Bloomsbury Auctions in London achieved some very strong prices for 19th-century sketchbooks and watercolours by Hannah Tighe, an artist from the Anglo-Irish aristocratic family who formerly lived at the Woodstock estate, Inistioge, Co Kilkenny.
The top lot, a sketchbook featuring Irish landscapes, including views of Woodstock, a picturesque cottage and its kitchen interior and the abbey and village of Inistioge, dated 1814-1815, made £6,200 (€7,339). That was more than 10 times the highest estimate (£400-£600).
In all, the five sketchbooks, also featuring views of Italy, Spain, France and Britain, by Tighe, who later moved to Scotland and became Lady James Stewart, sold, on July 12th, for a combined total of just over £20,000 (€24,000), more than three times the combined highest estimate. – MP
