Bolton artist’s works to go under hammer in New York
10:40am Sunday 22nd January 2012 in News
PAINTINGS by Bolton’s Royal artist, Reuben Ward Binks, could sell for more than £21,000 when they go on sale in America.
The watercolour and gouache pictures — all of dogs, which was Binks’ specialty — will be auc- tioned at Bonhams as part of a dog artwork sale in New York on February 15.
Of the 167 paintings and sculptures, 31 are by Binks.
Charles O’Brien, a direc- tor of Bonhams, said: “We’ve always sold Binks’ work well. He is highly regarded in the US and worked for notable fami- lies like the Rockefellers.”
Born in Bolton in 1880, Binks lived in Ralph Street in Halliwell.
After leaving Manchester Grammar School, Binks, the eldest of six children, started his working life as an apprentice watchmak- er.
He later became an opti- cian but started painting when he was a schoolboy.
He once said: “I was always a natural dog lover, so I leaned toward and graduated into dogs.” The Royal Family commissioned him to paint pic- tures of their pets.
He painted King Edward VII’s terrier, Caesar, and Queen Alexandra’s pomeranians and basset hounds.
Binks later painted Clumber spaniels for King George V, Cairn terriers for King Edward VIII, retrievers for King George VI, terriers for the Duke of Gloucester and alsatians for the Duke of Kent.
The Queen owns 15 paintings by Binks, 11 of which are in her private apartments at Sandring- ham. They include a 1929 watercolour of King George V shooting wood- cock.
One of the Binks paint- ings up for sale at Bon- hams is King George V Clumber Spaniels at San- dringham, with a pre-sale estimate of between $1,200 and $1,800.
Since Binks’s death in 1950, the value of his work has increased.
The current world auc- tion record for a Binks work is £9,612, sold at Sotheby’s in New York on June 5,1992, for his 1914 oil painting, Five Bulldogs On A Beach.
The majority of the Binks paintings in the New York sale are from one collector in Sweden.
