The 2ft 5in x 21in (73.5 x 53cm) panel, signed A.J. Rowley to the lower right, bears on the reverse a label of the eponymous Rowley Gallery, which the artist founded in 1898, and which still survives on Kensington Church Street.
It is almost identical in both appearance and size to another version in the Victoria & Albert Museum (museum reference circ360-1976), which provides a clue to its identity.
Although the V&A version is entitled Italian Town on the Rowley Gallery label to the reverse, the scene actually depicts the fortress town of Saint Cirq LaPopie in the Lot Valley, which Brangwyn frequently painted on visits to the area.
He, like other artists, including Foujita and Komatz, was drawn to the hub of activity around artist Henri Martin (1882-1943), who settled there.
The V&A's panel was first exhibited at the Sunderland Public Art Gallery in October 1920, where it was priced at 20 guineas.
Following this it was displayed in the Mansard Gallery at Heal & Sons in Tottenham Court Road in 1922, and then at the Cheltenham Municipal Art Gallery in 1923, where it carried a price tag of £21. The museum purchased it in 1976 from the Editions Graphique Gallery in London.
It is not known how many panels were produced to this design, but the marquetry work, in which A.J. Rowley specialised, is to be found in various locations, including The Galleon at the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, and Hollyhocks at the William Morris Museum in Walthamstow.
Estimated at £300-500 by Gorringes, it sold for £1600 to a private buyer.
By Vivienne Lawes
