Top auction lots sold on the saleroom in 2022

1. Gothic table

This side table, featuring carved pierced apron on octagonal columnar legs and moulded feet, had been estimated at £150-200 at Mellors & Kirk’s two day auction of a private collection on September 13 and 14. However, buyers loved its gothic revival style and bid it to a hammer price of £5500.

2. Isambard Kingdom Brunel portrait

Portrait of the civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel painted by John Callcott Horsley, his brother-in-law – estimate £10,000 at The Canterbury Auction Galleries.

This portrait of the civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was painted by John Callcott Horsley (1817-1903), his brother-in-law.

The oil on canvas, 3ft x 2ft 4in (91.5 x 71cm) in a gilt frame reveals a very different man from the familiar image of Brunel in a stove-pipe hat. Instead of the faintly swaggering pose of that famous photograph, the painting reveals a calm but intense individual, hard at work.

It is reputed that Brunel sat for the painting at Horsley’s home, Orestone Lodge, now Orestone Manor, near Torquay. Brunel fell in love with the English Riviera while he worked on the Great Western Railway, later buying a plot and starting to design Brunel Manor on the outskirts of the resort where, before his untimely death, he planned to retire.

Horsley, who designed the first Christmas card, painted a near-identical portrait of Brunel in 1857, which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, and four copies. Three are in public institutions, but this example, from 1885, remained in private ownership by long family descent, firstly from Brunel’s nephew to Brunel’s granddaughter, Celia, of Fleet House, Weymouth, then directly through her family.

It had been in the collection of Celia’s son, Sir Humphrey Brunel Noble, and exhibited at The Victorian Era Exhibition in 1897. Offered for sale at The Canterbury Auction Galleries on October 1-2, it might have been expected to improve on its £10,000-15,000 but in fact sold to an online buyers at the lower end of expectations.

3. Enwonwu sculpture

Female Form II by Ben Enwonwu – £34,000 at Roseberys.

Born in Nigeria, Ben Chukwukadibia Enwonwu (1917-94) trained in Lagos under the art curator and teacher Kenneth Crosswaithe Murray (1903-72) before being awarded a scholarship in 1944 to study in the UK at the Slade. His sculptural work, described as African Modernism, was embraced by both the British colonial government (who employed Enwonwu to create posters for their propaganda campaigns) and those who sought political independence

The sale of Modern British and 20^th century art at Roseberys on October 11 includes two good examples of Enwonwu’s work blending the tradition of African wood carving with European modernism. Both wood sculptures had been gifts from the artist and came by descent with guides of £10,000-15,000.

Pictured here is Female Form II, standing 2ft 4in (69cm) high, which sold at £34,000 while another sculpture of a half-length nude titled Woman and Afele sold to a different buyer via the saleroom at £30,000.

4. Victorian steam ships painting

Steam ships on the Thames near Wapping by Edward Henry Eugene Fletcher – £4500 at Ramsay Cornish.

Guided at £200-400, this late Victorian oil on canvas depicting steam ships on the Thames near Wapping drew strong demand at Ramsay Cornish’s recent Homes & Interiors Auction in Edinburgh.

After a protracted bidding battle, it was knocked down at £4500 to a buyer using the saleroom.

Inscribed to the back and signed E Fletcher, it is thought to be the work of the London marine painter Edward Henry Eugene Fletcher (1857-1945).

Relatively little is known about his artistic life. The son of a Bengal boat pilot whose job was guiding shipping along the Hooghly River, he had first joined the Army Hospital Corp in Nova Scotia but had returned to London and to painting when invalided out in 1871. It appears he did not exhibit and instead made a living selling his pictures through dealers and galleries, sometimes using the pseudonym John Hayes for contractual reasons.

The 2ft 6in x 4ft 2in (76cm x 1.27m) oil on canvas was one of four works by the artist at the Ramsay Cornish auction on April 16. Together they raised a combined £7050.

5. Football medal and programme

Alan Sunderland’s 1979 FA Cup winner's medal - £16,000 at Graham Budd.

The game between Arsenal v Manchester United in 1979 provided one the greatest finishes in FA Cup final history. Arsenal, managed by Terry Neill, were 2-0 up by half-time and appeared to be cruising to a comfortable victory as the match entered the final five minutes of normal time. But there was another act to play. After two quick goals by McQueen and McIlroy for the Red Devils the scores were suddenly level and extra-time beckoned. However, in the 89th minute Brady and Rix combined to cross for Alan Sunderland to score at the far post.

Sunderland’s 1979 FA Cup winner's medal was sold by sporting memorabilia specialist Graham Budd in London on September 6.

Offered in its original fitted case, together with a Cup Final programme signed by Sunderland plus associated photographs, it was guided at £6000-8000 but sold to a buyer via the saleroom at £16,000.