Greenslade Taylor Hunt’s (19.5% buyer’s premium) first sale of the year got off to a bright start with a Singaporean painting sailing to £19,000.

Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | Gabriel Berner

Drying Salted Fish, a 19 x 23in (49 x 59cm) oil on board from 1961, was painted by Chinese-born Singaporean artist Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-83).

A pioneer of the Nanyang art style and a driving force in the development of Modernism in early 20th century Singapore, the artist is renowned in his home country, with his work featuring on the back of the country’s $50 note.

Six phones vied for the lot, which had been guided at £400-500, before it was eventually knocked down to a buyer from Singapore.

A large composition by the same artist depicting moored boats in Kampong fishing village was knocked down for £12,500 at Andrew Smith & Son of Itchen Stoke, Alresford, in November 2017. The painting had sold two months earlier for £33,000 but was re-offered after the original buyer failed to pay.