Terry Frost, RA (1915-2003): Bowl of Cherries, Late Spring (SS4/16). Estimate £8,000-£12,000.
Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood Fine Art Auctioneers are launching a new category of sale for 2018 and on 27th February 2018 will hold a 20th Century & Contemporary Sale of Pictures, Studio Pottery, Glass and Design.
The sale consists of art works and design produced typically from the 1960s to the present day. There is an emphasis on pictures with stand-out lots like the iconic Sir Terry Frost canvas collage titled Bowl of Cherries, Late Spring (SS4/16), which was a favoured work of the artist that hung in his bedroom and now has a pre-sale estimate of £8,000-£12,000 (plus buyer's premium of 21% plus VAT).
Another major work by Terry Frost is the Lustful Blue (SS4/17) triptych with an estimate of £12,000-£18,000 (plus buyer's premium of 21% plus VAT). The triptych consists of 71x86cm saturated shaded blue canvases with complimentary geometric collage that pull the whole together.
With lower estimates, from £80-£1,000, there are a number of other Terry Frost artworks that include screen-prints and a large black and white photograph of the artist in a studio with a wallpaper design.
There are three lots in the auction sale, a watercolour (SS4/1), a studio pottery jug (SS4/2) and a driftwood sculpture (SS4/3), by Lydia Corbett, a student and favoured model of Pablo Picasso, known then as Sylvette David. Lydia moved to England in 1968 and has exhibited in London, Europe and Japan. In 1993, the Tate Gallery staged a major exhibition of Picasso's Sculpture and Paintings to coincide with a BBC documentary film on Lydia and Picasso. In 2014, parallel exhibitions in London and Germany showcased the work of Corbett and Picasso.
A collection of seven paintings and metal sculptures by Michael Neville Seward Snow (1930-2012) have close links to Cornwall and St Ives. Snow had seen an exhibition of St Ives artists in Liverpool and this inspired him to move there in 1951. Two years later he was elected member of the newly found Penwith Society along with Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.
From 1965 to 1985, Snow entered the field of education. He taught at the vibrant Exeter College of Art where he became Director of the Combined Honours Course and his interdisciplinary openness made him popular with his students. That 'openness' is reflected in this collection or works from the artis's estate that include the Cornish coastal and mining inspired Kenidjack oil (SS4/36) and the Oval Forms metal sculpture (SS4/42). Estimates for Snow's works range from £300 upwards.
Of less abstract form, there is a group of modern paintings by Alan Cotton and these include a landscape of the valley to Branscombe Village in East Devon (SS4/66) that has an estimate of £800-£1,200 (plus buyer's premium of 21% plus VAT) and an almost photogenic oil painting of a Leopard in a Jackalberry Tree by David Scott (SS4/35), which is estimated at £1,000-£1,500 (plus buyer's premium of 21% plus VAT).
The studio pottery is led by two big names from the 20th Century. A porcelain bottle vase by Dame Lucie Rie and a stoneware Cycladic vase by Hans Coper come from the same collection dating back to the 1970s and have estimates of £8,000-£12,000 and £4,000-£6,000 (plus buyer's premium of 21% plus VAT) respectively.
And standing-out in the design section is a silver-topped Marmite jar (SS4/45) which is more affordable with an estimate of £60-£80 (plus buyer's premium of 21% plus VAT).
- Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood
