A still life by Eloise Stannard, £6000 at Bishop & Miller.
The fact that they regularly turn out to bid for her trademark still lifes means her auction prices have fared somewhat better over recent decades than many other Victorian painters.
The daughter of landscape and marine painter Alfred Stannard, she focused on flower and fruit subjects in the style of traditional Dutch still-life painting with a particular emphasis on exotic and sometimes slightly extravagant elements.
A typical example emerged at Bishop & Miller (25% buyer’s premium) in Glandford in Norfolk on February 14. The still life of chrysanthemums in a silver bowl, shown alongside fruit, mistletoe and a ewer, was signed and dated 1887. The vendor purchased the 171/2 x 211/2in (44 x 54cm) oil on canvas from Lyon & Turnbull in 2008 where they had bid £3600.
The painting was described in the catalogue as in ‘good hangable condition’ with a relined canvas and some areas of overpaint visible under UV light.
Estimated at £3000-5000, it drew good interest including from three internet bidders and was knocked down to one of them at £6000. Taking inflation into account, the sum was actually similar to the 2008 price.
Bishop & Miller confirmed the buyer was a local collector and said they were seeing solid prices at the moment for works by Stannard.
