Antiques Roadshow visited Aston Hall, in Birmingham, for a recent episode of the BBC programme where treasures included wooden figures depicting characters from The Wind in the Willows and a striking vintage diamond necklace. Fine art expert Dendy Easton’s guests presented him with a vibrant painting of children enjoying Cornwall they purchased for £225 three decades ago which, to their surprise, was now worth thousands of pounds.
Dendy began: “Now this is a very jolly, happy picture when you look at these children walking down this lane.
“And it can only be by the artist Fred Yates, and I see that’s what is signed on the right.”
The two guests revealed they purchased the colourful painting at a gallery in Sennen Cove, Cornwall, in 1988, as they thought it looked brilliant.
The expert replied: “Well done you because it’s a great picture by him.
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“He’s a very interesting artist who was born in 1922, he fought in the Second World War with his twin brother and he moved to Cornwall in the late 60s and became a full-time painter.”
Dendy then revealed he had the privilege of meeting the artist in 1975 in Fowey, Cornwall.
He recalled: “I spent a lot of time in Fowey in the 1970s and you’d see him painting on street corners and you could buy his pictures then for around £10, and he sold them to tourists and you’d see them in the shops.
“And then in the meantime, he’d subsidised his income by doing gardening. He was a very nice gentleman.”
Dendy then valued the painting and told them: “Well if it came up for auction I think it would make £6,000 to £9,000.”
The female guest replied: “Goodness me, oh wow, that’s incredible.”
However, she looked at her partner and said: “We won’t sell it though because we bought it, well, with love didn’t we?
“We bought it because we loved it,” she told Dendy following the valuation.
Published at Fri, 15 Apr 2022 13:47:38 +0000
Antiques Road guest refuses to sell painting worth thousands bought for £200 ‘Goodness!’
