Charles’s masterpieces! Signed collection of prints of the King’s Highgrove House watercolours to go under the hammer for £2,500
A selection of watercolours painted by King Charles of his beloved Highgrove Estate are going under the hammer for £2,500.
Prints of the paintings, dated between 2006 and 2012, will be up for sale at auction house Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury, Wiltshire, this month.
The King, a keen watercolour artist, has painted the royal residence in Tetbury from different views, including the Thyme Walk and The South Front.
Among the collection are also paintings of the Queen Mother’s former home, the Castle of Mey in Caithness on the north coast of Scotland.
The prints are all signed and dated by the King, and are being sold as a collection – however they may end up bringing in much more than their listed price, after a painting by the King last year went for 15 times its listed price.
A collection of watercolours painted by King Charles between 2006 and 2012 are going under the hammer at the Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury. Pictured: The Thyme Walk at Highgrove House, painted by King Charles in 2006
King Charles pictured tending to the flower beds in the Thyme Walk of Highgrove House where he spents years cultivating the gardens
The auction comes after an exhibition of more than 40 of the King’s watercolours at Sandringham in March of this year.
The collection, which was displayed in the ballroom of the Estate, included some of the monarch’s Highgrove paintings, as well as other landscapes.
Other paintings in the exhibition depicted scenes in the Welsh hills, the Scottish Highlands and scenes at Windsor Castle and the Norfolk countryside.
Last October, auctioneers were left flabbergasted when a reproduction of a watercolour painting by the King depicting Balmoral Castle sold for £5,737 including premium – around 15 times its original estimate.
A watercolour painted by King Charles in 2011 and signed by the monarch shows the South Front of Highgrove House
Highgrove House, considered to be King Charles’s most beloved royal residence, is the inspiration behind many of the paintings in the collection
Painted in 2007, this artwork features the terrace of Highgrove house and is included in the collection going under the hammer
A winter wonderland! This watercolour painting of The Sanctuary within Highgrove House was painted during the winter in 2010
Also included in the collection is a painting of The Castle of Mey, the royal residence of the Queen Mother, which is on the north coast of Scotland
It had been valued at just £400-£600 by Bonhams at its Scottish Home sale before bids from around the world began to fly in.
Hamish Wilson, curator of Bonhams’ Scottish Home sale, said: ‘This charming print combined the King’s passion for painting and his deep affection for Scotland.
It acquired special resonance and appeal, of course, because of recent events and I am not surprised there was such keen bidding nor that it exceeded its estimate by so much.’
The print, which was sold framed and cased, is number 18 in a limited run of 100 reproductions of a painting of Balmoral Castle by the King.
May Matthews, Managing director of Bonhams, said: ‘We were quite flabbergasted to see the level of interest in this.
‘We’ve had interest from all over the globe. Prints that Charles has done usually go for around £400-£600.’
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