Edward Burch (c.1730-c.1814) may not be a premier division British miniature painter – that honour belongs to artists such as Cosway and Engleheart – but he was accomplished at painting children and these portraits often sell for a premium. One of his children’s portraits furnished proceedings with the highlight. A collector went to £4200 for an innocent-looking portrait of a rosy-cheeked young boy wearing a low-cut white lace-trimmed dress, initialled JG.
The sale was 73 per cent sold by lot and totalled £63,790.
£4200 picture of contentment
The strong collecting base for miniatures has cushioned this market from the wider economic vagaries that have affected other more trade-dependent fields such as furniture and silver. Bonhams Bond Street (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) specialist Emma Rutherford reckoned around 80 per cent of entries sold privately in their 193-lot routine miniature and silhouettes sale back on July 1. “Our buyers tend to be retired and tend to have their money readily accessible,” she said.
