Art Market

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales below £3000.

Before an artist achieves ‘blue chip’ status, there is often a watershed moment in the market – a result – that makes people sit up and take note. For the Salford painter LS Lowry (1887-1976) this was the purchase of 'Going To The Match' in 1999 at Sotheby’s by the Professional Footballers’ Association.

These two portraits – one painted in colourful hues by a known hand, the other unattributed and executed in monochrome – were the star picture lots at a lively auction in East Sussex.

Teacher’s single-owner collection stands out as part of Modern and Contemporary art sale.

Estimated at £100-150, this mid-20th century portrait of a fashionably dressed young woman attracted a flurry of bids at Sherborne saleroom Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium).

An Abstract work by the 20th century Filipino artist Oscar Zalameda (1930-2010) emerged as the star lot in an interiors auction in West Sussex.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales at under £1000, including a Ronald Ossory Dunlop late work.

Surrey saleroom bucks the trend to hold dedicated picture auctions on regular basis

A clutch of 19th and 20th century marine and maritime pictures attracted competitive bidding in summer sales held at three auction houses in southern England.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales at £2000 or under, including Bonnie Prince Charlie portrait.

Mid-20th century animal study contrasts with traditional ornithological work in same auction.

Drawing keen interest at Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) in Derbyshire last month was a work by Belgian painter Francois Joseph Navez (1787-1869), an artist who rarely appears in the UK salerooms.

One of the highest prices for Albert Chevallier Tayler (1862-1925) at a UK auction in the last 10 years was achieved at Roseberys’ (25% buyer’s premium) latest picture sale when a late Victorian ‘period’ scene attracted multiple bidders.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales at £700 or under, including social history scenes.

Landscape painter Sidney Richard Percy (1821-86) is described in Christopher Wood’s Dictionary of Victorian Painters as “a prolific and variable painter, and his prices vary accordingly”.

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales at £750 or under, including an oil by designer known more for Arts & Crafts jewellery and furniture.

Somerset auction shows how bidders are very sensitive to how works are estimated.

One notable consequence of the growing prevalence of charity shops on the high street is that auctioneers are receiving more and more items that these organisations want to check in case they are valuable.

It may be a well-rehearsed refrain, but the Old Master market is much more subject to vagaries of supply than demand. Almost without fail, when high-quality fresh material is offered, bidders will come. Just getting it in the first place is the hard part.

Christie’s highest price for an Old Master this summer came in the stand-alone Masterpieces from a Rothschild Collection sale on July 4.