Lost Midlands artwork by LS Lowry sells for £1,700 at Staffordshire auction

The artwork depicting ‘The Level Crossing, Burton-on-Trent’, a lost Midlands landmark, went under the hammer for £1,700 with Richard Winterton Auctioneers at The Lichfield Auction Centre just a few miles down the road from the scene depicted in the original 1961 oil painting.

The mounted, framed and glazed print, signed in pencil by Lowry and bearing the Fine Art Trade Guild blind stamp, was one from a limited edition of 850 published in 1973 by Henry Donn.

It was consigned to auction by a vendor from the Sutton Coldfield area following a free valuation at The Lichfield Auction Centre, Wood End Lane, Fradley Park.

Auctioneer and valuer David Fergus said: “Frequently packed with fascinating detail, Lowry’s distinctive images of industrial scenes and people have timeless appeal.

“This was a lovely clean unfaded example of a lost local landmark in Lowry’s trademark style.”

The print sold to a private buyer in the UK.

Other hotly-contended lots in the same auction included a 1974 18ct yellow gold GMT-Master 1675 on an 18ct gold Jubilee bracelet sold at £13,500, a large collection of ceramics – mostly Moorcroft but also featuring examples by Dennis Chinaworks, Poole and Cobridge – exceeding £6,500, and a large collection of Beswick figures totalling £2,400.

Free drop-in valuations of jewellery, watches, gold and silver take place at The Auction Café by Richard Winterton Auctioneers in Market Street, Lichfield, on Tuesdays between 9.30am and 3pm.