The Welsh Sale

There are outstanding ‘exhibition quality’ examples from many of The Welsh Sale stalwarts; a special Claudia Williams for instance, which surely rivals the quality of the record breaking ‘Le Vent’ sold in the summer sale. There is also a superb example from Claudia’s late husband Gwilym Prichard too, which shows Tenby in glorious vivid technicolour . There is a supreme example from David Woodford - an artist who, after so many years of patiently capturing the dramatic light of Nant Ffrancon, is finally beginning to receive the wider recognition that he deserves. And there is, in my opinion, the best Ray Howard Jones oil that we have offered in any Welsh Sale previously. We will also be serving a monumental Keith Bowen portrait of a farmer in which you can almost smell his musty tweeds. And to finish, a group of fine exhibition quality works by Donald McIntyre, with no less than seven of his electric acrylics, a few of which are quite substantial in size.

Then of course, there are works by Kyffin - a total of nine oil paintings this time, biographical in nature, with three views of London where he spent so much of his life, an early view of Ireland and two stunning later canvases - the first a large canvas with many Kyffin trademarks – the farm, the upland landscape, dry walls, cattle and not one but two patrolling sheep dogs. All these trademarks in one painting - a signature dish indeed! The other is one of Kyffin's dramatic mountain scenes with a delicious hazy sunset, exhibited at the Royal Academy.

And lastly but by no means least, there is the catalogue cover-shot oil painting by Kevin Sinnott. ‘Running Away with the Hairdresser’, an image of two figures sprinting away from South Wales terraces is likely the most famous of Welsh art images from the last thirty years. The partner of this painting is permanently exhibited at the National Museum of Wales, and it has over the years proved to be one of the museum’s favourite acquisitions. In interviews, Kevin Sinnott said that he could not pinpoint the inspiration for the image, or provide a solid narrative behind the scene. But he has related the two figures to an age of aspiration when many young Welsh people endeavour to escape from their birthplaces. The artist himself left for London for the Royal College of Art and thence became hugely successful in the 1970s and 1980s with sell-out exhibitions at leading London galleries such as Anne Berthoud and Bernard Jacobson, as well as internationally at Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, Roger Ramsey Gallery, Chicago and Bernard Jacobson in New York. Along the way, Sinnott's paintings were acquired by major collections including Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the British Council, the Royal College of Art London, the British Museum and of course the National Museum of Wales. But like many of us, Kevin Sinnott returned to Wales where he is now held as the preeminent Welsh male artist still working today.

For starters in November’s Welsh Sale is a section of Welsh antiques, ceramics, and books including an extensive sub-section of Dylan Thomas books and ephemera.

I am proud that over the years so many clients have brought their Dylan Thomas items to us at Rogers Jones & Co, it is no secret that he is my favourite writer. The bulk of the Dylan lots this time are from the library of the late actor David Ponting (1936-2018). The collection represents the culmination of Ponting's lifelong passionate interest in Dylan Thomas.

Ponting was first introduced to the writing of Dylan Thomas by an inspirational English teacher in the Sixth Form of his Wiltshire grammar school. Whilst teaching in Uganda, he took the lead in a semi-professional production of Sidney Michael's play, 'Dylan'. Later, with the support and encouragement of Dylan’s daughter, Aeronwy Thomas-Ellis, the actor developed a travelling multi-media one-man show, 'Dylan Thomas: The Man and The Myth', which he performed hundreds of times in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, on both sides of the Atlantic, often supported by the Welsh Tourist Board. In retirement he produced a CD-ROM based on a previously unknown recording of Dylan Thomas's 1950 performance at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and gathered this collection of publications by and about Thomas. The David Ponting library includes rare 1st editions, early published writings by Thomas and hosts of other material relating to the poet. It offers a wonderful opportunity to acquire a very focussed library, carefully assembled over many years, which was brought about by sheer passion and enthusiasm for Wales’ greatest 20th Century writer

The Welsh Sale will be online soon.