The 194-lot sale is open for bidding from April 29-May 7.
The catalogue includes a 23in x 2ft 6in (58cm x 1.08m) oil on canvas thought to be the earliest painted view of the Covent Garden piazza. The English school view, c.1649, shows the piazza just over a decade after Inigo Jones’ St Paul’s church (at the centre of the composition) was consecrated in 1638.
A wing visible to the south side of the building added between 1647-49 helps date the picture to the time of Cromwell, as does the absence of a similar addition to the north side not finished until the 1650s. It was around this time that a market was begun under Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford (1587- 1641). Under Charles I he was granted a licence to develop ‘howses and buildings fitt for the habitacons of Gentlemen and men of ability’.
The picture predates a view of Covent Garden in the collection of the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton House, c.1666-67, although is probably later than an etching by Wenceslaus Hollar c.1647 that includes a cross on the pediment of the church, which does not appear here. This picture, in the family of the present owner for at least three generations, first came to light in 1970.
It carries an estimate of £10,000-15,000.
