The sale on March 27 was the brainchild of associate director Philip Smith and comprised 270 lots of modern and contemporary art, sculpture, design, ceramics and jewellery featuring works by Pablo Picasso, Terry Frost, Mary Fedden, Lucie Rie, Wendy Ramshaw and Stuart Devlin.
The financial highlight was provided by an auction record for Malaysian Modernist painter and poet Abdul Latiff Mohidin (b.1938). Pictured above is Growth I, signed and dated 1968 and acquired by the vendor in London in the early 1970s.
It was hammered down at £200,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) against an estimate of £30,000-50,000.
The 2ft 6in (77cm) square oil dates from the latter part Mohidin’s so-called Pago Pago period that brought him his first wave of international recognition.
The sale posted a 76% selling rate with more than one third of sale participants new to the auction house.
