William Payne A thatched cottage in a wooded landscape

Signed with initials and dated l.r.: J.B. April 7 18.., pen and grey ink and grey wash 16.2 x 21.2 cm.; 6 3/8 x 8 3/8 inches Literature Dr A. Sneddon, ‘Representing Magic in Modern Ireland, Belief, History and Culture,’, CUP, 2022, ill. fig. 1 In Britain and Ireland amongst ordinary people popular belief in witches remained strong up until the twentieth century. This drawing appears to depict a consultation with a cunning person or white witch. A stock part of 18th and 19th century country life, these commercial, multifarious magical practitioners provided local communities with a range of services for a small fee, such as un-witching, fortune-telling, and divination. They could gain quite serious reputations and some prospered. The position gave them status in their local communities. The 'witch' seems to have a good-natured face and her bonnet is not peaked, and a cat is perched benignly on it. The old woman is seated, a horse skull above her chair and consulting a magical book or grimoire: the ownership of such expensive objects often added to the allure and kudos of cunning-folk. The family are approaching her in a deferential way (the man holds his hat, his wife looks expectant) to ask her help. The girl looks frightened, is she seeing the real witch, the cause of their maladies? After all, cunning-folk were often brought in to counter black or harmful magic. Boyne left Co. Down for London at the age of nine with his father and was apprenticed to the engraver William Byrne. He joined a company of strolling players until 1781 and thereafter established a drawing school. Boyne’s caricatures which provide an amusing insight into British contemporary life can be found in many public collections including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Fitzwilliam Museum and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven. With thanks for Dr Andrew Sneddon for his comments on this drawing.

This group of nineteen distinctive depictions of fruit and vegetables from South-East Asia are inscribed with titles in Indian English (possibly in Romanised Hindi) and drawn on European laid paper which is variously watermarked. There are three different numbering systems on the sheets. Many of the fruit and vegetables, such as the durian, are more commonly found in South-East Asia rather than on the Indian subcontinent, suggesting that it is possible that the drawings may have been made for a European patron in South-East Asia. Stylistically the drawings have many of the characteristics of the ‘Straits School’, a hybrid Indo-Chinese style. The accumulation of natural history drawings by officials of the British East India Company gave rise to the term ‘Company School’, now out of favour, which has been used to describe the work of Indian or Chinese artists for British patrons. The distinctive style is a result of a fusion of two artistic traditions, the European with its desire for realism and the Asian taste for a more stylised approach. The work of Chinese artists is rarer than that of Indian artists and tends to be a little later in date. British patrons commissioned local artists to draw the flora and fauna of India and other areas of South-East Asia. Such work is typically annotated with botanical notes in native script, romanised versions of native descriptions, Latin and with reference to the Linnaean system of classification, created by Carl Linnaeus (1707-78). The eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw an enormous rise of interest in Europe in the study of natural history by both scientists and amateurs. A knowledge of the subject was considered to be an important part of a liberal education and many people studied ‘natural philosophy’ and the various branches of natural history. Accurate drawings were vital tools in classification as well as a reminder of the excited reaction to new discoveries being made all over the known world. The collecting of specimens was the basis of most natural history drawings, plants were pressed and dried and the drawings recorded the specimen in its living shape and colours. This group of fruit and vegetables are found in various parts of South-East Asia. Some are common others are less well known. The collection is presented mounted in a hand-made solander box. Brinjala (Aubergine) Inscribed l.r.: Brinjala and numbered ninety-five, N106 and 96, watercolour, bodycolour and gum arabic on wove paper 31.7 x 20.5 cm.; 12 ½ x 8 1/8 inches Aubergine is known as brinjal in South-East Asia. Mangosteen Inscribed l.r.: mongostan, numbered ninety-seven. N 97 and 101, watercolour and gum arabic on laid paper watermarked IFD 31.7 x 20.5 cm.; 12 ½ x 8 1/8 inches Mangosteens grow in South East Asia, particularly in Indonesia. It is a juicy, slightly acidic fruit and it is also used in traditional medicine. Ratahouli (pepper) Inscribed l.c.: Ratahouli, numbered ninety-five, N107 and 1010, watercolour and gum arabic on laid paper watermarked HIS/GD 33 x 23 cm.; 13 x 9 inches Cashew Inscribed Rajab, numbered ninety-eight, N109 and 1012, watercolour and gum arabic on laid paper 33 x 23 cm.; 13 x 9 inches The cashew tree is a tropical evergreen tree that produces the cashew seed and the cashew accessory fruit. The nut can be seen growing from the bottom of the fruits in the drawing, both green and then brown once it has ripened. Jambu Air (Szygium Aqueum) Inscribed l.c.: jambol, numbered A Hundred, N111 and 1019, watercolour and gum arabic on laid paper watermarked HIS 33 x 23 cm.; 13 x 9 inches This is a special of the brush cherry tree; its common names include watery rose apple and bell fruit. Chilli Inscribed l.r.: fjoli, numbered ninety-one, N100 and 105, watercolour and gum arabic on laid paper watermarked with a crest 33 x 23 cm.; 13 x 9 inches Pomegranate Inscribed l.r. ramangh, numbered A hundred and three, N114 and 1019, watercolour and gum arabic on laid paper watermarked HIS 33 x 23 cm.; 13 x 9 inches Papaya Watercolour and gum arabic inscribed l.r. papaya, numbere ninety-nine, N100 and 1013, on laid paper watermarked with a crest 32.5 x 23 cm.; 12 ½ x 9 inches Durian Inscribed l.r.: doorian, numbered eighty-five, N94 and 96, watercolour and gum arabic on laid paper 32.7 x 23 cm.; 12 ¾ x 9 inches The durian, with its spiny outer shell and moist, pungent flesh can weigh up to seven pounds. These large fruits grow on trees, have a short period of ripeness and their cultivation is difficult. The durian is famously not allowed on public transport in Singapore on account of its unpleasant smell. Lobed tropical tomato Inscribed l.r.: samati, numbered ninety, N100 and 109, watercolour with touches of gum arabic on laid paper 32 x 21 cm.; 12 ½ x 8 ¼ inches Berlimbing Inscribed l.r.: blinbingh, numbered A hundred and two, N113 and No 16, on laid paper watermarked HIS 33 x 23 cm.; 12 ¾ x 9 inches Berlimbing, also known as bling bling or berling berling, is a sour fruit used in curries. Buah Chiku (Sapodilla, Chikoo, Sapota or Naseberry) Inscribed l.r.: boa sawa, numbered ninety-three, N104 and 104, watercolour and gum arabic with touches of bodycolour on laid paper partially watermarked with the Strasburg Lily 33 x 23 cm.; 13 x 9 inches This appears to be Buah Sawo or Chiku, but the identification of this plant is open to question. Ban Branjahr (?) Inscribed l.r.: Ban Branjarh (?), numbered eight eight, N90 and 102, watercolour, bodycolour and gum arabic on laid paper, watermarked 31.7 x 20.5 cm.; 12 ½ x 8 1/8 inches This plant has not been identified. Lotus Inscribed l.c.: Fratil, numbered ninety-seven, N108 and 1011, watercolour and gum arabic, watermarked with a crest 33 x 23 cm.; 13 x 9 inches This drawing shows the lotus head with seeds after it has flowered. It is the seed of plants in the genus Nelumbo and the seeds are used in Asian cooking and traditional medicine. Melon (probably watermelon) Inscribed l.r.: patuka, numbered ninety-two N103 and 106, watercolour and gum arabic on laid paper 33 x 23 cm.; 13 x 9 inches Mango Inscribed l.r.: Manga, numbered A Hundred and one, N112 and 1015, watercolour and gum arabic 31.7 x 20.5 cm.; 12 ½ x 8 1/8 inches Longan Inscribed l.r.: froita lanja, numbered eight nine, N99 and 103, watercolour and gum arabic on laid paper watermarked with a crest 32.2 x 21 cm.; 12 ½ x 8 ¼ inches Rambutan Inscribed l.r.: frouita kafri, numbered eighty-six, N96 and 100, watercolour and gum arabic 32 x 21 cm.; 12 ½ x 8 ¼ inches Buah Gowok (Syzgium polycephalum) Inscribed l.r.: rambutan and numbered eighty-five, watercolour and gum arabic and pencil on laid paper 31.7 x 20.5 cm.; 12 ½ x 8 1/8 inches

Oil on board, inscribed verso: Grindlay, inscribed on old backing paper by one of Edward Grindlay’s children: An early James Gunn/My father admired it in the/Studio so James framed it/and gave it to him 22.4 x 14.2 cm.; 8 7/8 x 5 5/8 inches Frame size 34 x 24 cm.; 13 3/8 x 9 ½ inches Provenance Given by the artist to Edward Grindlay; By descent until 2021 This beautiful view of the Place de la Concorde was done in 1911-1912 when Gunn studied at the Académie Julian in Paris under Jean Paul Laurens. It is previously unrecorded and a significant addition to his rare small pictures of Paris. While in Paris Gunn started to make tonally delicate panels of the city on small boards, using a muted palette reminiscent of Whistler, capturing street scenes with tiny figures drawn with a few strokes of the brush. He also made regular visits to the Louvre to draw from the Old Masters and rented a room at 2 bis rue Perel. His small pictures of Paris are not numerous and are highly sought after. Gunn has painted this work from near the centre of the Place de la Concorde, looking towards the eastern end of the Champs Elysées, with the Grand Palais visible behind the trees of the Jardin des Champs-Elysées. The statue on the plinth is one of the famous Chevaux de Marly by Guillaume Costou, brought from the Chateau de Marly in 1719 and now in the Louvre. James Gunn attended drawing lessons from the age of five. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art, the Edinburgh College of Art before he went to Paris. Gunn returned to Edinburgh in 1912 and also spent time in London. Early in 1914, at the instigation of the London dealer W.B. Paterson, he travelled widely in Europe, sending pictures back home, and revisiting Paris and Étretat. He enlisted with the Artists Rifles in 1915. Gunn gave a speech to the Glasgow Art Club in November 1955 and reminisced about his early career, ‘…In Paris I studied at the Académie Julian under Jean Paul Laurens…I returned from Paris with a collection of sketches made in the streets and by the river. Many of these passed through the house of Anna. There they were seen and some were purchased by a dealer from Bond Street, W.B. Paterson, brother of the distinguished Scottish Academician, James. He gave me a contract, paid me a retaining fee and I undertook to provide him with not less than thirty pictures a year. At his instigation I went to Spain at the beginning of 1914. There I travelled, seeing and painting, till the echoes from Sarajevo warned that the good days were soon to end’. Edward ‘Teddy’ Grindlay and Gunn met in 1917 towards the end of WWI when they were commissioned into the 10th Scottish Rifles, the beginning of a life-long friendship. Gunn’s drawings of his fellow officers were published in a book ‘The 10th Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles): a Record and a Memorial 1914-1918’. Grindlay saw this oil sketch in Gunn’s studio and admired it, so the artist had it framed and gave it to his friend. Edward and his wife Evelyn were both painted by Gunn who also painted a conversation piece of their house at 1 Newton Grove, Bedford Park in London in 1927. They later moved to Westcott near Dorking. They owned many paintings and drawings by Gunn who used his friend as a model for Maurice Baring in his famous conversation piece with Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton, which is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG3654). He received commissions from many of the leading figures of the day and painted the Royal Family in another famous conversation piece at Royal Lodge, Windsor (NPG3778). Gunn had a successful career as a portrait painter and in 1961 was elected a member of the Royal Academy.

Pencil on laid paper 15 x 17.5 cm.; 6 x 7 ¼ inches Provenance Sabin Galleries Ltd., “The Sublime and Beautiful’, 1973, no. 88 The artist was an architect and surveyor as well as an artist, the fifth and youngest son of the architect George Dance the Elder, from a family of architects, artists and dramatists. His brother Nathaniel Dance (Dance-Holland) was also a painter and later a politician. Both brothers were founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. There has been confusion over the authorship of some of the caricatures with which both brothers are associated.

KT663 Thérèse Lessore (1884 – 1945) In a Belgian Train Signed and dated l.r.: Lessore/1921, watercolour over pencil, with a pencil outline, inscribed in pencil with title beneath mount l.r.: in a Belgian train Image 23 x 26.5 cm.; 9 x 10 3/8 inches, full sheet 28 x 32 cm.; 11 x 12 5/8 inches Provenance Bonhams, London, 17 November 1988, lot 27; Sandra Lumis Fine Art, London; Bernard Kelly, bought from the above, his sale at Lyon and Turnbull, London, 15 January 2025, lot 225 The artist came from an artistic family and was the daughter of the painter Jules Lessore (1849-1892) and sister of the sculptor Frederick Lessore (1879-1951). Born in Brighton, she attended the South-Western Polytechnic Art School and the Slade School of Fine Art from 1904–9, where she won the Melville Nettleship Prize for Figure Composition. She exhibited regularly at the New English Art Club and the Goupil Gallery, and had her first solo exhibition at Eldar Gallery, with a catalogue preface written by Walter Sickert. She was a founder member of The London Group, the artist-run organisation of radical painters which grew out of The Camden Town Group, where she was to exhibit regularly. Lessore was amongst the most talented female artists of The London Group. She married firstly the artist Bernard Adeney and in then 1926 she married Walter Sickert, as his third wife. He described her as “a Persian miniature”. The two artists shared a love of the music-hall and the circus which feature in both their work. Her contributions to exhibitions at The London Group were fewer after her marriage to Sickert who was 24 years her senior and for whom she cared and acted as his artist’s assistant. This acutely observed watercolour of two fellow passengers observed by the artist in Belgium a few years after the end of WWI verges on caricature.

Signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: Cave on the Island/of Elephanta/Dec 9th. 69 and further signed by another, watercolour over pencil. The artist visited the famous Hindu temple carved into the rockface on the island of Elephanta. Constructed between the fifth and sixth century, the temple is part of the ‘City of Caves’ devoted to the cult of Shiva. For further work by this artist please see the catalogue link and enquire about availability.

KT636 Watercolour over traces of pencil with touches of gum arabic and scratching out 21 x 29 cm.; 8 ¼ x 11 3/8 inches Provenance Agnew’s, (1891); Private collection, Herefordshire until 2024 Samuel Jackson has been described as ‘the Father of the School’ of Bristol artists. His contemporary Francis Danby (1793-1861) wrote that ‘I know Jackson is a man of genius by being with him in Leigh Woods’ (see F. Greenacre and S. Stodard, ‘The Bristol Landscape-the Watercolours of Samuel Jackson’, 1986, p. 85). In 1820s Bristol was booming, the end of the Napoleonic Wars contributing to its prosperity as a trading city, the port of Bristol second only to London. This was the moment the ‘Bristol School of Artists’ flourished; Jackson and Francis Danby were its best-known members. Their original contribution to art in Britain was founded in their plein air practise in the countryside around the city, Leigh Woods, the Nightingale Valley and the Avon Gorge. Jackson was born in Bristol, the son of a partner in a firm of dry-salters with a Dutch grandmother, who dealt in the chemical products used in colour dyes and artists materials. It may be that in this business was the origin of the wide variety of pigments used in much of Jackson’s early work. Like many other Bristol artists Jackson travelled extensively and made frequent trips to Wales from 1825 through the 1830s and 1840s. In 1827 he visited Trinidad, St Vincent and Tobago in the West Indies. Scotland, the Lake District and Switzerland provided further subjects for his exhibited works. He lived in Bristol for his whole life becoming the elder statesman of the arts in the city. Jackson’s work is well represented at the British Museum, Bristol City Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art amongst other institutions.

Signed with initials l.l.: TC, oil on paper laid down on canvas 26.5 x 36 cm.; 10 3/8 x 14 1/8 inches The artist studied in Birmingham under Joseph V. Barber (1788-1838) and moved to London in 1828. He was one of the leading practitioners of the Birmingham School of Artists and a founder member of the Etching Club. Creswick exhibited over 250 paintings in London during his lifetime at the Royal Academy and Suffolk Street Galleries, and also worked as an illustrator. He sought out subjects from the rivers and streams all over the British Isles. The present work has a pleasing spontaneity and sense of place which reflects Creswick’s habit of painting outside from nature. He was particularly drawn to streams which he painted many times. He revels in depicting the colours, shapes and textures of the boulders in the foreground of this work and excels himself conveying the softness of the moss on the first rock. John Ruskin praised Creswick’s handling of foliage and his observations from nature in the first volume of Modern Painters (1843). Oils on paper by him are comparatively rare. Creswick’s work is represented in many British institutional collections and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.

Henry Lamb (Australian/British 1883 – 1960) Inscribed l.r.: Edwin John, pencil Provenance The Estate of the artist; Davis & Langdale Company, New York (DLA 3328); Where purchased by Sarah John (1946 - 2024); Bequeathed to the present owner This drawing dates from c. 1913-1915. Edwin John (1905-1978) was the fourth son of Augustus John and Ida and was born in Paris. After a brief career as a middleweight boxer he became a watercolourist. He inherited the estate of his aunt Gwen and did much to secure her posthumous reputation. Henry Lamb was born in Adelaide, Australia in 1883. He studied medicine in Manchester before abandoning it in1905 to train as an artist. At twenty-two he left for London to study under Augustus John and William Orpen at their Chelsea Art School at 72 Flood Street. They held weekly classes in life drawing and painting, still life, figure composition, landscape and decorative painting. He was a talented student and he and John formed a strong friendship. For a while Lamb imitated John’s bohemian manner of dress, wore gold earrings and grew his hair longer. He also began to draw like John. Lamb was a frequent visitor to the John household into 1930s and became close to Dorelia (with whom he had an affair) and to the children who he encouraged to draw. This drawing also has echoes of the work of Stanley Spencer. Spencer (like John) had studied at the Slade from 1908-1912 under Henry Tonks. Lamb and Spencer met in 1913 and were close friends for a while. Another drawing of Edwin from this period was with Piano Nobile in 2024 (Augustus John and the First Crisis of Brilliance, 26 April –13 July 2024, no. 12).

KT633 Fragments of a colossal statue at the Memnonium, Thebes Signed l.l.: 'David Roberts. R.A.' and inscribed and dated 'Memnonium, Thebes Dec. 5th, 1838', further inscribed l.r.: 'Dimensions of the statue/Between the shoulders [?] 26 feet/Circumference of the Head 54"/Shoulder to the elbow 13" [5]', watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour on blue-grey paper 32.7 x 48.9 cm; 12 7/8 x 19 ¼ inches PROVENANCE Possibly David Roberts; Christie's, London, 13-20 May, 1865, lot 67 as 'Thebes: Fragments of the Colossus of Rameses'; Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 15 March 1990, lot 42; with Spink, London, 1990; Christie's, London, 16 November 2006, lot 128 This temple on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor, was visited twice by Roberts during his voyage on the Nile in 1838. On the outward journey, on the way to Abu Simbel, he had visited all the temples on both sides of the Nile at Luxor, and on 21 October hired donkeys to visit the ruins at Gurnah on the west bank, noting in his journal: 'The head and shoulders of the Memnon lying on the ground is enormous one can only wonder how it got there - the trouble of dislodging it must have been almost equal to the erection ...'. The present drawing was executed on the return journey when he was on the west bank of the river at Luxor from 3 to 5 December 1838. Roberts noted in his Journal 'I have been very industrious today, thanks to a Thunder Storm, a most uncommon thing in this part of the world - The sun was quite obscured and the peals of thunder were very loud accompanied with rain.... Made four large coloured sketches two of the Memnonium and two of Medinet Habou.' (Eastern Journal, National Library of Scotland). The present drawing was executed on the spot, although it is possible that the colouring was completed later during the trip. This drawing was used as the basis for the drawing which was eventually lithographed. This temple was called the Memnonium or the Tomb of Osymandyas, one of the names of Rameses II, the king to whom it was dedicated. It is now more commonly known as the Ramesseum and is the temple from which another colossal head was taken to the British Museum, where it inspired Shelley's famous sonnet Ozymandias.