Expert Frances Christie was intrigued to see a rare scene by L. S. Lowry on the Antiques Roadshow that turned out to be worth thousands.
The arts specialist appears as a prints expert on the BBC Two Sunday night programme and was amazed when a family brought on a rare painting by the late artist that he had given to friend Angela Bogg, which her son took along to the show when it arrived in Crystal Palace in London.
She said: ‘It is unmistakably the hand of L.S Lowry, who is probably Britain’s most recongisable artist. He’s signed it here and it’s dated 1973, which is kind of in the last few years of his life. How did it get to be yours?’
He replied: ‘It was my mum’s, she befriended Lowry in the last few years of his life having enjoyed looking at his artwork at Salford when she moved there to start work at Salford University.
‘She got in touch through the gallery, Lowry agreed to meet and from there the friendship developed. She did about 20 hours of recordings on reel-to-reel’
Antiques Roadshow star Frances Christie was intrigued to see a rare scene by L. S. Lowry on the show that turned out to be worth thousands on Sunday night
The painting was presented to a friend of the artist as a one-of-a-kind original in the latter years of his life
The artist was known for his depictions of working class life in the north and often set his work in Manchester.
Angela had always wished to write a book about Lowry but never managed to do it, although she did host a Zoom talk during the pandemic about her meetings with the famed artist.
She passed away in 2022 and left the work to her son, who was shocked to hear the value of the art today.
Angela’s son explained: ‘She was given that, then unfortunately, he passed away. She never did write the book because she met my dad, got a new job, had me.
‘About 40 years later she dug all of those recordings out so in COVID she gave a little talk about it.
‘Unfortunately, she passed away last year. We cared for her in the last few months of her life , we often talked about the Lowry pictures when she was in her bed.
‘We’d always joked about going on about going on Antiques Roadshow!’
During her friendship with Lowry, Angela had been invited as his guest to the Royal Academy exhibition and managed to keep a handful of signed invitations as well.
Angela’s family were left shocked to learn that if it went to auction, the artwork could be worth up to £25,000
L.S Lowry was celebrated for his scenes of everyday life in Northern industrial towns, peopled with his distinctive ‘matchstalk men’
Frances said: ‘Your mum was very lucky, she got given this for free. For a drawling like this, it’s actually quite large. You’ve got loads of great characters in it.
‘I think if this had come to auction today, we would probably have put an estimate in the region of £15,000 to £25,0000’.
Angela’s son replied: ‘Wow, that’s a lot!’
Frances added: ‘It’s been really great to see, so thank you for bringing it!’
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