The Welsh Market Continues to Shine
April Fool's Day may have marked the first Welsh Sale auction of 2023. But there was plenty of serious bidding before and after 12 o'clock
The overall statistics were thoroughly satisfying, and demonstrated that the art market stands strong in difficult times.
A very impressive 84% of auction lots found new homes with a total of just under £350,000
Sir Kyffin Williams
The palette master had an excellent day with 30 out of 34 pictures selling. It was particularly pleasing in the print and works on paper examples. We broke our own auction record for a Kyffin print, while a watercolour of Patagonia
of the notable prices were for Sir Kyffin Williams prints. We are seeing very strong prices for his prints and they are in some cases catching up with his works on paper. The market want iconic imagery and rarity. We broke our own Kyffin print world record in this April auction at £3000 (Lot 266). The previous record was £2600.
An artist who has moved up the price scale in the last few years is Roger Cecil. He might be a new one to you and is an interesting artist. Please see Lots 215, 219 and 229.
In the non-picture section of the sale, we were very pleased with the price of a Swansea porcelain plate decorated by Thomas Baxter (Lot 5) selling for £5000 and the Ewenny cat (Lot 35) selling for £2800.
Roger Cecil
A Welsh artist who has moved up the price scale in the last few years is Roger Cecil (1942-2015)
During his lifetime Roger Cecil’s work was little known except by insightful collectors and fellow artists but he is now widely recognised as one of the most remarkable artists Wales has produced. Born in Abertillery in 1942, he lived in the same terraced house throughout his life. He was a star student at Newport College of Art and in 1963 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art but he walked out to devote himself to painting independently. He worked as a casual labourer while producing art of extraordinary beauty and sophistication, as documented in the BBC film A Quiet Rebel in 1964.
Many of his pictures evoke the scars of the mining valleys amid the grandeur of nature. He loved to spend days at a time on the hilltops and often walked the 25 miles to the Brecon Beacons. His later works inspired by the layered symbolism of African art helped him to meld figure and landscape in one semi-abstract vision.
In the non-picture section of the sale, we were very pleased with the price of a Swansea porcelain plate decorated by Thomas Baxter (Lot 5) selling for £5000 and the Ewenny cat (Lot 35) selling for £2800.
Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe RA
Wildlife painter Tunnicliffe is testament to the fact that fine quality never go out of fashion. The fashion might be for modern and abstract works but Tunnicliffe's paintings remain in high demand from discerning collectors. Like Kyffin, Tunnicliffe's prints can be just as collectable and rare items will always have good interest from around the UK. While the watercolour of golden pheasants amongst autumn leaves was just supreme, one could feel the smoothness and shine of the pheasant's tail-feathers. What a master he was.
