Monday 5 October 2009

The watercolours

Watercolour (a) is the image that should excite interest.   Popping up in Spain and catalogued correctly as being by Edward Dayes there are the two images in the lot; price 300 - 500 Euros, date 1791.

The image depicts Horace Walpole's 'Strawberry Hill House' the Gothic masterpiece. 

This print of the image is held in the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale amongst a large collection about the house and Walpole, including original watercolours from the same spot by Paul Sandby.   Both the Twickenham museum itself and the Lewis Walpole would / should give their eye-teeth to get their mitts on this watercolour.............and they've gone and withdrawn it from sale!!!!!   Answers as to why are not forthcoming.

3 comments:

  1. Well thanks for identifying. I was interested to read your recent comments on Homer's Odd blog about negotiating commissions; do you find the better known houses, such as Christie's & Sotheby's are amenable to negotiation?

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  2. If you are trade and have a VAT number or are friendly with the specialists. Essentially, yes.
    I was having a bit of a rant, sorry.

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  3. I will try and develop my relationship with a specialist. I must say I find Christie's to be about the best; far and away better than Sotheby's. The standard selling fee seems to be about 15%.

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