Two early works by English artists provided much the highest prices, both of them from the second day’s mixed-owner sale. Samuel Cooper’s portrait, above right, of a lady in a décollété blue dress wearing her hair in ringlets adorned with roses and stylistically dated to c.1650, fetched £20,000, while the portrait by Peter Cross (c.1650-1724) right, of a blue and white robed lady with dark curled hair, signed PC to the obverse, doubled its estimate to take £25,000.
The ladies take the honours
Back on April 9 and 10 Bonhams (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) Bond Street rooms offered a double helping of portrait miniatures on consecutive days: a 165-lot single owner and a 133-lot mixed-vendor sale, both of which saw around three-quarters of their contents get away.
