Portraits Prove Popular at Mallams' Art and Music Sale

Two conté crayon portraits by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (lots 274 and 275), depicting the English physician and poet Dr Thomas Gordon Hake (1809-1895) and his son George Gordon Hake, were expected to do well in Mallams' Art and Music Sale last week, and they didn't disappoint, selling for £11,000 and £20,000 respectively.

Also proving popular was a portrait of a Greek revolutionary warrier (lot 174) from the 19th Century School, which achieved a hammer price of £4800 against an estimate of £800 to £1200 and a striking, signed portrait of John Ruskin (lot 278, dated 1897) by Seymour Joseph Guy which sold for £5000. In the mid to late 1890's, Ruskin's great friend, William Holman Hunt, arranged for one of the foremost photographers of the day, Frederick Hollyer, to photograph Ruskin at his home in Brantwood, Coniston. Whereas an oil copy of the photograph by Dutch artist Garschagan executed in 1902 is known, this Seymour Joseph Guy painting, which was executed five years before Garschagan's painting, also appears to be a copy of the photograph, but has not, until recently, been recorded.

A Sarah Wells Page (1855-1943) oil painting (lot 229) out-performed its estimate of £300-£500, selling for £2800. It features the subject (Mrs Malony) seated in a chair, and is signed and inscribed by the artist with 'A Chere Md Molony souvenir bien affections de S Page'. The lot was sold together with a pair of hand-tinted photographic portrait miniatures, each depicting a further member of the Malony family.

Entries are now invited for Mallams' Picture Sale taking place on 26 February. Please email rupert@mallams.co.uk for an informal valuation.