this indicates that the photographic print is vintage (the term “vintage” may also be included in the Lot description). A vintage photograph is one which was made within approximately 5–10 years of the negative. Where a second, later date appears, this refers to the date of printing. Where the exact printing date is not known, but understood to be printed later, "printed later" will appear in the Lot description.

Unless otherwise specified, dimensions given are those of the piece of paper on which the image is printed, including any margins. Some photographs may appear in the catalogue without the margins illustrated.

All photographs are sold unframed unless stated otherwise in the Lot description.

8. PICTURES

A work catalogued with the name(s) or recognised designation of an artist, without any qualification, is, in our opinion, a work by the artist. In other cases, the following expressions with the following meanings are used:

(a) “Attributed to”: means in our opinion it is probably a work by the artist in whole or in part.

(b) “Studio of ” or "workshop of ”: means in our opinion a work executed in the studio or workshop of the artist, possibly under his supervision.

(d) “Follower of ”: means in our opinion a work executed in the artist's style but not necessarily by a pupil.

(e) “Manner of ”: means in our opinion a work executed in the artist's style but of a later date.

(f) “After”: means in our opinion a copy (of any date) of a work of the artist.

(g) “Signed”, “dated”, “inscribed”: means in our opinion the work has been signed, dated or inscribed by the artist. The addition of a question mark (?) adds an element of doubt.

(h) “Bears signature”, “bears date”, “bears inscription”: means in our opinion the signature, date, inscription or stamp is by a hand other than that of the artist.

9. SILVER, GOLD AND PRECIOUS METALS

Weights may only be accurate to within 5 grams. Weights shown as “(* oz)” are in troy ounces and usually rounded down to the full ounce.

10.

THE FOLLOWING SYMBOLS MAY BE USED IN OUR AUCTION CATALOGUES:

(a) () indicates a Lot with no Reserve.

(b) (✧) indicates a “Premium Lot”. For Premium Lots, you must complete the required Premium Lot preregistration application and deliver to us such necessary financial references, guarantees, deposits and/or such other security as we may in our absolute discretion require, as security for your bid. Our decision as to whether to accept any pre-registration application shall be final.

(c) (◉) indicates items that have been identified at the time of cataloguing as containing organic material which may be subject to restrictions regarding import or export, such as a CITES certificate. The absence of the symbol is not a warranty that there are no restrictions regarding import or export of the item. We accept no liability for any Lots which may be subject to restrictions but have not been identified as such. Please refer to section A, paragraph 10 above.

(d) (⊕) indicates a Lot that may be subject to Artist’s Resale Right.

(e) (○) indicates “Guaranteed Property”. The seller of lots with this symbol has been guaranteed a minimum price from one auction or a series of auctions. This guarantee may be provided by Olympia Auctions or jointly by Olympia Auctions and a third party. Olympia Auctions and any third parties providing a guarantee jointly with Olympia Auctions benefit financially if a guaranteed lot is sold successfully and may incur a loss if the sale is not successful. A third party providing a guarantee jointly with Olympia Auctions may provide an irrevocable bid, or otherwise bid, on the guaranteed property. If the Guaranteed Property symbol for a lot is not included in the printed or pdf auction catalogue (where applicable), then Olympia Auctions will notify bidders that there is a guarantee on the lot by one or more of the following means: the lot’s specific webpage will be updated to include the guaranteed property symbol, a notice will be added to the Olympia Auctions webpage for the auction, or a pre-sale or pre-lot announcement will be made indicating that there is a guarantee on the lot. If every lot in a sale is guaranteed, a Special Notice will be included to this effect and this symbol will not be used for each lot.

(f) (∏) indicates “Monumental”. Lots with this symbol may, in our opinion, require special handling or shipping services due to size or other physical considerations. Buyers are advised to inspect the lot and to contact Olympia Auctions prior to the sale to discuss any specific shipping requirements.

(g) (W) indicates property stored and to be collected from off-site storage. Please note that property can only be released once payment has been received in full and cleared funds. If you are sending your own authorised agent to collect property from Olympia Auctions on your behalf, please provide a letter of authorisation, a copy of your paid invoice and photographic ID.

(h) (#) Book sales. Although these items are not free from VAT, Olympia Auctions is able to use the margin scheme and VAT will not normally be charged on the hammer price. Olympia Auctions must bear VAT on the buyer’s premium and hence will charge an amount in lieu of VAT at the standard rate on this premium. This amount will form part of the buyer’s premium on our invoice and will not be separately identified.

Olympia Timed Sale: Friday 3rd October 2025Sunday 12th October 2025

Public Exhibition:

Sunday 5th October, 12 noon-4pm

Monday 6th October, 10am-8pm (Drinks 5-8pm)

Tuesday 7th October, 10am-5pm

Sale Online: www.olympiaauctions.com Enquiries: pictures@olympiauctions.com

Sunday 7th December, 12 noon-4pm

Monday 8th December, 10am-8pm (Drinks 5-8pm)

Tuesday 9th December, 10am-5pm

+44 (0)20 7806 5541 | pictures@olympiauctions.com | www.olympiaauctions.com

ABSENTEE BID FORM

OLYMPIA AUCTIONS

SALE TITLE: FROM THE STUDIO: WORKS FROM TWENTY ARTISTS’ ESTATES

DATE: 8 OCTOBER 2025

CODE: OA0166

Please mail, fax or scan and email to: Olympia Auctions, 25 Blythe Road, London W14 0PD Fax +44 (0)20 7806 5546

Email: pictures@olympiaauctions.com

Important

Please bid on my behalf at the above sale for the following Lot(s) up to the hammer price(s) mentioned below. These bids are to be executed as cheaply as is permitted by other bids or reserves and in an amount up to but not exceeding the specified amount. The auctioneer may open the bidding on any lot by placing a bid on behalf of the seller. The auctioneer may further bid on behalf of the seller up to the amount of the reserve by placing responsive or consecutive bids for a lot.

I agree to be bound by Olympia Auctions Conditions of Business. If any bid is successful, I agree to pay a buyer’s premium on the hammer price at the rate stated in the front of the catalogue and any VAT, or amounts in lieu of VAT, which may be due on the buyer’s premium and the hammer price.

Methods of Payment

Olympia Auctions welcomes the following methods of payment, most of which will facilitate immediate release of your purchases.

Online: www.OlympiaAuctions.com/payments

Bank Transfer: Payments must be received from a bank account held in the name of the person or entity named on the invoice for the Lot.

HSBC Bank Plc, 38 High Street, Dartford, Kent, DA1 1DG

IBAN No: GB39HBUK40190422033119

BIC: HBUKGB4B

Sort Code: 401904

Account No: 22033119

Account Name: Olympia Auctions

Sterling Bankers Draft: Drawn on a recognised UK bank.

Cheque: Usually any cheques will need to be cleared before you can take the goods away. We require seven days to clear sterling cheques unless special arrangements have been made in advance of the sale.

Cash: £6,000 and “card holder not present” payments above £2,000 cannot be accepted.

Credit Card payments in person: Payments above £6,000 cannot be accepted.

Debit card payments in person: Payments are without limit.

Please print or type

Please note that if you have not dealt with us before, you will need to supply us with a copy of photographic ID and proof of address. Name

From the Studio: Works from Artists’ Estates

Live sale: 8th October

Olympia Timed: Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture

Timed Sale: Starts 3rd October, Ends 12th October

Olympia Timed: Modern & Contemporary African & Middle Eastern Art

Timed Sale: Starts 24th October, Ends 2nd November

Modern & Contemporary African & Middle Eastern Art

Live sale: 29th October

Chinese and Japanese Works of Art

Live sale: 5th November

Indian, Islamic, Himalayan and South East Asian Art

Live sale: 12th November

European Works of Art, Objects & Silver

Live sale: 19th November

Jewellery & Watches

Live sale: 20th November

Olympia Timed: Arms, Armour & Militaria

Timed Sale: Starts 28th November, Ends 7th December

Fine Antique Arms, Armour & Militaria

Live sale: 3rd December

Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture

Live sale: 10th December

Please note sale dates are subject to change

Please see our website for up-to-date information

enquiries@olympiaauctions.com | https://www.olympiaauctions.com 25 Blythe Road, London WI4 0PD