1. Paul Nash drawing
Sotheby’s are offering 140 lots from the collection of dealer Daniel Katz in a timed online sale that is now open for bidding and closes on May 27.
It features antiquities, Old Masters, 19th century paintings, Modern British art and European sculpture – the latter being the field in which Katz’s first started as a dealer before broadening his interests as a major art collector across multiple disciplines.
The sale of 10 of the works will help raise funds for two national charities, Refuge and Trussell Trust.
Katz said: “As I near my 72nd birthday I want to slow down my business and work differently, turning my focus to my interests in philanthropy, academia, music, dance and neurology. This is an opportunity for others to start collecting. An opportunity for people who are spending more time in their homes right now to explore and buy something reasonably priced and beautiful, and when they get them home, to enjoy them as much as I have.”
Among the works on offer is a Paul Nash drawing, Landscape of Bleached Objects, estimated £40,000-60,000 (above). The surreal drawing is interesting example of Nash’s experiments of combining the ancient and organic world with a modern focus of sharp lines and geometric design.
2. 'Eskimaux and English' vocab book
The sale at Dominic Winter of South Cerney on May 27-28 includes this very rare copy of an Eskimaux and English vocabulary book published in 1850 for use on the Arctic expeditions ‘to carry relief to Sir John Franklin and his companions’.
The 160-page book in original cloth gilt was created ‘as we learnt from the accounts of Cook, Kotzebue, and Beechey, that much intercourse took place during these voyages with the natives of the north-western coast of North America’. Only the second copy recorded at auction, the estimate is £3000-5000.
View this eskimaux vocab book via thesaleroom.com.
3. Silver Fox model train
Dreweatts’ Transport sale, rescheduled as a live online sale for May 28, includes this restoration project, a 3½in gauge model of an A4 LNER 4-6-2 tender locomotive, Silver Fox.
The model was built by the late Bill Dwyer of Surrey over a period of 10 years but due to ill-health it was not rebuilt after the copper boiler (included in the lot) was removed in 2000.
Estimate £3000-4000.
View this model train via thesaleroom.com.
4. John Lavery oil painting
Lyon & Turnbull holds a picture and sculpture sale titled The Classic Tradition on May 28. Estimated at £8000-12,000 is a 7 x 11in (17 x 27cm) oil on board by John Lavery (1856-1941).
On The Shore dates from the summer of 1887 when Lavery was recalled to his native Ulster to paint a large plein air group portrait of the Smiley family who lived at Drumalis, Larne, in County Antrim. The small sketch depicts the familiar black volcanic basalt boulders of the local coastline.
View this John Lavery picture on thesaleroom.com.