REVIEW The Welsh Sale

1 April 2023

Lots: 421

Sold: 85%

Total: £349,810

The first Welsh Sale of 2023 carried on in the same vein as 2022 with competition for works of art and ceramics coming from far and wide.

There were thirty-four entries for Sir Kyffin Williams and only four of these failed to find new owners. And as witnessed in 2022, Kyffin’s prints and works on paper have most certainly undergone a market boost.

We currently hold the auction record at £18,000 for a work on paper by Kyffin. Lot 278 ‘Patagonian Andes’ in April became the runner-up at £12,000 – the second highest hammer-price for a Sir Kyffin Williams work on paper.

We already held the auction record for a Kyffin print as well, and in April it was beaten again. The KW print market is as buoyant as it ever has been.

While Kyffin prints and works on paper have seen a market rise in the last few years, there has also been a meteoric rise in prices for the works of Roger Cecil (1942-2015). Until recently, Cecil’s body of work has been largely under the radar, but it is now receiving recognition and collectors are battling for examples. Each of the examples in April’s Welsh Sale far exceeded the auction estimates. Other pictures that exceeded initial expectations in April’s Welsh Sale, included very collectable examples from Valerie Ganz and Claudia Williams.

Away from the picture section, a fine Swansea porcelain plate with a historic view of Calcutta by Thomas Baxter and from the collection of Sir Leslie Joseph, found a new home. As did a majestic Ewenny pottery cat, which saw one of those traditional projected biding battles between a saleroom bidder and telephone bidder. The telephone bidder winning by a whisker!