Well-oiled paintings up for sale

A SET of 18th century oil paintings from a Scottish castle depicting The Eight Stages of Drunkenness is expected to fetch up to £12,000 at auction this week.

They show revellers guarding their ale, smoking, fighting and even trying to pull a tooth out.

The paintings were bought from a drinking club on the Isle of Man by James Murray, Second Duke of Atholl, around 1760 and kept at Blair Castle in Perthshire for more than 250 years.

They will be sold at Christie’s in London on Thursday.

Blair Atholl Charitable Trust, which runs the castle, is selling off more than £300,000 worth of art, arms and rare books it no longer regards as ‘relevant’.

Under the influence: The Eight Stages of drunkenness sequence is estimated to make £12,000 when it goes under the hammer this week

This won’t hurt a bit: but is the anaesthetic working on the patient?

Cheers: a contented toper