However, unlike the piece from a Suffolk consignor sold for £5800 in May, this piece came from much further afield.
This relatively large wall hanging, worked in cream linen threads around a steel frame, comes from a private collection in North Carolina.
It was bought by the vendor’s parents directly from Collingwood when he visited the state in 1983.
The vendor recalls: “He came to Winston-Salem for several days in 1983 and gave a talk about his work and a workshop about his weaving technique to the Fiber Guild & Sawtooth School for Visual Art. Mum, who was an accomplished artist in several mediums, helped to organise the event and afterwards invited him to our home for dinner.”
The piece, measuring 2ft 9in x 3ft 9in (83cm x 1.15m) high, was sold with copies of handwritten letters discussing the commission. One dated March 1983 reads: “Your hanging is woven. It will cost about $20 to send surface, $25 Air Mail. You owe me $100 so please either send a cheque for $120 or $125. I remember your quiet & beautiful house with pleasure. Peter Collingwood.”
The vendor, unaware of recent price trends, had decided to sell after reading an article discussing the £5800 sale of a smaller weaving in red thread titled M200 No10 at Sworders in May.
This second example, titled M72 No3, sold to a London dealer at the lower estimate of £8000.
The auction high for Collingwood stands at £22,500 for another large weaving from the 1980s sold at Phillips in London in 2015.
