Paintings to the fore in sale with modern feel

There is a very modern feel about the Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood’s 20th century and contemporary auction in Exeter on Tuesday, December 4.

The auction includes pictures, studio pottery and glass, jewellery, sculpture and furniture and follows-up the world record auction price for studio pottery set in the Exeter rooms earlier this year when a Hans Coper stoneware vase sold for a spectacular hammer price of £305,000.

Among the 300 lots on offer is a watercolour by Lydia Corbett (aka Sylvett David), the Muse of Pablo Picasso, who in her own right is a joyous, assured and gentle painter and these skills are perfectly demonstrated in the watercolour of a Girl in Silk Robe with Dove, estimated at £150-£250.

The vibrant, colourful and poetic paintings of Joan Gilchrest belong in the Cornish tradition of naïve, or outsider art, and are reminiscent of paintings by

Lowry. There are three Gilchrests in the auction including Walking at Land’s End, by the Longs Ships Lighthouse with an estimate of £600-900.

The recent extraordinary $90 million living artist world record set at auction in New York for David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) might not be beaten in Exeter, but there is still an opportunity to bid for a work by Hockney, namely an intimate image of his pet dog Stanley at 8 Weeks, one of a small printed edition of just 30, with an estimate of £3,000-£5,000.

Among the works of art are seven Stuart Devlin silver-gilt eggs, all hallmarked for the 1970s and 1980s, each with estimates between £200-£400 and including a novelty leaping toad. Studio pottery and studio glass are also well represented and two eye-catching lots are the John Maltby Angel & Wall stoneware sculpture with an estimate of £300-500 and with a similar estimate the beautiful Bob Crooks oviform glass vase.

If more traditional high street and internet Christmas shopping is becoming tiresome, you may find some festive inspiration in the Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood rooms in Okehampton Street, Exeter.

Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood 01392 413100 bhandl.co.uk

Some of the 300 lots on offer 20th century, contemporary auction