SALE OF OLD MASTERS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12181, 4 July 1925, Page 12

SALE OF OLD MASTERS

TITIAN LIKELY TO GO TO AMERICA. Old Masters sold by Messrrr Christie recently realised £77,308. They included, mainly, painting* owned by tho Earl of Darnley, who has removed from Cobham Hall, Kent, but there wore also a number sent by, among others, the Dnlco of Westminster Sir Thomas Culver Fcrgusson, and Colonel Sir John Leslie. Tho moet-sought-after prize of the day was a “Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Blight at the age of three,” by Hoppr.er. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1803, and is 29in by 24in. The painting was knocked down to Messrs T. Agnew and Sons for £10,710; The same firm outbid all others with £7035 for “The Calling of Samuel,'' by air Joshua Reynolds. £-5010 FOP A GAINSBOROUGH. Mr 11. Arthurton secured s Gainsborough for £3040. It isi a portrait of Mrs William Monck, sister of John, the first Earl of Darnley. Other important purchases were: £4410 by .Messrs W. W. Sampson and Son for the “Portrait of a Lady,’

said tc represent Mary Tudor, painted by Sir Antonio Mor. £3980 by Mr Arthurton for a Sir Joshua Reyonlds portrait of. General the Hon. Edward Blight, painted in 1787. £3990 by Messrs Agnew and Sons for “The Artist and his Wife” (Jacob Jordaens), exhibited at the British Institution in 1815. £3255 by Messrs Bromhead and Cutt’s for Gainsborough portraits of Lord John and Lord Bernard Stuart, after Vandyck. £3255 by Messrs Agnew and Sons for a portrait of John, fourth Earl of Darnley, by Hoppner. £2415 by Messrs “needier and Sons for “Vemi3 and Adonis” (Titian). Thi3 is likely to go to America. It was announced that Oudry’s portrait of Mary Queen of Scots had been withdrawn from the sale, as it had been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland.

Stephen Graham spent a good deal of last summer touring in hi: car up and down tho borders of Russia from Finland to tho Black Sea (says Audex in “John o’ London’s Weekly”). He lias now written “Russia in Division,” which will be published by Macmillans shortly. The book sheds‘light on the unsettled stale of Eastern Europe and on the dangers inherent in the present sitaution.