The 11½ x 9in (29 x 23cm) oil on canvas was knocked down to an American buyer for £1900, over six times the top estimate at John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Haslemere, Surrey, on January 30. Pettie specialised in romanticised Scottish historical paintings that verged on the melodramatic. In 2003 Christie’s took £199,150 (with premium) for his famous work The Chieftain’s Candlesticks, an oil of torch-wielding Highlanders from the Forbes Collection.
In the same sale, a signed East Anglia view by Edward Seago (1910-74) took a mid-estimate £12,000 from a phone bidder.
The 10 x 13½in (25 x 34cm) oil on board, titled Harry King’s Boatyard and with a label for London gallery P&D Colnaghi & Co, shows a distant view of the renowned yard in Pin Mill.
