Together they raised £285,000, well over half of the total from the 170-lot auction in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, on June 17.
The most valuable of the Lowry works was a street scene from 1947 which was billed as “the earliest so far to appear on the market from a unique, rare group of joyful and vibrant figurative pastel works” dating from 1947-50.
They were created during Lowry’s annual visits to Cumbria where he stayed with his friend Rev Geoffrey Bennett (1902-91), a Carlisle vicar who would later conduct the funeral service after the artist died.
Two other notable works from the series have previously sold at auction: Cowles Fish & Chips, Cleator Moor from 1948 that made £120,000 at Christie’s in 2012 and The Broken Shop Window at Cleator Moor from 1950 that realised £50,000 also at Christie’s in 2020.
Each of the works have not only a similar style and technique but are all executed in pencil and pastel on the same size blue paper.
Signed, dated and measuring 10½ x 14in (27 x 36cm), the work here came to auction from a vendor whose father bought it from Manchester dealer Leigh Gallery in 1976. Estimated at £40,000-60,000, it sold at £110,000.
Tennants said no details were available about the individual buyers but reported a mixture of interest from trade and private buyers from both the north and south of England.
Tug by Lowry, £84,000 at Tennants.
Having sold a number of Lowry seascapes in the last year, another one showing a tug on the North Sea emerged here.
The 7½ x 7in (19 x 18cm) oil on panel was signed and dated 1959. Estimated at £60,000-90,000, it generated decent bidding and was knocked down at £84,000.
The other three Lowrys in North Yorkshire were all drawings: two family groups that made £40,000 and £6000 and a group of young and old figures from 1970 that took £45,000.
Steggles street life
St Mark’s Church, Hackney by Harold Steggles, £12,000 at Tennants.
Elsewhere at the Tennants sale, a record was set for East London Group artist Harold Steggles (1911-71).
Works by both Harold and his brother Walter, who was also a leading member of the group, are quite scarce on the market.
However, those that have emerged at auction in the last few years have received greater interest, something engendered by David Buckman’s 2012 book From Bow to Biennale: Artists of the East London Group as well as subsequent exhibitions at the Nunnery Gallery in Bow.
Another show titled Brothers in Art: Walter & Harold Steggles & the East London Group was staged at the Beecroft Art Gallery in Southend in 2021-22.
The view of Hackney with St Mark’s Church in the background at Tennants dated from the early 1930s and had provenance to Mayfair dealer Alex Reid & Lefevre (where Harold and Walter exhibited for eight years).
The 13 x 18in (33 x 43cm) signed oil on panel was originally exhibited in 1932 and, having changed hands at least three times since then, it came to auction here from a private vendor. It had previously sold at Sotheby’s in 2008 for £1400 but, with the market having moved on significantly since then, it was estimated at £4000-6000.
After bringing good bidding it eventually sold at £12,000 to a private buyer – a sum that outscored the £10,000 at Dreweatts in March 2022 for Old Ford Road, Bow in terms of the highest auction prices for Harold Steggles.
