AN oil painting of Clitheroe by LS Lowry is set to fetch between £80,000 and £120,000 at an auction.

But these could turn out to be cautious pre-sale estimates, because when another Lowry picture of Clitheroe was auctioned at Bonhams in London last year it sold for nearly £250,000.

Although he is better known for gritty industrial views of his native Manchester, featuring his trademark matchstick men, Lowry also produced several pictures of Clitheroe.

Three have come up for sale at Bonhams within the last 18 months.

On May 29, last year Lowry’s 1963 oil painting, Church Brow at Clitheroe, sold for £70,850. Then on November 20, his 1966 oil painting, Church Street, Clitheroe, sold for £236,500.

Now his 1961 oil painting, A Street In Clitheroe, is up for sale at Bonhams in November at estimates between £80,000 and £120,000.

The picture has become available following the death last year of its owner, Arnold Burton, youngest son of Sir Montague Burton.

He was founder of one of Britain’s biggest tailoring manufacturers, later known as The Burton Group.

Lowry was fond of Clitheroe. His friends, Josef and Prudence Kunzel, lived at nearby Sawley. Mr Kunzel’s textile firm had an office in Church Street,Clitheroe.

Christopher Dawson, a senior specialist in the Modern British and Irish Art department at Bonhams, said: “Clitheroe was popular with LS Lowry. Although he is perhaps best known for his images of the industrialised north with factories, chimneys and bustling streets, he was also intrigued by the quieter aspects of life as demonstrated in this Clitheroe picture.”

At Sotheby’s, in London, in 1999, the Professional Footballers’ Association paid £1,926,500 for Lowry’s 1953 Going To The Match, which set a new world auction record for a Lowry work for a modern British painting.

It is now thought to be worth more than double the sum.

The world auction record for a Lowry is £5,641,250, the sum paid at Christie’s in London in 2011, for the 1949 The Football Match.