| | | | | | | | Document | Sale Catalog Br-676 | |
| Auction House | Christie's -- from catalog: Mr. Christie | | Sale Location | [No.125] Pall Mall, London, England, UK | | Seller(s) | from catalog: The late B. Booth, Esq.
from auctioneer's copy: Lady Ford; Lafontaine; Philip Hill; etc. | | Lugt Number | 7597 | | No. of Painting Lots | 210 | | Notes | The contents of the sale were paintings and a few frames. The title page of the catalogue gives just one owner, "the late B. Booth." Although it is possible to misinterpret this to mean that he owned everything, the auctioneer was intending to connect Booth's name only with a group of landscapes by Wilson which enjoyed a special reputation among connoisseurs and which were given unusual prominence in this sale. (For the early history of these pictures, see Farington, Diary, Jan.3, 1808.) They were, however, at present the property of Lady Marianne Ford, the daughter and heir of Booth, who had died in 1807. The other pictures belonged to a variety of people, most notably the dealers Lafontaine and Philip Hill. A few came from Wm. Young Ottley and George Craufurd. Geo. Watson, the annotator of the OGA copy of the catalogue, has written a note on page 2 which elaborates slightly on the names found in the CL copy: "These were the property of Mess.rs P. Reinagle, Wm. Y. Ottley, La Fontaine, P. Hill, J.C. DeBoffe, Henry Wright, M Ford, Jas Walker, Wm Daw, & I. Pocock." The individual pictures in the sale seem to have been of relatively good quality and the prices were fairly high. Because Lady Ford had placed extraordinary reserves on her Wilsons, many failed to sell and were retained by -- and eventually handed down within -- the Ford family. Many other lots were also bought in, including almost everything that was knocked down for more than £50, a pattern that had become common during this period. Only one painting changed hands at this level, a Dutch Fair by Jan Steen that was bought by Seguier for £54.12. (B. Fredericksen) | | Catalog Location(s) | CL [annotations used in Sales Contents; photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Auctioneer's copy, annot. with all sellers, most buyers and most prices. Most lots also have the reserves.
BIB Annot. in pencil with the prices for lots 31-100 on the first day and all lots on the second day. The catalogue belonged to the dealer Wm. Ford of Manchester. It records also those lots purchased by himself and his friend Richard Rushforth, which altogether totalled 18.
OGA [annotations used in Sales Contents; photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Annot. by Geo. Watson with all prices, indicating which lots were sold and which bought in. Watson was working from a marked set of catalogues deposited by the auctioneers in the Excise Office.
VAL [photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] The catalogue apparently belonged to "Miss Bird" whose name is inscribed on the cover. It is not annot. excepting some check marks by those lots she put up for sale.
RKDH Not annot. The name "Mr. Hill" is inscribed on the cover, and so it probably belonged to the dealer Philip Hill. His catalogues seem to have passed to John Smith, another dealer.
YCNH [photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Not annot. | | Photocopies | NGL and CIL (both of YCNH) | | See Also | Sale Contents | | | Art Sales Catalogues Online | | | |
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