By Danielle NuttallTWO paintings by a famous East Anglian artist are among 481 possessions belonging to pop legend Sir Elton John which are to be auctioned.

By Danielle Nuttall

TWO paintings by a famous East Anglian artist are among 481 possessions belonging to pop legend Sir Elton John which are to be auctioned.

The sale is made up of the contents of Sir Elton's Holland Park home in London and will also include a 386-year-old portrait of a Marks Tey squire's wife painted by an unknown artist.

The two paintings, Monkshood With Tulips and Bluebells and Crisis, were the creation of Sir Cedric Morris.

Sir Cedric, who founded the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Dedham, was born in 1889 and lived in Benton End in Hadleigh.

The first painting is expected to fetch up to £6,000, while the second is estimated to reach £15,000 at the auction, which will take place at the end of the month.

The portrait, which dates back to 1617, is entitled Portrait of Elizabeth Honeywood and is expected to go under the hammer for up to £40,000.

Mrs Honeywood was the wife of Matthew Honeywood, of Marks Tey House, near Colchester.

Multi-millionaire entertainer Sir Elton is a known as a passionate collector. A sale of memorabilia, jewellery and works of art from his Old Windsor estate was in 1988 and featured almost 2,000 lots.

Sir Elton bought his Holland Park home in 1992 and it has since welcomed many celebrities from the music and acting world. He has now decided to remodel the home and sell the contents at auction.

He said: “My love of contemporary art and photography is well-documented. I wanted to have the opportunity to display more contemporary work in one of my UK homes.

“But as my house in Windsor has a very traditional style, the obvious choice was to remodel my Holland Park home, both in terms of layout and interior design, to give me more scope for exhibiting this collection.”

danielle.nuttall@eadt.co.uk