On Tuesday 23 January, Bonhams Knightsbridge will offer an enticing alternative to the traditional January sales, with the potential for plenty of bargains. The entire auction of over 550 pictures and frames will be offered without estimates or reserves and with the instruction ‘to sell’.

This popular sale is now a bi-annual event attracting crowds of people including those new to the auction world. Part of the excitement is in just not knowing how much any lot will fetch. In the last ‘must-sell’ sale in August 2006, a Victorian watercolour depicting a ‘Spring Day on the Coast’, offered at the end of the 600 lot marathon sold for £1 to a delighted bidder. Other paintings were more fiercely contested, with an oil painting by South African artist Pieter Hugo Naude realising £5,000.

This year’s sale will once again offer pictures from 17th to 20th centuries, encompassing all genres including old master paintings, prints, watercolours and modern and contemporary works, almost entirely drawn from private sources and collections. Bidding on all lots will start low, providing an appealing opportunity to acquire works of art at lower prices than might be expected. Bonhams

Posted: 01|21|07 at 9:37 am. Filed under: UK News.