The 570 lots, acquired since the 1960s by a Cumbrian farmer’s wife, the late Barbara Holliday, sold well above the pre-sale estimate of up to £400,0000. Prices include the buyer’s premium.
She collected local artists and also regularly attended auctions both in the provinces in London.
The family owned a home in London and she immersed herself in the British art scene, from the 1960s, befriending and corresponding with a group of noted painters and sculptors.
There were high prices achieved in the sale.
Mary Fedden’s Garden Bunch, dated 1988, sold to the London trade for £38,000, leading the sale.
A bust of jazz pianist and band leader Count Basie by Sir Eduardo Paollozzi, a personal friend of Barbara’s, sold to a local private buyer for £18,400.
Two large-scale `greenhouse’ oils by Olwyn Bower sold for £9,100 and for £7,600.
A watercolour by Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, Exotic Fruits and Orchids sold for £16,000 to a buyer in France.
While a bronze eagle by Dame Elisabeth Frink took £17,300.
There was a packed saleroom for the eight hour sale at Stansted Mountfitchet, plus a high number of online registered bidders, second only to the sale of the collection of Sir Rod Stewart in September 2018.
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