'THE PENNY WEDDING' MAKES A PRETTY PENNY AT BONHAMS

Friday, 29 August 2008 20:25

Edinburgh, Scotland - Scottish artist Alexander Carse’s beautiful oil painting The Penny Wedding, became the most expensive item auctioned by Bonhams in the concluding part of its annual three-day Scottish Sale, which finished on, 29 August, in Edinburgh. In the sale of just over 1000 Lots, the lively feast scene celebrating a young couple’s wedding at a time when guests would each contribute a penny towards food and drink for the banquet, fetched £144,000, selling to a buyer in the room.

Bonhams’ new salerooms at 22 Queen Street, Edinburgh was packed with prospective bidders throughout the three-day Scottish Sale ensuring healthy prices were paid for the glass, ceramics, jewellery, clocks, pictures, arms and armour, books, maps, manuscripts, furniture and works of art that were being auctioned.

Toasting the Sale

Second highest price for a painting was £69,600, paid by a bidder absent from the sale, for White Peonies by Anne Redpath OBE (1895-1965). Incholm Priory, a painting by Samuel Bough (1822-1878) brought the third highest price. The picture of a site that was repeatedly raided by the English during the Wars of Scottish Independence and, which gets a mention in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, was bought by another absentee bidder for £37,200.

There were a number of other highlights during the first two days of the sale. A rare and important pair of thistle cups by George Walker of Aberdeen fetched £34,800 against an estimate of £25,000-30,000. A small engraved Jacobite wine glass dating from around 1750 made £12,500 - more than 12 times its low estimate – and a large and very rare Wemyss pig sold for £6,960 – more than double its low estimate.

A City of Inverness freedom casket sold for £4,320. It had been presented by the City of Inverness to the late Right Honourable Stanley Baldwin – three times British prime minister, who refused permission for King Edward VIII to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. A silver tray and a mail box with connections to Queen Victoria sold for £2,280 and £3,240 respectively.

Bonhams’ next sales in Edinburgh will be held in the Autumn:

17 September – Jewellery and Silver

18 September – Furniture, Works of Art and Pictures.

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further seven throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and Switzerland, France, Monaco, Australia, Hong Kong and Dubai. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 57 specialist areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com