October 2007 - Miniature of George III and Auction Prices

A couple of posts ago, I offered a suggested list of criteria which determine why some miniatures achieve high prices. However, after some more thought I have been back and adjusted the list, so that the list of criteria can explain both a record high price and a "bargain" low price.

1 Buyer's ability to pay.
2 Buyer's desire to purchase.
3 A fully informed marketplace.
4 The importance of the sitter or appeal of the subject.
5 The importance of the artist.
6 The provenance and related history.
7 The artistic skill demonstrated in the painting.


Thus, for any work of art, the question of whether it creates a record price, or is a bargain, will depend upon where the artwork ranks within criteria 1 to 7, where 7 is the base value.

Prime participants in the art market are; art dealers, auction houses, private collectors, and art museums.

Art dealers seek to find items ranked between 4 and 7 above, the lower the better. Then aim to research, enhance, and publicise the artwork, with a view to moving its ranking up the list, so as to maximise the potential resale value. As this enhancement is a return for risk and acquired knowledge, it can be regarded as a reward for effort.

Auction houses have a similar aim, but instead of retaining all gains from such enhancement, most benefits from additional research and publicity go to the owner, with the auction house taking a commission on the hammer price.

Many private collectors are willing to back their personal judgement, although for them any potential gain on resale is not as important as the need for the initial cost to be affordable. Art museums tend to be more wealthy, but are much more risk averse and hence more concerned with strong attributions and provenance.

The concept can be illustrated using a miniature recently acquired at an online public auction in Britain. The miniature was only described as Superb enamelled painting of a Georgian Gentleman dating from circa 1750. There was no provenance and the miniature came from a private collection sold by a deceased estate.

Even though the sitter had not been identified by the vendor, it looked to be a miniature of George III by an amateur hand and thus of little interest. Thus I did no research until an hour before the auction closed. Then, thinking that I should at least have a token look in a reference book to try and find the original source of the portrait, I went to Richard Walker's catalogue of the British Royal Collection and looked up miniatures of George III.

To my astonishment the first image I looked at as fig 143 on page 77, was an identical enamel miniature of George III painted by his favourite daughter, Princess Amelia and given by her to the grandfather of Dr Arthur Hill Hassell. Walker comments that the source of the miniature is uncertain, either a private sitting given by George III to his daughter, or derived by her from the Zoffany oil of 1771. Given the provenance of that version, it seems Princess Amelia must have painted more than one version and presumably gifted them to friends.

In any event I lodged a bid and won it for GBP 115 (US230). This was probably a fair reflection of the artistic ability, although one should recognise that enamel miniatures are difficult to produce and it would take a talented amateur to create this enamel miniature. For much more about the miniature, see Princess Amelia - portrait of George III

The result was that I had taught myself a valuable lesson, and also felt just a little foolish at such a near miss, realising it is not enough to buy reference books, it is even more important to use them.

Now that the sitter and the artist are identified as George III and Princess Amelia, the miniature has moved up the list of criteria from 7 to 4. I have no idea of the enhanced value, which would now depend upon criteria 1 to 3 on the list.

By chance, there are interesting similarities with the enamel miniature of the other "George", George Washington, which was commented upon in my previous post below, especially as they were the two opposing leaders during the War of Independence. Even their poses and hairstyles are similar.

Sitter .................... George Washington.........George III
Leader of ..........................USA..........................UK
Artist ........................... W R Birch.............Princess Amelia
Date ...............................c1800 .................... c1800
Technique .....................Enamel.....................Enamel
Source ..................... Stuart portrait ....... Zoffany portrait
Number of versions ......approx 60....................now 2
Provenance .............. gift to Dr Dick .......... gift to Dr ???
Auction price .............. $126,000.....................$230

Despite the similarities, I would think the now enhanced value of the George III miniature as a result of the research, is still very much less than the one of George Washington!