BLAST #24b

Christie’s two-part sale for Modern British and Irish Art on March 20 and 21 totalled £14.66 million, down from March 2023’s £24.4 million and March 2024’s £29 million, but comfortably within the presale estimates of £9.5 – 14.3 million. (NB. Sale prices include the buyer’s premium unless otherwise stated, pre-sale estimates do not).

Michael Andrews, School IV Barracuda under Skipjack Tuna, 1978. CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2025

The steady sell through rate of 89.5 % indicated that Christie’s had read the market well. Had they included School IV: Barracuda under Skipjack Tuna, a 1978 painting by the rarely seen School of London painter, Michael Andrews, that fetched a record 6 million in their international modern and contemporary art sale earlier in the month few would have noticed the fall off in volume. Rumour has it the telephone buyer on the Andrews was US hedge fund billionaire and top rung collector, Ken Griffin, who has a house nearby.

In the part 1 evening sale there were, as ever, a choice of Lowrys, all selling, though not for great profits. The best performer against historic prices was an atmospheric Old Houses, Wick, 1936, that had hammered at Phillips in 1996 at £110,000, and now at £380,000. Three Ben Nicholsons also all found buyers, the best being a small still life, Jamaïque, c. 1925, which doubled the low estimate to sell for £163,000 (see buyer info below). But they were overshadowed by the shimmering ‘Lustre Bowl’, 1908, by Ben’s father, Sir William Nicholson, whose bull run continued with a five times estimate, £1.2 million, the second highest price for the artist at auction.

Sir William Nicholson, The Lustre Bowl, 1908. CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2025. Sold for £1.2 million.

Surprisingly there was not a Henry Moore in this section of the sale. The best performing sculpture (in relation to cost) was Barbara Hepworth’s early bronze Maquette (Variations on a Theme), 1958, which quadrupled the price it made in 2012 selling for £277, 200.

Buyers and bidders:

Lot 2. Ben Nicholson’s small painting Jamaïque, c 1925, (£80,000-120,000) attracted several bids before it was won by Jonathan Clark for £163,000. Apart from being a classic example of early Nicholson still life painting, it had been in the family for 100 years having been owned by Winifred Nicholson’s father, Wilfrid Roberts, and then passed down.

Lot 5. Barry Flanagan’s Six-Foot Leaping Hare on Steel Pyramid, 1990, (£500,000-800,000) was bid up by Waddington Custot which represents the artist’s estate, before it fell within estimate for £930,000 to Offer Waterman.

In the lower value day sale, a healthy 40% of lots sold within estimate, with twice as many lots exceeding estimates (33) as  selling below (just 15), and only 13% of lots going unsold.

Of the artists represented in some quantity, Lucie Rie pots were most abundant, with all seven lots selling, six above estimate, and one 6-inch footed bowl selling six times above estimate for £38,950. David Hockney also stood out with all three of his drawings selling above estimate (see buyers list below). Three out of three Roger Hiltons were also sold within or above estimates, but of the post war abstract painters, William Scott looked the most fragile with three of the five works on offer in the sales failing to find buyers. 

Celia Paul, Study of my Mother, 1997. CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2025. Sold for £31,500.

Most impressive single example sales were Euan Uglow’s potted plant An Arc from the Eye, 1998, which sold above estimate for £163,500; Edward Burra (see buyers list); Bernard Meninsky (see buyer’s list); and Celia Paul, currently enjoying exhibitions at Victoria Miro and Thomas Dane and the launch of an insightful biography, whose Study of My Mother, 1997, continued the upward trajectory of her secondary market selling for a double estimate £31,500 – though nowhere near her record (£91,000) or primary market level (up to six figures).   

Evidence of a readjustment in prices offering opportunities to buy at bargain prices was apparent with two 1950s works by Alan Davie selling below estimates in the £10,000-12,000 range, far below their peak (see buyer info), and a colour drenched landscape by contemporary artist Duncan McCormick, whose prices have been soaring over £10,000 estimates since the pandemic, but which sold without much competition on a £11,000 bid.

Buyers and bidders

101. Patrick Heron, MINI MINI 9: FEBRUARY 1972, (£6,000-8,000). In one of the better gains of the sale, this small gouache, which had been bought at Bonhams Skinner in Boston in 2017 by Mark Goodman for $7,380 and sold on through Tom Lighton’s Merville Galleries, attracted several bidders including the Portland Gallery before selling to an online bidder for £25,200.

Patrick Heron, MINI MINI 9 FEBRUARY 1972, 1972. CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2025. Sold for £25,200.

102. Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Untitled 1995. (£2,000-3,000) Small watercolour bought by Portland Gallery for £5,040.

103. Roger Hilton, Trawler, 1973 gouache (£2,000-3,000). Bought by Portland Gallery for £4,780.

Edward Burra, View at Florence, 1965-67. CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2025. Sold for £352,800.

114. David Hockney, Patrick Procktor in New York. Patrick Procktor, David at 165 E 81st Street. 1966. A pair of drawings (£20,000-30,000). Sold for £44,100, underbid by Christopher Kingzett.

120. Edward Burra, View at Florence 1965/66. (£50,000-80,000). Sold to Daniel Katz for £352,800

135.  Alan Davie, Corridor, 1951. (£12,000-18,000). Sold for £13,600 to Alan Wheatley who manages the artist’s estate. Seems cheap for a 1950’s Davie, the artist’s most sought-after decade.

136. Roger Hilton, February 1957, (£12,000-£18,000). Sold for £21,420, underbid by Christopher Kingzett.

Sir Terry Frost, Autum Collage, Black + White, 1959. CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2025. Sold for £20,600.

140. Sir Terry Frost, Autumn Collage Black + White, 1959 (£20,000-30,000). Sold to Nick Holmes for £20,600. That’s a good buy when compared to the £29,000 price it made in 2005.

186. Graham Sutherland, The Lamp, 1944 (£80,000-120,000). Sold to Kingzett for £100,800. That’s also a good buy compared to the £117,600 the painting made in 2007.

193. Roger Hilton, Teapot, 1973 gouache. (£2,000-3,000). Sold for £3,276, underbid by Wheatley.

195. Adrian Heath, Opio, 1982-83. Sold for £15,120, underbid by Wheatley who manages the artist’s estate.

143. Alan Reynolds, Composition with Ovoid – Green, Rose, Orange and Black, 1962, (£8,000-12,000) sold for 16,300 to Conor Mullan. Last at auction in 2003 when it made £6,200, so only a very modest rise in price.

148. David Hockney, George Harris III, 1966 (£25,000-35,000) sold to Kingzett for £35,280. Hockney’s work has proved a safe investment over the years, this drawing having cost £4,250 hammer back in 1993.

163. L.S. Lowry, Moorland View with Ruined Farmhouse, drawing, 1920, (£15,000-25,000). Sold for £23,940, underbid by Wheatley. One of the artist’s ‘lonely’ landscapes, it has risen steadily in price since its sale in 1998 for £7,130.

166. Ivon Hitchens, Arched Trees No 14, 1954, (£30,000-50,000). Sold to Kingzett for £37,500. A modest rise since its sale in 2010 for £25,000.

167. John Maclauchlan Milne, St Tropez,  (£25,000-35,000) Sold for £46,620, underbid by Portland Gallery.

171. Bernard Meninsky, A seated female figure, pencil, 1916, (£3,000-5,000.) One of the best performers in relation to estimate it sold for £15, 120, underbid by Kingzett. It also performed well in relation to its last sale in 2000 when it made £4,700.

183. Graham Sutherland, Study for ‘The Origins of the Land’. Circa 1950-51, (£25,000-35,000). Sold to Kingzett for £22,650. Another good buy in relation to its previous £27,000 price in 2008.

198. Alan Davie, Black Entrance 1952 (£15,000-25,000) . Another 1950s Davie with an attractively low estimate it sold to Wheatley for £11,340.