The Dog Sale
There was a time when the location of the venue would make all the difference to the success of a sale, but not anymore. With modern technology there has been a move from “bums on seats” in a saleroom to bidding by telephone or online.
Bonhams — synonymous with sales of dog art for so many years, first in London to coincide with Crufts and more recently in New York to coincide with Westminster — held its second “The Dog Sale” in Edinburgh. It was like the “curate’s egg” — good in parts. The final total raised was £310,000, including premium.
As was expected, the majority of buyers were America based, with U.K. buyers trailing along behind. As with most specialist sales, private buyers dominated.
Getting the negative parts out of the way first, the picture for which they had the greatest hopes, at £50,000-80,000, William Henry Davis’s Colonel Charlett riding out with his kennel of Greyhounds, failed to sell, as did three Dandie Dinmont Terriers watching a magpie (one for sorrow) by John Emms and, surprisingly, a French School picture of three Maltese on a crimson cushion. The sale was bulked up with a lot of prints and pencil sketches, albeit from the work of well-known artists, with estimates of well under £1,000, but a high percentage of them failed to find buyers. Any future sales may concentrate more on the better pieces and less on the lower end of the market.
Two pictures proved to be the sale leaders, both selling for £20,480 (including premium).
Edmund Bristow’s Newfoundland, a picture well-known in Newfoundland circles, had been in the same family for 30 years and alluded to the breed’s traditional role of companion to fishermen and coastal rescue dog. The dog stands proudly with fishermen on the beach and in the background the sweeping southern English coastline. This was the only major picture to stay in the U.K.; all the other pictures featured here went to the States.
Otter hunting was once a popular sport, with many Victorian artists documenting it, none more so that Walter Hunt, who returned to the subject many times. Bonhams’ picture would rank among his best and shows the huntsman blowing his horn, the pack having “found.” The pack could well have been the Dumfries, for mountain and moorland is typical of the country they would have hunted.
The Clumber Spaniel was well represented with some interesting works, chief of which was a study of three dogs resting in a woodland of silver birch by Wright Barker (£9,600). Like Hunt with his Otterhounds, Barker returned to the Clumber Spaniel on a number of occasions and is known to have painted the 2nd Duke of Newcastle’s dogs, although there is no evidence that these were the Duke’s.
There are artists without whom no sale of dog art would be complete, and one of them is Reuben Ward Binks. The list of patrons he gathered around him, from King George V down, reads like a canine “Who’s Who.” He specialized in gundogs and in particular the Labrador. For the Thoroughbred breeder and doyenne of the Labrador world in America, the late Elizabeth Clark, he completed 44 paintings of the breed. These are now in the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg.
When it came to black Labradors, he was the master. The two head studies at Bonhams were of dogs owned by Charles Alington, considered at the time one of the greatest handlers and trainers of all time. He twice won the prestigious Champion Stake — in 1921 with Flashy and in 1922 with Dazzle — and these are the two dogs in the picture (£3,200).
Another “named” dog in the sale was the Afghan Hound Ch. Garrymhor Souriya, painted by the little-known artist Gladys Davison (£1,024). Souriya was owned by Mrs. Olive Couper and gained her title in 1932. She was bred from two champions but soon went back to unknown stock. Davison’s picture is taken from a photograph, and the bitch is very similar to Captain John Barff’s Zardin, who he imported from India and who won the Foreign Dog Class at Crufts in 1909, 1910 and 1911.
Victorian sentimental pictures have lasting appeal and nearly always do well at auction, as witnessed in the Bonhams sale. Selling for £4,480 against a top estimate of £1,500 was the most appealing St. Bernard puppy one can imagine. It was painted by Henry Horatio Couldery, who specialized in cats and dogs. He frequently painted with a sense of humor, often portraying animals in mischievous situation that successfully captured the character of beloved pets. The Glanmore National Historic Site in Bellville, Ontario, Canada, has 42 of his paintings.
Gracing the front of the catalog was a Maltese at the dinner table guarding what’s on the plate and obviously not for sharing. Against a top estimate of £6,000, it found a new home at £10,240. It was painted by Charles Van Der Eycken, a painter of dogs and cats in all kinds of activities but who was particularly known for his anthropomorphic conversational dog paintings. A well-known painter, he painted several pictures for Queen Marie Henriette of Belgium and exhibited work all over Europe.
Most of the prints and etchings that did sell went within estimates. One such etching was “Bon Voyage,” two Sealyhams looking over the side of the boat as it moves away from the shore with the hope that soon they will return (£768). It is signed by the artist, Marguerite Kirmse, who left England and emigrated to America to play the harp. She became a successful artist instead, best known for her etchings, many reproduced in books; she also worked in pastel and oil and completed a number of bronzes. She has never had the popularity in the U.K. that she achieved in America.