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Great Results for Scottish Collectors

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Sotheby’s are market leaders in Scottish art and many of the works that have been sold in our annual Scottish Art sales, including a number of record-breaking pieces, were sourced by the Edinburgh office. In addition, Sotheby’s Edinburgh consigns a wide variety of other objects, from jewellery and decorative art, to sculpture and books. Click ahead to read the stories of ten highlights with Scottish provenance.

For more information about Sotheby's Edinburgh, view our Edinburgh location page.

Great Results for Scottish Collectors

  • Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, Interior, the Red Chair. Sold for £308,750 at Sotheby’s London.
    In 1920 Cadell moved in to a new residence at 6 Ainslie Place. The building was one of the first houses in Edinburgh's Georgian New Town to be divided into flats and stood opposite Cadell’s childhood home at number 22. This work depicts the corner of one of the drawing rooms on the first floor.

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  • Samuel John Peploe, The White Strand, Iona. Sold for £68,750 at Sotheby’s London.
    In August 1920 Peploe was invited to Iona by his friend Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, who had been painting the island’s rugged coastal scenery since 1912. The present picture was painted circa 1925 on the far northeast shore of the island on the beach known as Traigh Ban nam Manach (White Strand of the Monks), one of Peploe’s favourite places to paint on the island.

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  • Probably Scottish, circa 1570-1580, The Fettercairn Jewel. Sold for £236,750 at Sotheby’s London.
    This exquisite enamelled gold pendant may have been conceived as a token for a beloved son or spouse, the symbolism of its intricate decoration willing good fortune on the recipient. The similarities between it and the celebrated Darnley or Lennox Jewel, which has been described as 'one of the most important early jewels in the Royal Collection', are such that they can confidently be ascribed to the same highly-skilled but unknown craftsman.

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  • Joseph Mallord William Turner, Kilchern Castle, With The Cruchan Ben Mountains, Scotland – Noon. Sold for £ 464,750 at Sotheby’s London.
    Turner exhibited this monumental work at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1802. He was twenty-seven years old and was in triumphant mood, having just been elected as the youngest ever full member of that august institution.

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  • Italian, probably Rome, circa 1790-1830, Pair of Marble Vases. Sold for £284,750 at Sotheby’s London.
    This exceptional pair of marble vases is inspired by the Warwick Vase one of the most revered antiquities discovered in the 18th century. One is a faithful reproduction of the Roman original, the other a playful improvisation adorned with heads of wreathed gods and goddesses. Exceptionally carved, the vases are borne out of the neoclassical tradition in Roman sculpture in the second half of the 18th century and early 19th century, which saw sculptors achieve new levels of perfection in marble carving.

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  • A pair of Italian gilt-bronze mounted kingwood and marquetry bombé commodes, Genoa and Rome, second half 18th century. Sold for £608,750 at Sotheby’s London.
    These commodes transcend the canon of decorative art and can be placed firmly in the category of “exalted arts”. They are the most superb examples of their type and demonstrate a desire, through their acquisition by the enlightened Grand Tourist to secure true trophies of the very best within a discipline.

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  • John Knox, A View of Loch Lomond. Sold for £87,500 at Sotheby’s London.
    The present lot depicts a spectacular panoramic view looking North-West from Ben Lomond. This vista was a favourite of the artist who painted the scene on a number of occasions. Knox’s paintings have become a visual testament to the renewal of interest in highland landscape that occurred in the early 19th Century as a result of philosophical ideas regarding the Sublime.

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  • Alison Watt, Odalisque; Fragment I. Sold for £75,000 at Sotheby’s London.
    This work is crucial in demonstrating the interplay between figuration and abstraction that has become a defining feature of Watt’s work. The highly figurative nude references her earlier more representational style, whilst the abstracted contours of the softly folding fabrics are indicative of her more recent work.

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  • John Bellany, Fishermen in the Snow. Sold for £106,250 at Sotheby’s London.
    Bellany was born in Port Seton in 1949 and from his earliest years the boats packed together in the town’s harbour became an obsession, the centre of his childhood universe. The young Bellany studied them intimately, and by drawing them repeatedly, developed both his artistic hand and eye. Over time these fishing boats began to transcend the physical and economic, they became an archetypal symbol, a metaphor for the voyage of life.

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  • Sir John Lavery, The Golf Links, North Berwick. Sold for £872,750 at Sotheby’s London.
    When John Lavery’s commission as an Official War Artist came to an end in the spring of 1919, the painter was able to exchange exhausting tours of naval dockyards, munitions factories and military hospitals for weekend house parties with his wife. He attended informal gatherings at Trent Park, Taplow Court and Polesden Lacey, but a favourite was Westerdunes, the home of Lavery’s friend and patron, Patrick Ford. The house was built in 1908 on the outskirts of North Berwick, overlooking the sea and the island known as ‘The Lamb’, and the famous golf course depicted here.

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