Last week Messrs. Christie achieved a new record for a
day's sale at £192,451, and showed that the prices for pictures that collectors really wat are still mounting up. In the small but very choice collection of the late James Ross of Montreal an important Rembrandt portrait of a man, dated 1655, fetched £31,500—the bidding began at £10,500—and a well-known Turner, Venice : the Dogana, of 1843, brought £30,450, Messrs. Agnew being the purchasers in each case. Never before has a Turner realized so much in the auction- room. Reynolds's pretty portrait of a child, Lady Ann Fitzpatrick, was sold for £19,425, and Romney's Lady Sullivan for £17,850. It was noticeable, however, that in this sale only the very best items brought these high prices. When an imposing but highly questionable landscape with cattle, attributed to Cuyp, was put on the stand, the bidding slackened at once and a speculative offer of £273 sufficed to secure a picture which, if really by Cuyp, was worth ten or twenty times as much. Owners who know nothing about their pictures cannot be warned too often that the mere attribution of a canvas to this or that famous artist is not enough to give it a market value. All depends on the quality of the work and its authenticity.
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