Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art

The Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art sale totaled £10,118,750 /$17,171,518 /€12,648,437.

Peter Brown and Harriet Drummond, International Heads of the department, commented: “Our £10.1 million sale today far exceeded the pre-sale low estimate of £8 million and was 90% sold by value and 77% by lot. The King Street saleroom was packed tight with collectors who joined with the many telephone and online bidders to contribute to the best sell-through rate and the second highest total for a decade in this category. There were several high points during the auction, notably the £1.2million for 35 works from the collection of Virginia Surtees, the author of the definitive catalogue raisonné of Dante Gabriel Rossetti whose Rosa Triplex, a triple portrait of May Morris sold for £902,500. The cover lot, Isabella and the Pot of Basil, a masterpiece by Holman Hunt, sold for £2,882,500, a record for the artist at auction, surpassing the previous record of £1.8 million set in 1994. A portrait by Tissot was the second highest selling lot making an above estimate £962,500. Bidders came from all over the world, joining by telephone, in person and online.”