Olwyn Bowey greenhouse gets warm reception at auction

Plants inside a greenhouse by Olwyn Bowey – £2800 at Henry Adams.

The £140,000 record-breaking Cedric Morris lower painting at Chichester saleroom Henry Adams (plus 20% buyer’s premium) was not the only work by an artist-plantsman to feature in the January 17 sale (see ATG No 2377 for more on that Morris result).

Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | Gabriel Berner

A 2ft 10in x 2ft 3in (85 x 70cm) oil on board by Olwyn Bowey (b.1936) was knocked down at a multi-estimate £2800 after it attracted bids in the room, online and via the phone.

Produced in Bowey’s greenhouse, which doubles as a studio, the picture came from a local house together with two photographs of the artist signing the paining.

Lucy Homer, auctioneer at Henry Adams, described the picture as a “lovely example of her work and in excellent condition”.

The result came just two days after the dispersal of the Barbara Holliday collection at Essex saleroom Sworders, which contained more than 20 works by Bowey including Myrtle’s Hanging Baskets – sold to a London private buyer for a record £7400 (see Art MarketATG No 2377).