The top-seller among the 121 lots was a large 8ft 10in high bronze sculpture by Barbara Hepworth (1903-75). Parent 1 was conceived in 1970 and forms part of a group of nine sculptures with the collective title The Family of Man, four editions of which were cast. Billed as the “crowning achievement of Hepworth’s final years”, a complete set has recently been restored at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton.
Fresh to the market, this example was acquired by the vendor from dealer Marlborough Fine Art in New York back in 1982. It was secured by a phone buyer at £3.2m against a £2m-3m estimate.
A Henry Moore (1898-1986)Shelter Drawing of draped figures from 1942 led a group of five works at the evening sale from the collection of Lord and Lady Attenborough. The pencil, watercolour, wax crayon, pen and ink on paper, acquired by the Attenboroughs in 1962, was inspired by the many Londoners who sheltered on Underground platforms during the Blitz.
Although he quickly moved on to other subjects, the Shelter
Drawings he created in this short period not only secured his popular appeal but were echoed in many of his great sculptures of the following decade.
On the day, the work drew decent interest and was knocked down at £165,000 against a £150,000-250,000 estimate.
One of the most strongly contested lots in this sale was Christopher Wood’s Anemones in a glass jar, a pencil and oil on canvas from 1925. Bought by the vendor from Crane Kalman Gallery in London in 1984 for £3400, it appeared here with a £70,000-100,000 estimate.
Subject of a prolonged competition, it was eventually knocked down at £320,000 to the Richard Green gallery, a price behind only the £340,000 fetched by Wood’s view of Treboul Harbour in Brittany that sold at Sotheby’s in June 2003.
However, due to the rise in buyer’s premium over the intervening period, the auctioneers claimed the auction record for the artist. The price came on the same day that Chorley’s in Gloucestershire sold another Wood still-life for £220,000. (see ATG No 2269). The winning bidder was the Piano Nobile gallery in London buying on behalf of a collector.
