Three pictures sold on thesaleroom.com including a John Constable print of Salisbury Cathedral and a Czech Impressionist landscape
23 January 2020 Hundreds if not thousands of lots appear at auctions on thesaleroom.com every single week. Here we focus on three that were bought by online bidders on this website earlier this month.
‘The Rainbow, Salisbury Cathedral’, a mezzotint by David Lucas after John Constable, £850 at Capes Dunn.
Salisbury Cathedral print
Although loosely catalogued and estimated at just £30-50, this mezzotint after John Constable reached £850 at Capes Dunn in Stockport on January 14.
It was identified as one of the original suite of 22 prints produced by the engraver David Lucas (1802–81) between 1829-32 as part of the portfolio titled Various Subjects of Landscape, Characteristic of English Scenery. The project, a riposte to the Liber Studiorum, Turner’s mezzotints of foreign landscapes, was fraught with difficulties as Constable, in failing heathy, frequently reworked the plates to their dark and brooding conclusion. In one instance as many as 200 ‘progress’ proofs were made of a single image.
This 21in x 2ft 3in (55 x 68cm) image on wove paper is known as The Rainbow, Salisbury Cathedral. Housed in an ebonised frame, it carried a later inscription dated 1917 to the gilt slip. The winning bidder came via the saleroom.com.
Czech Impressionist landscape
Oil on card winter landscape signed ‘Václav Radimský’, £3600 at Chiswick Auctions.
This winter landscape is signed lower left for Václav Radimský (1867-1946), the artist credited with introducing Impressionism to the Czech public. Born in Kolín in Bohemia, he studied in Vienna and in Munich before moving to Paris where he came under the spell of Claude Monet.
Accompanied by a substantial catalogue, an exhibition of his work held at the Municipal Library in Prague from October 2011-February 2012, has done much to re-establish his reputation.
This 60 x 71cm oil on card came for sale at Chiswick Auctions on January 13 with an estimate of £80-120 but was eagerly competed before it sold to an internet bidder using thesaleroom.com at £3600.
Popular in the first decades of the 19th century, the eight-key flute is something of a transitional instrument – one which retained much of the characteristics of the earlier baroque flute but also featured elements of the modern instrument.
Among the best-known makers at the time was Rudell & Rose, a partnership between the London flute player and instructor George Rudall, and Edinburgh wind instrument maker John Mitchell Rose that thrived from 1821-50.
Interest in the eight-key flute as an orchestral instrument waned in the Victorian period in favour of the ‘modern’ flute based on the designs of Theobald Boehm of Bavaria. However, the eight-key flute did remain popular with folk musicians.
Since the revival of Irish music in particular in the 1970s they have been eagerly sought after.
Only occasionally are Rudell & Rose eight-key flutes seen at auction. The example here, in rosewood and white metal with the Rudell & Rose Patentees boss to one end, was offered Burstow & Hewett on January 8 with an estimate of just £30-50.
Plenty of bidding followed before it went to an internet bidder using thesaleroom.com at £1800.
Portrait of a Jester
An 18th century English provincial school portrait of the jester Black John, £15,500 at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood.
This 18th century English provincial school full-length portrait depicts the jester Black John. He was in the employ of the famously eccentric John Arscott (1718-88) of the Tetcott estate in Devon, said to be the last man in England to keep a professional jester.
Black John, who had dwarfism and was under four foot in height, was famous for his after-dinner tricks that included swallowing and retrieving several live mice tied to a string and stripping a live sparrow of its feathers while his hands were tied behind his back.
Black John was so attached to his master that, after his death, he built a shelter close to the church at Tetcott where, with an old hound as his sole companion, he reputedly grieved away the remainder of his life. It was said he died of a broken heart.
The 3ft 5in x 2ft 1n (1.03m x 62cm) oil on canvas that emerged for sale at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter on January 21 with an estimate of £800-1200 was seemingly a copy of James Northcote’s (1746-1831) portrait of the same subject that is now in the Royal Cornwall Museum.
Admired for both its folk art charm, unusual subject matter and as a quirky piece of local history, it sold at £15,500 to a bidder using thesaleroom.com.
