Remarkable Art Auction

Press Release

“A remarkable auction,” said Paul Keen, following the evening Art Auction at Plymouth Auction Rooms last week. The high-value sale attracted buyers from as far as Canada and even Saudi Arabia. The main focus of interest was fine paintings by Robert Lenkiewicz and a brace of contemporary Cornish art from the estate of a Saltash lady.

A recent visit to a house on Dartmoor yielded two fine Lenkiewicz paintings, where the owner acquired them almost twenty years ago. They each proved popular with ‘Study of Elain‘ selling for £6,000 to a buyer from Cornwall, and ‘Self Portrait with Blue Scarf‘ doing well at £14,000 to a Devon buyer.

Lot 4, an oil showing Lisa Armstrong, was snapped up for a respectable £5,000 to an international collector. Elsewhere a painting of Diogenes sold for £4,300 and a full-length portrait of Esther Dallaway went for £5,000.

Less predictable was Lot 306, an oil by Alexander Mackenzie (1923-2002), ‘Bosulval’. Mackenzie was Head of Fine Art at Plymouth College of Art from the 1960s to the 1980s. The painting attracted the most interest at the auction and the bidding soared past its £1,500 estimate to £7,200 much to the delight of the buyer from the South East bidding on the phone.

Jack Pender (1918-1998) was born in Mousehole, Cornwall and taught at Plymouth Art School, he also showed his work at the Newlyn and Penwith Society through the late 1940s. His oil painting of ‘Newlyn Fisherman‘ also flew with the gavel coming down at £5,600.

It was no surprise that the collection of Fred Yates art sold well. With several charming small paintings raising a handsome £11,780, to buyers as far as Scotland and into Cornwall.

These busy auctioneers are now preparing for their forthcoming Summer Sales. Head online to find out more.