Catalogue Nine – October 2011

Welcome to our ninth catalogue, issued on the brink of All Hallow’s Eve.

If you have any queries regarding the material offered in this list enquiries should be directed via our website form, clearly stating the item number in the subject field. High resolution images can be supplied on request.

Items are sold on a first come, first served basis. Unless otherwise specified, postage and packing is a flat rate of £10 for European buyers of unframed items, but framed items will need us to calculate a tailored quotation. Items will be packed and dispatched by a fully tracked and secure method with basic insurance up to £250.00 Additional insurance cover is optional and should be requested. Buyers from outside Europe, and those succcessful in securing multiple items can request a tailored shipping quote.

Austin Osman Spare

ITEM 1

Unititled [Seated Nude]
Pastel on paper
Signed ‘AOS ’35 PXT’ Lower left
h.419mm x w.520mm

PROVENANCE: Twentieth Century British Art, Christies, 3 December 2003, Lot 658.
EXHIBITED: Austin Osman Spare: Cockney Visionary, Cuming Museum, London, 2010 (illustrated in the catalogue, p.22)

A fabulous nude born of the first flush of enthusiasm that gripped Spare when he moved to his new studios in Yorke Road in the early 30s. Spare had dabbled with pastels earlier in the 1920s, but 1934-1935 marks the beginning of his last great creative phase with the medium which lasted until his death. The subject is unidentified, but resembles Charlotte Newman, a friend of the period. Spare cognescenti will be pleased to hear the frame looks to be period too.

£1900.00 SOLD

ITEM 2

Unititled [Ugly Ecstasies]
Pencil on paper
Signed ‘Austin O. Spare’ Lower centre [c.1924]
h.368mm x w.287mm

CONDITION: Some staining and marks, but looking like it just came out of Spare’s Becket House studio.
PROVENANCE: The Maas Gallery, 15a Clifford Street, London

One of those haunting images from the mid-1920s, this fleeting sketch embodies those strange demonic figures so redolent of the period. Unusually, this is signed in full. Most of these sketches were either unsigned, or signed with initials.

£650.00 SOLD

ITEM 3

Untitled
Pencil on paper
Unsigned, [c.1954]
120mm h. x 160mm w. approx.

PROVENANCE: Ernest Chapman Collection

What can we say, but here’s an AOS original for less than £200. He’d produce these ideas for fully blown pastels with lightning speed, skimming the pencil over the paper and brushing off ash from his cigarette as he went. Very Wynne Road.

£190.00 SOLD

ITEM 4

Untitled [Nudes]
Pencil and crayon on paper
Signed lower right AOS [c.1954]
h.290mm x w.200mm approx.

PROVENANCE: Ernest Chapman Collection

It may have been the visit to Steffi’s art class, or maybe that barmaid at The White Bear, but Spare certainly found his mojo again in the early 50s. Here we have a sketchbook page with more nudes, or ‘odalesques’ as he would fondly name them, supine at the whim of the master’s fluid pencil.

£390.00 SOLD

Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule

ITEM 5

Alchymic Tree of Life
Pencil and pen on Cartridge paper, with fold in the centre.
h.560 mm x w.432 mm

A double-page spread from Coagula, and the original is twice the size of the printed version.

£810.00

ITEM 6

Mercury
Pen, ink and breath on cartridge paper.
h.432mm x w.279mm

This sketch appears very small on a text page of Coagula. The original is much larger and is a stylistic experiment for the artist.

£96.00 RESERVED

ITEM 7

Sekhmet Venus
Pen and liquid paper on cartridge paper.
h.297mm x w.210mm

One of the few originals from Conjunctio remaining unsold, this was one of the original pair (with Ptah Vulcan Tubal-Cain below) of drawings which inspired the concept of consorts on opposite pages conjoining with the turning of the pages. It was drawn in 2006 in Saqqara, Egypt, where Sekhmet and Ptah (along with their child Nefertum or Imhotep) were the presiding deities in Ancient times.

£400.00

ITEM 8

Ptah Vulcan Tubal-Cain
Pen and liquid paper on cartridge paper.
h.297mm x w.210mm

One of the few originals from Conjunctio remaining unsold, this was one of the original pair (with Sekhmet Venus above) of drawings which inspired the concept of consorts on opposite pages conjoining with the turning of the pages. It was drawn in 2006 in Saqqara, Egypt, where Ptah and Sekhmet (along with Their child Nefertum or Imhotep) were the presiding deities in Ancient times.

£400.00 SOLD

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