LONDON.- Two rare etchings, one by John Constable and the other by Walter Sickert, stole the limelight in Roseberys’ September Quarterly Fine Auction. Coming just a month before the auction house’s first standalone modern and contemporary print auction, the strong results for these two prints further establishes Roseberys’ name as a specialist in this area.

An extremely rare Constable etching was privately consigned and hotly contested across three telephone lines before being secured by a private bidder in the saleroom.

Two examples of this etching are held by the British Museum and it is believed to be based on one of four drawings of the Ruins of Netley Abbey in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Constable and his wife, Maria Bicknell, visited Netley Abbey in Hampshire, during their honeymoon in 1816.

Constable evidently returned to this subject in his watercolour, “Netley Abbey by Moonlight”, c.1833 which he may have been considering using to illustrate Martin’s edition of Gray’s Elegy, first published in 1834. It may also have had a deep significance to Constable in his widowhood, transforming the depiction of a happy occasion into a melancholy scene.

Only four etchings by Constable have ever been identified. None are firmly dated and they were never formally published. It is known that in 1797 Constable obtained instructions on how to etch from J.T. Smith, engraver and future Keeper of Prints at the British Museum.

A Walter Sickert etching, consigned from a private collector in London proved highly desirable for two main reasons. Firstly, it was an early proof of the first state before the reduction of the plate. And secondly, it is the smaller of two versions of the same image, the larger of which is much better documented.

It was hotly contested and eventually bought by a London dealer.