By Adrian Kinton | Art Specialist (pictured)
Two lots in Derbyshire’s May Antiques and Collectors sale put me in mind of the great 1980s anthem by U2 with its final message, ‘Tonight, at last, I am coming home, I am coming home.’
So why, you may ask?
Works by two different British 20th century artists were purchased by different collectors, and it transpired that both purchases were indeed on their way home!
Lot 3002 was an oil painting by John Knapp-Fisher who was born in London in 1931 and – after starting his professional life as a draughtsman – turned to theatre set design. But painting was always in his blood, a passion he shared with his father who was a professor of architecture at the Royal Academy of Art.
What began as a hobby became a career when he and his partner relocated to Wales in the late 1960s, where he set up a studio in Croesgoch on the Pembrokeshire coast. It was here where he did most of his work, mainly in watercolour, in his characteristic ‘dark and light’ style.
Our painting dated from 1964, a period when he and his then wife, Sheila, were living on a boat off the coast of East Anglia, and is, unusually for him, an oil on board.
It depicts Wells-Next-the Sea, Norfolk, and rather charmingly, it still has the original cheque for 31 guineas taped verso. Some 60 years later, it represented a sound investment as it drew a top bid of £1,300 after commission and was sold to an aficionado in Pembrokeshire, a stone’s throw from the very gallery where Knapp Fisher lived and worked up to his death in 2015.
Lot 3070, a small collection of works by Northamptonshire artist, Richard Barnard, also returned to their Midlands roots. An enthusiastic couple fought off the opposition with a bid of £280 including commission, against an estimate of £40-£60.
They had become aware of Barnard’s highly individual style when they purchased another of his paintings and were both surprised and delighted to spot the collection through an art alert website. They raced up the M1 the day immediately after the auction and whisked away their purchases, eager to display the watercolours at their Northampton home.
It was a pleasure indeed to witness at first hand the evident delight on their faces and fulfilling to know that we, as an auction house, can help provide this invaluable service to our clients.
Auction entries invited
All types of items, from artwork and furniture to ceramics, jewellery and silver, are invited for monthly four-day sales at Hansons’ Derbyshire saleroom.
To book a free valuation, email: [email protected] or call 01283 733988. Hansons’ saleroom in Etwall, near Derby, is open Mon-Sat for valuations.
