Pictures
McTear’s Picture Department is made up of two divisions:
McTear’s holds a dedicated paintings auction six times a year – significantly more frequently than any
other Scottish auction house. The Fine & Scottish Pictures auction comprises of paintings,
watercolours, drawings and prints by artists of any nationality or era but generally 19th and 20th
century.
The auctions are held on weekday evenings, attracting a large and equalled number of private and trade
buyers from all over the UK. They are internationally marketed and advertised to buyers and collectors
from around the world through dedicated art and auction websites such as The Saleroom.com, newspapers
such as The Daily Mail, The Herald, The Scotsman and a host of other specialist publications. These
auctions, like all of McTear’s specialist sales, also run live online using McTear’s Live! Auctions,
making it simple for our international and national clients to bid for pictures at McTear’s.
McTear’s can genuinely claim to sell more pictures each year than any other Scottish auction house
and in over 160 years of selling paintings, we have achieved a host of world records prices. We
enjoy a market leader status but offer straightforward and highly competitive terms to sellers.
Our aim is to deliver the very best net return for our sellers.
We have a dedicated team of specialists and warmly encourage potential sellers to contact us for
further information:
Magda Ketterer on 0141 810 2880 or
magda@mctears.co.uk
Brian Clements (Director) on 0141 810 2880 or
brian@mctears.co.uk
Rod Shale (Consultant) on 07544 924188 or
rod@mctears.co.uk
Sold for £6,500
Jessie Marion King ASWA (1875-1945) Twas Bent Beneath And Blue Above Twas Nodding Grass
And Naked Sky And Born Before The Wastrel Wind The Thistle Down Went Floating By pen, ink
and watercolour on vellum, signed and inscribed with the title 34.5cm x 48.5cm The rhyme
is taken from the working of The Last Rhyme of True Thomas by Rudyard Kipling (1893)
Provenance: Duncan Miller Fine Arts. London and Barclay Lennie Fine Art Limited,
Glasgow.
Sold for £15,000
David Shepherd OBE, FRSA (born 1931) Portrait of a Lion oil on canvas, signed 76cm x 63cm
The artist studied art under professional artist, Robin Goodwin, with early commissions
for the RAF taking him to Aden in 1960, then on to Kenya. This trip changed his life. He
was asked to paint his first wildlife subject and at the same time, he became a
conservationist overnight when he witnessed 255 zebra dead around a waterhole poisoned by
poachers. Provenance: The Fox Collection, purchased directly from the artist circa 1970
Ian Fox, born in 1926, is the son and grandson of the co-founders of Fox's Glacier Mints,
the world famous confectionary company. Ian and his late wife, Marjorie, were avid
collectors of antiques and added substantially to the Fox Collection mainly prior to 1972
when they retired to Portugal. This painting was retained by the family following the
famous Fox Collection auction at McTear's in 2002 as it remained their favourite of the
two Shepherd works, the Just Elephants work was sold for £45,000
These dedicated auctions have rapidly established McTear’s as the dominant force in Scottish
Contemporary paintings anywhere in the world. We sell more paintings of this category than any other
auction house or art gallery (private or public). We sell significantly more than The Glasgow Art
Fair and The Edinburgh Art Fair. We even outsell the Royal Scottish Academy with all it’s shows and
exhibitions.
The core of these auctions is made up of paintings consigned directly by the invited artists and
reserve prices are typically set at around 50% lower than the usual gallery price. We only accept
fresh new work by the artists and discourage anything which has already appeared at gallery
level.
Private and corporate collectors have quickly seen how successful these auctions have become and
there is an ever growing number of pre-owned paintings being entered for each auction.
The Scottish Contemporary Art Auctions are staged every two months and will usually include
approximately three hundred paintings by most of Scotland’s best known and most successful artists.
The auctions attract record audiences and are held on weekday evenings. They are advertised and
marketed internationally and we invariably secure television coverage for one or more aspect of each
sale. Our Public Relations partners Wave PR Ltd manage the promotion of these auctions.
Of all our auctions, The Scottish Contemporary Art Auctions attract the widest international
audience and collectors from USA, mainland Europe, China, Russia, Scandinavia, Hong Kong and a host
of other countries are regular buyers along with those from all around the UK.
We have a dedicated team of specialists and warmly encourage potential sellers to contact us for
further information :
Magda Ketterer on 0141 810 2880 or
magda@mctears.co.uk
Brian Clements (Director) on 0141 810 2880 or
brian@mctears.co.uk
Rod Shale (Consultant) on 07544 924188 or
rod@mctears.co.uk
13th April 2010 |
Lot 2 William Lee Hankey
13th April 2010 |
Lot 86 Robert Gemmell Hutchison
20th November 2008 |
Lot 48 Muriel Barclay
20th October 2009 |
Lot 229 Peter Howsen