A watercolour of oystercatchers by Charles Tunnicliffe, £8400 at Adam Partridge.
The 15.5 x 23.5in (39 x 60cm) watercolour by Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe (1901-1979) was spotted by Adam Partridge himself as part of a group of probate contents from a property near Knutsford.
It was the kind of scene that tends to attract the most interest when it comes to the works produced by the artist who was born in Langley, a small village not far from where the auction took place. The most sought-after works are his views of birds or other animals shown in movement or engaging in some way with their landscape. In contrast to ‘static’ scientific studies, these are the kind of pictures for which the artist is most recognised and followers believe they capture the true essence or ‘wildness’ of the subjects.
The large group of distinctive oystercatchers here, depicted in flight as they land in a lake, had plenty of appeal. Added to the fact that it was a good sized watercolour and was in good condition having been kept behind glass, it looked an attractive proposition against a £800-1200 estimate at the auction on April 10-12.
Two bidders drove up the price, seeing off multiple parties online, until the hammer finally fell at £8400. One was an eager collector who made a series of calls to the saleroom to increase his bids prior to the auction and who ended up as the underbidder.
The other, the winning buyer, was another collector who had been a student of Tunnicliffe’s. He had been keen to acquire such a work for a long time and drove up from the south of England to collect the piece in person.
The price, which was certainly above average for one of the numerous works by the artist that appear on the market, underlined the depth of interest that remains for Tunnicliffe. In fact it appears to stand within the top 10 sums recorded at auction according to Artprice.com.
The buyer’s premium at Adam Partridge was 20%.
