Scottish Colourists & Mod Brits Lead the Way

Scottish Colourists and Modern British artists led the way in our Winter Fine Paintings sales, British & European Paintings followed by Scottish Paintings & Sculpture. Held over the last few weeks in our Edinburgh saleroom, the auctions achieved a combined total of over £1.1 million.

A piece by Modern British artist, Ivon Hitchens, was the top lot of our 27 November British & European Paintings auction. The unusual still-life attracted a lot of interest, eventually selling for £79,250.

Lyon & Turnbull’s strong record for selling collections continued with two lots from the collection of Denston Hall, Suffolk, selling for well over their top estimates: £11,250 for George Lambert’s Classical Landscape with Figures and £16,250 for George Smith of Chichester’s A Classical River Landscape with Fisherman and Nets.

The sale did offer a few surprises: Hendrik Meyer’s A Busy Dutch Townscape - a forgotten painting that had been stashed in a wardrobe for over a decade – after lots of pre-sale attention, sold for £24,375, more than three time its top estimate. While a striking portrait by Gerald Leslie Brockhurst really captured the imagination of bidders reaching £16,250, more than ten times higher than its top estimate.

A snowy day did not deter buyers and there was a bustling sale-room for Scottish Paintings & Sculpture on the evening of Thursday 11 December, our final sale of the year. This auction continued last year’s successful run of Scottish painting sales, with a selling rate of 75%.

The sale’s star lot was George Leslie Hunter’s A still-life with fruit and flowers on a white cloth, which attracted a lot of attention and bids, before reaching £94,850 (illustrated above). Read more about this piece here.

This was followed by a gorgeous Iona beach scene by F.C.B. Cadell which after being presented in Newcastle, Glasgow, London and Edinburgh fetched £79,250. The work of the Scottish Colourists continue to lead the market with further pieces by George Leslie Hunter, S. J. Peploe and Cadell selling well. The piece by Peploe although a recognisable Iona scene did have a hidden secret, read more here.

Other stand out pieces included William McTaggart’s May Morning (sold for £34,850), William Gillies’ Still-Life Red and Grey (sold for £21,875) and a self-portrait by Glaswegian artist Muirhead Bone - selling for five times top estimate at £8,750.

British & European Paintings Results

• £79,250 Lot 164 Ivon Hitchens Still-Life
• £54,050 Lot 136 Sir William Russell Flint Cecilia’s Crystal Vase
• £25,000 Lot 39 Manner of Albani Hercules Reclining
• £24,375 Lot 42 Hedrik Meyer the Younger A Busy Dutch Townscape with figures skating on a frozen canal
• £20,625 Lot 35 Circle of Peter Lely Three-quarter length portrait of Nell Gwynne in a landscape

Scottish Paintings & Sculpture Results

• £94,850 Lot 72 George Leslie Hunter A still-life with fruit and flowers on a white cloth
• £79,250 Lot 56 F.C.B. Cadell Iona June
• £61,250 Lot 73 George Leslie Hunter Still-Life
• £56,450 Lot 60 S. J. Peploe Grey Day Iona
• £42,050 Lot 57 F.C.B. Cadell Crofts, Iona

All prices listed include Buyers Premium.