Auction of old Cornish fishing fleet paintings by Mousehole artist - 13/01/2012
Images of a Cornish fishing fleet long since consigned to history will attract fresh interest at The Penzance Auction House next Thursday (19 Jan 2012), when a collection of paintings by a Mousehole “jobbing artist” are offered for sale.
The nine small watercolours by T H Victor depict boats from the Mousehole fleet around the early 20th Century, with some still wholly dependent on sail and others also motorised.
Victor (1894-1980), who had a shop in the village, was a prolific Westcountry artist who painted mostly busy harbour and street scenes.
“There are countless hackneyed paintings of Cornish scenery, but to the best of my knowledge no-one has ever captured the old fishing fleet like this before,” said auctioneer David Lay.
“It is also something of a mystery as to why Victor chose to do this. They were quite possibly commissioned as a special project, or it may have been an example of the old ‘pierhead artist’ in action.
“The ‘pierhead artist’ would stand on the pier and tout for business – selling portraits of boats and ships to their officers and crews.”
Mr Lay added: “As a ‘jobbing artist’, Victor was simply in the business of mass-producing water colours in order to make a living. In this way, he would have produced literally tens of thousands of paintings.
“He would be working on dozens of pictures at a time and there was a period when just about every house in Mousehole would have had one of his paintings. They were particularly popular as wedding gifts, as well as souvenirs for the visiting tourists." Of the collection going under the hammer, Mr Lay said: “Victor’s pictures generally are characterized by lively composition and colour, but more than anything those of the fishing fleet have an almost ethereal quality.”
The paintings for auction are being sold on behalf of a Mousehole resident and are expected to fetch a total of up to £1,000.
Chinese Bidders Send Price Soaring At Penzance Auction - 06/01/2012
Helped along by hectic bidding from the other side of the world, a damaged Chinese porcelain piece was sold for a staggering 40-fold increase on its estimated price at The Penzance Auction House.
The “altarpiece” – a work of art designed to be set above or behind an altar – was listed at £400 to £600, but ended up as the antiques sale’s star performer at £25,000.
“Nine times out of ten we come pretty close with our price estimates, but I am delighted to confess that we got this one spectacularly wrong!” said auctioneer David Lay.
“We had five phone lines open for the bidding. There were some 30 people registered to bid, and most of them were from mainland China. It was an amazing experience as the price soared.”
The Chinese were ultimately outbid, with the piece being sold to a specialist London-based dealer.
Mr Lay sold it on behalf of a mid-Cornwall vendor, at whose home he spotted it as part of a discarded table lamp on a coffee table.
“My eye was first caught by the light shade over it, but on closer inspection I found this really interesting altarpiece beneath the shade,” recalled Mr Lay.
“It was clearly damaged and incomplete, but I still thought it had a lot of potential – just nowhere so much as eventually turned out to be the case!”
The altarpiece was in the form of a Tibetan “stupa” - a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha, used by Buddhists as a place of worship.
The 22cm piece was decorated in coloured enamels with lotus flowers, scrollage and grotesque masks on yellow and puce ground.