BLAST #29 | Christie’s keeps the Modern British market bubbling

October 2025

Exclusive information on bidders and buyers at the £22 million sales + historic price comparisons

Christie's staged an evening sale of just thirty-two lots of Modern British art on 22 October, with a hammer estimate of £14.75 million and realised £17.3 million, which was a 20% increase on the equivalent sale last year. Some of this can be attributed to the increased buyer’s premium (from 26% to 27% up to £1 million, and from 21% to 22% between £1 million and £6 million) which had just been introduced. Seven lots sold at hammer prices above their top estimates, two within estimate, 12 on or below low estimates, and four were unsold. Top price was a mid-estimate £3.9 million for Barbara Hepworth’s eight-foot bronze, The Family of Man (Figure 8, The Bride), 1970. Another cast of the edition of four had sold in 2019 for £3.8 million, so while the value may not have gone up in the last six years, it had not gone down.

Hepworth was a major contributor to the sale with four works that fetched just over £6 million. L S Lowry was less dominant than usual with just three works that fetched £1.8 million. The largest geographical proportion of consignments came not from Britain but America with thirteen lots that brought £8 million, or nearly half, including works by Stanley Spencer, Bridget Riley and Sir Winston Churchill.

Lot 6. DAME BARBARA HEPWORTH (1903-1975), The Family of Man (Figure 8, The Bride), signed and numbered 'Barbara Hepworth 4⁄4' (at the base), bronze with a dark brown, green and golden patina, 97 ½ in. (247.5 cm.) high, including base. Price realised: GBP 3,954,000. CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2025

Here are some notes on bidders and buyers at the sale, with previous auction prices for context. Prices include the buyer’s premium, estimates do not.

Lot 1

Ben Nicholson, 1935 (painting). Estimate £50,000-70,000.

Fresh to the market from the estate of former New Statesman editor Janet Adam Smith who had been given it by the revered collector Helen Sutherland this Mondrian inspired abstraction sold for £152,400 to a phone bidder. Jonathan Green, sitting in the front row for a sale in which his gallery, Richard Green, had a lot if interest, was among the underbidders.

Lot 2

Paul Nash, Cloud and Two Stones, 1934-35. Estimate £100,000-150,000.

Sold to a phone bidder for £355,600 this slightly surreal still life in a landscape, had belonged to the quantity surveyor Cyril Sweett who was responsible for the de la Warr pavilion amongst other modernist buildings and had not been seen in public since 1939. Matthew Travers (Piano Nobile) was among the underbidders.

Lot 12

William Scott, Blue and White, 1958. Estimate £300,000-500,000.

Sold within estimate for £431,800, competition for this lot came from dealers Richard Green and Offer Waterman, both of whom have owned and sold the painting before, with Green prevailing. The last time it was at auction was in 2013 when Green bought it for slightly more at £482,500. Jenna Burlingham is hoping make inroads into the Scott market with an exhibition starting on November 8 of works from the artist’s estate at her new gallery in Hampshire where prices will start at £12,000.

Lot 14

L S Lowry, Bourton-on-the-Water, 1947. Estimate £400,000-600,000.

Price realised £965,200. The most hotly contested work in the sale, this Cotswolds view had sold back in 1990 for a double estimate £104,500 to Richard Green who sold it on to Lord Harris, owner of Carpetright, who sold it on. Green bid on it again this time but was outgunned by two phone bidders.

Lot 20

David Hockney, Man in an Expensive Coat, 1962. Estimate £200,000-300,00.

Price realised £457,200. An early work from an American collection, it was underbid by Offer Waterman.

Lot 23

Ben Nicholson, Le Petit Provençal, 1933. Estimate £250,000-350,000.

Price realised £279,400. This 1933 collage was last at auction in 2015 when it sold for a double estimate £489,600 to Richard Green who sold it to the American collector whose estate was now selling, probably at a loss.

Lot 26

Roderic O'Conor, Apples and Pear, c.1893. Estimate £120,000-180,000.

Price realised £171,450. This painting was offered by Sotheby’s in May 2008 when it went unsold with a £120,000 estimate and was bought after sale, probably for around £100,000, so the buyer probably made a small profit.

Lot 29

LS Lowry, Industrial Landscape, 1957. Estimate £250,000-350,000.

Price realised £368,300. This painting was last at auction in 2008 when it sold to Richard Green for £253,250. Green always said he was open to buy works he sold back, and, while this one was not being sold by the client he sold it to, Green bought it back for more than he sold it for.

Christie’s Day sale on 23 October was again on target when it realised £4.976 million including premium against an estimate of £3.5 million (without the premium) with only 23 out of 151 lots or 15% unsold – which is reasonably healthy at this level of the market. Again, properties from American collections dominated, accounting for half of the top 10 selling lots, including works by Winston Churchill, William Scott, Ben Nicholson and David Hockney, and accentuating the importance of the transatlantic supply line for these sales.

Here are some more exclusive details with bidders, buyers and historic price comparisons:

Lot 103

Alan Reynolds, Sheet of Drawings, 1955. Estimate £4,000- 6,000.

Last at auction in 1985 with a £2,000 estimate this sheet of nature studies was bought then by Catherine Wills, a scion of the Wills tobacco company, for £4,000 hammer. Wills died in 2022, and her collection is being sold to support the Ditchley Foundation of which she was a co-founder. This time round it sold for £24,130 to a phone bidder with dealer, Christopher Kingzett amongst the posse of underbidders.

106

Graham Sutherland, Study for Cliff Road, c 1939-41. Estimate £4,000-6,000.

Also from the late Catherine Wills, Kingzett managed to win this one by bidding well over the estimate to £11,400. Since Kingzett nominated Sutherland for the British Art Fair’s Unsung exhibition, demand for the artist, it seems, has been on the rise.

110

Emily Young, Angel. Winged Figure, 1998. Estimate £40,000-60,000.

Sold for £76,250. Underbid by Portland Gallery.

112

Euan Uglow, Still Life with Rose and Pitcher, c.1957. Estimate £70,000-100,000.

Sold for £88,900 to Richard Green. This was second time round for Green who bought it last time it was at auction in 2013 for £81,650 and sold it to the American collector whose estate was selling it now.

120

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, Head, 1994. Estimate £10,000-15,000.

Sold for £20,320, underbid by Portland Gallery.

127

Keith Coventry, Nude, 2005. Estimate £5,000-£7,000.

A black-on-black painting after a nude by Raoul Dufy, this was being sold by Royal photographer Hugo Rittson-Thomas (The Silvie Fleming Collection), whose wife, I gather, has tired of the blackness. Offered with no reserve it was scooped up by dealer Robert Sandelson for £1,651. Considering Coventry had just staged a near sell-out exhibition of new work at the De Brock gallery in Knokke where paintings were priced and sold in five figures each, Sandelson can feel he landed a bargain.

Lot 131. ALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942), Mount's Bay, oil on board, shaped, 34.6 x 53 cm. Price realised: GBP 184,150. CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2025

131

Alfred Wallis Mount’s Bay. Estimate £60,000-80,000.

Originally in the collection of Jim Ede this superb example was bid up well above estimate by Offer Waterman until it sold to a phone bidder for a record £184,150.

132

Roger Hilton, Boat on Shore, c.1972. Estimate £15,000-20,000.

A late work with a little overlap from his earlier abstracts, it sold on the low estimate at £19,050 (including premium) to Christopher Kingzett.

135

Ben Nicholson, Feb21, 1947 (painting). Estimate £80,000-120,000.

Bought in 2013 for £134,500 by Richard Green and sold to an American collector, the collector’s estate returned it to auction where it sold for £165,000, just above estimate, back to Green.

Lot 140. CLAUDE FLIGHT (1881-1955), Sea-beach and Rocks, signed 'CLAUDE FLIGHT' (lower left), oil on board, 33 x 41.2 cm. Price realised: GBP 69,850. CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2025

140

Claude Flight, Sea-Beach and Rocks (c.1931). Estimate £15,000-25,000.

A rare painting by this leading Grosvenor School artist, it was last at auction 1998 when it sold for £3,450. Now with an estimate of £15,000 it was one of the most hotly contested works in the sale. Chased by art advisor Nick Holmes but bought by an online bidder from California for £69,850, it was the second highest price for a painting by Flight.

146

Graham Sutherland, Two Forms in a Terraced Landscape, 1951. Estimate 70,000-100,000.

Last sold in 2010 by Phillips de Pury as part of the Marino Golinelli collection where it was bought by investment advisor Serge Tiroche for £12,000, this painting returned to the auction block with a £70,000 estimate and sold to Christopher Kingzett for what looks like a bargain £26,000.

148

Walter Sickert, The Balcony, Bedford Square, Brighton, 1915. Estimate £20,000-30,000.

While record prices have been tumbling for exceptional works by Sickert (BLAST#s 26 and 28), mid-market examples have been treading water as evidenced by this painting which was bought in 2004 by Richard Green for £25,000. Returning to the rostrum it sold on the low estimate for £25,400 to Piano Nobile which has been working on a Sickert revival.

169

Henry Moore, Seated Figure: Armless, 1955. Estimate £50,000-80,000.

Last sold in a 2017 Impressionist and Modern sale for £125,000 to an American collector this bronze sold for what seems a good value mid-estimate £76,200 to Osborne Samuel.

171

Keith Vaughan, Bather, Iowa River, 1959. Estimate £8,000-12,000.

Osborne Samuel were in action again for this painting but were outgunned by an online bidder in the UK who won it for £24,130.

173

Gillian Ayres, Window, 1980. Estimate £5,000-8,000.

One of a group of works by the artist from the estate of her friend, Dame Shirley Conran, it sold above the estimate for £12,700 to a bidder in the room who seemed happy to let Robert Sandelson lift his paddle to buy it. Sandelson has staked a claim in the Ayres market with exhibitions and sales at the London Art Fair and at his gallery in Norfolk (BLAST#23). He went on to buy lot 176, Anadyomene, 1983 by Ayres for a mid-estimate £29,940.

178

Gillian Ayres, Cleopatra’s Wedding, 2007. Estimate: £2,000-3,000.

This late and very decorative work on paper had been a gift from Ayres to Conran and sold for £8,890 to Kingzett.

182

Prunella Clough, Hindsight, 1988. Estimate £2,500-3,500.

Another artist nominated for the BAF’s Unsung exhibition, this small example sold to Osborne Samuel above estimate for £5,715.

195

William Scott, Still Life with Bowl and Olives, 1950. Estimate £150,000-250,00.

Another work from the same American estate, this tonally subdued classic originally in the collection of Scott’s Bath Academy of Art stablemate, Henry Cliffe, had been sold at Phillips in 1996 above estimate for £25,000 to the late Rosanna Wilson Stephens. From her it passed into the hands of dealers Jonathan Clark and Offer Waterman and then to Brian Balfour-Oatts’s Archeus from whence it was shipped to the American collection. Back in London it was the subject of a slow, quiet duel before selling to Offer Waterman for £228,600 – a ten-fold increase in 29 years.

196

Ben Nicholson, Oct 10-52 (pendulum). Estimate £40,000-60,000.

This perfectly constructed A4-sized geometric abstraction had last sold in 1992 for £16,000 hammer and sold now for a mid-estimate £67,850 including premium to Osborne Samuel.

209

Lynn Chadwick, Sitting Figures in Robes I, 1980. Estimate £70,000-100,000.

Is Osborne Samuel planning a show of small works for their new Cork Street gallery? They bought this classic Chadwick couple, just 19 inches wide, below estimate for £69,850.

210

John Hoyland, 23.11.69. Estimate £12,000-18,000.

After a temporary boom when Damien Hirst was buying his work, Hoyland’s market cooled down, but is still bubbling beneath the surface. This large 7-foot abstract was bought below estimate for £12,065 by Robin Katz.

217

Ivon Hitchens, Oak and Fir Path, 1950s. Estimate £40,000-60,000.

Last sold in 2010 for £61,250, this impression of a woodland path was snapped up by Kingzett below estimate for £38,100

Lot 232. WYNDHAM LEWIS (1882-1957, editor), Blast: Review of the Great English Vortex, London: John Lane, 20 June 1914 and July 1915. Nos 1 and 2 [all published]. Price realised: GBP 4,064. CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2025

232

Wyndham Lewis, BLAST, volumes 1 and 2 (1914/1915). Estimate £2,000-3,000.

A first edition, this artist/editor’s own copy inevitably was in worn condition, but with such a great provenance, sold above estimate for £4,064 - an auction record.

Lot 237. TRISTRAM HILLIER, R.A. (1905-1983), Winter Landscape with a Cattle Pool, signed and dated 'Hillier/79' (lower right), oil on canvas, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. Painted in 1979. Price realised: GBP 57,150. CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2025

237

Tristram Hillier, Winter landscape with a Cattle Pool, 1979. Estimate £12,000-18,000.

Hillier has been in demand of late as an underpriced British surrealist, and this was the subject of a battle between an online bidder from California and art advisor, Conor Mullan in the room, who won it for £57,150.

238

Keith Vaughan, Iowa Farm II, 1959. Estimate £15,000-25,000.

Sold to Osborne Samuel above estimate for £45,720.

BLAST #29 | Christie’s keeps the Modern British market bubbling

BLAST #28