BEHIND THE SCENES: Spicers Auctioneers

By Andrew Spicer of Spicers Auctioneers of Driffield.

It is tempting to suggest that interesting paintings are just like buses. You wait ages for one to come along and then a bunch of them arrive together. Ridiculous of course. Even buses don’t arrive by the dozen!

The Antique & Fine Art Auction at the Exchange Saleroom on Friday November 29^th was a cracker. For starters it included no fewer than 15 paintings from the circle of the great Beverley artist Fred Elwell RA: Eight by Fred himself, four by his wife Mary and three by his nephew Kenneth Elwell. Additionally there are four by Fred’s protégé, the one-time Beverley railway station porter painter Walter Goodin. 

It was by a country mile the best Elwell auction for years, triggered by the decision of businessman and art historian Malcolm Shields to thin down his Elwell collection, followed by further entries from other private sources.

Two pictures, showing quite different aspects of Fred Elwell’s extraordinary talent, particularly stand out. One was a large – and striking – portrait of Henry Micks, a wealthy businessman and civic figure, painted for the boardroom of the Hull Corn Trade Association in which he played a leading part for many years.

The other was ‘A View of North Bar Within, with St. Mary’s Church’, a Beverley street scene looking towards the Market Place. The viewpoint was literally yards from the front door of Elwells’ home at Bar House and it was a scene that he depicted numerous times. 

The Micks portrait went into the auction with a pre-sale estimate of £3,000-£4,000 whilst the smaller Beverley street scene had a guideline price of £2,000-£3,000. 

Away from Fred’s work there were four paintings by Mary Elwell and also three by his nephew Kenneth Elwell including an interior of Beverley Minster, a typical Elwell subject. 

And there’s more: Another seriously interesting painting that went under the hammer was a portrait of a Scottish aristocrat Lady Anne Keith (1586-1648). The daughter of the 5^th Earl of Marischal, Anne married William Douglas, who became the Earl of Morton and the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland. It is surprising what turns up in our area is it not? The pre-sale estimate was £1,500-£2,000.

Meanwhile our auctions this year have seen some strong results for the signed limited edition prints of L.S. Lowry and that success has been noticed. The auction included a signed Lowry print that has been entered by a vendor in Cardiff. It is ‘Level Crossing with Train’, which is after a painting that Lowry produced in 1946. Railway buffs still argue about the tank locomotive LNER 622 depicted in the picture, with many believing that Lowry painted it as a clockwork Hornby loco rather than the real thing.  The print was expected to make £1,500/2,000.

Away from the pictures all the other sections of the auction had exceptionally interesting entries. The jewellery included an 18^th century child’s gold and enamel posy ring that was unearthed by a metal detectorist on private land in North Yorkshire. (Est £400-£600).

The collector’s section included two sets of Beatles autographs.  One set signed when they were filming Help! in the Bahamas in 1965 is expected to make £600-£800. Meanwhile a Parlophone Records promotional photograph that they signed when they were making an appearance on ITV’s Big Night Out in September 1963 had a pre-sale estimate of £1,500-£2,000.

The collectors’ section also included a bottle of Delva Special Brand Old Scotch Whisky – otherwise known as’ the Africa Corps Lost Liquor’.  Part of a huge store of alcohol captured by the Germans in North Africa during the Second World War . . . some casks of which were shipped to Italy . . . some of which were recaptured by the Allies in 1944 . . . and some of which were bottled and forgotten about for a quarter of a century . . . these survivors are quite rare!

The fully illustrated catalogue is available online (www.spicersauctioneers.com). The viewing sessions were on Wednesday 27^th November  (10am-6pm), Thursday 28th (10am – 4pm) and on Friday (29th) from 9am until the start of the auction at 10 o’clock. It was webcast live on the Internet (www.thesaleroom.com).