Lleyn by Sir Kyffin Williams – £52,000 at Rogers Jones.
All seven oil paintings and eight of the nine works on paper found buyers on July 16 in Cardiff.
Top of the list was Lleyn, a 19½in x 3ft 7in (50cm x 1.1m) oil on canvas which came from a vendor in Gwynedd and carried exhibition labels on the back for a 1987 show at the National Museum of Wales and another in 1977 at Thackeray Gallery, from where the vendor’s parents purchased it.
A large view of the dramatic coastline of the Llŷn Peninsula in north-west Wales, it had serious appeal to followers of Sir Kyffin although, contrary to received wisdom, in this case it sold to buyer from outside his homeland.
Estimated at £25,000-35,000, it was knocked down at £52,000 to a commission bidder from Scotland, posting the second-highest auction price for the artist. The only higher price was the £62,000 for Ynys Mon that sold in the same rooms in July last year.
The underbidder at the current sale, who was bidding in the room, went on to buy the following lot: The Wave, Penmon, another work by Sir Kyffin originally purchased from Thackeray Gallery that made a mid-estimate £32,000.
Rogers Jones' buyer's premium is 24/15%.
