The 19th century watercolours did particularly well in Halls Fine Art’s £200,000 auction of fine art, antiques and jewellery in Shrewsbury. The paintings were mostly of Southern Snowdonia, particularly Cadair Idris, Dolgellau, Barmouth and Harlech and were purchased from prominent London galleries. The artists included John Varley (1778-1842), David Cox (1783-1859), James Holland (1799-1870), Alfred William Hunt (1830-’96).
The top selling watercolour was ‘Travellers in a Welsh valley’ by Cox which sold for £4,400. A panoramic view from the top of Cadair Idris by Varley sold for £4,200 and three further works by the artist - ‘A view of Barmouth near Dolgellau, Merionethshire’, ‘A Welsh Estuary’ and ‘Llanelltyd with Cader Idris Beyond’ – sold for £3,200, £1,600 and £1,500, respectively. Other leading prices from the collection were £3,700, £3,400 and £1,900, respectively, for hand coloured aquatints by Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) of the ‘Gate of the Tomb of the Emperor Akbar at Secumdra, near Agra, ‘The Western Entrance of Shere Shah's Fort, Delhi’ and ‘Dehr Warra’.
“The vendor and her late husband chose really lovely and significant watercolours from prominent London galleries and they were primarily of North Wales scenes, locations that mean so much to the family,” said Abigail Molenaar, Halls Fine Art’s paintings and prints specialist. “My personal favourite was a watercolour by John Varley painted from the top of Cadair Idris.