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Friday, October 22, 2010

LABOURERS ON THE NORFOLK BROADS BY PETER HENRY EMERSON TO SELL AT BONHAMS


A key group of 19th century platinum prints by the British artist, anthropologist and naturalist, Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936), depicting labourers on the Norfolk Broads, are to be sold at Bonhams, New Bond Street, as part of its Photographs sale on 16 November 2010.
Emerson is best known for his photographs of rural landscapes under threat from industrialisation. He admired the landless labourers of Suffolk and Norfolk, revering them as symbols of an older, purer England, untainted by progress and upheaval, and set out to capture their life before it was lost forever.
From his first album of photographs, Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads (1886), this sale includes five important photographs: Gathering Water-Lilies, 1886 (estimate £10,000 – 15,000); Rowing Home the Schoof-Stuff, 1886; Marshman Going to Cut Schoof-Stuff, 1887; A Reed-Cutter at Work, 1886; and Gunner Working Up To Fowl, 1886 (estimates £3,000 – 4,000).
Emerson was also known for his disagreements with the photographic establishment. In 1889, he published a controversial book entitled Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art, in which he asserted that photographs should be realistic and truthful, not the contrived studio mock-ups which were popular at the time.
Bonhams
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further five throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York and Boston in the USA; Toronto, Canada; and France, Monaco, Australia, Hong Kong, Australia and Dubai. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 57 specialist areas. By the end of 2009, Bonhams had become UK market leaders in ten key specialist collecting areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com

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