It surpasses the £160,000 paid at Christie’s in 1993 for the artist’s portrait of a man clasping a hand from a cloud.
The privately entered work had been estimated by Sotheby’s at a more modest £25,000-30,000 primarily because it had a 5mm artist’s join along the top. Sotheby’s thought this had probably been inserted to accommodate a change to a more fashionable high-topped hat. The artist has disguised the join with a gilt inscription giving the date and age of the sitter.
Portrait miniature makes £200,000
This portrait miniature of a 30-year-old lady by Nicholas Hilliard, dated 1582, set a new auction record for the artist at Sotheby’s Olympia rooms on June 6 when it sold to a private collector bidding on the phone against the room for £200,000 (plus premium).
