Rugs & Tapestries
Reflecting Hodgkin’s status as one of the greatest colourists of the last half century his concern with colour is evident in his choice of carpets: the intense colour seen in a fragment of the magnificent 17th century Von Hirsch Garden Carpet from Northwest Persia (lot 241) which flew above its pre-sale estimate and sold for £224,750 (£80,000-120,000) – a masterpiece that had been split into four pieces, each section was sought after by collectors around the world including Hodgkin; a ‘Portuguese’ carpet fragment that sold for an impressive £137,400 (est. £40,000-70,000) – from Northeast Persia, Khorassan dating from the first half of the 17th century (lot 174) which illustrates both the very best of classical Persian dyeing skills and the mastery with which these colours were combined.

Three Mughal animal carpet fragments dating to the first quarter 17th century all exceeded pre-sale estimates: ‘Animal and Landscape’ Carpet fragment dating to the first quarter of the 17th century (lot 156), soared to £50,000 (est. £7,000-10,000); ‘Animal and Plamette’ Carpet Fragment (lot 180) sold for an outstanding £87,500, almost six times the pre-sale estimate of £10,000-15,000; and ‘Animal and Palmette’ Carpet Fragment (lot 191) sold for £28,000 (est. £8,000-12,000). A particular style of carpet developed in India at the beginning of the 17th century and exemplified by these fragments, these carpets are attributed to Lahore (then North India, now Pakistan) and show animals, palmettes and vine-scroll, arranged asymmetrically in an ascending format against red ground.

An exquisite tapestry from the mid 16thcentury, Lion Attacking a Dragon, ‘Pugnae Ferarum’ from Flanders, Brussels (lot 61) fetched £20,000. Further rugs that were sought after in the sale include a Multiple Niche (Saf) Fragment from the second half of the 16th century, Oushak, West Anatolia (lot 12), sold for an above-estimate sum of £37,500 (est. £20,000-30,000).

European Sculpture
Hodgkin was particularly drawn to sculpture as well as reliefs, in wood, in marble and in engravings. Highlights of the sale include Bust of King George II by Michael Rysbrack of circa 1793 (lot 193) which sold above estimate for £162,500 (est. £80,000-120,000).

- An 86% sell-through rate: of 453 lots in the sale, 389 were sold
- A selection of Hodgkin’s own works made a combined total of £603,957
- The combined total for works by Modern British Artists in the sale was £1,320,270
- Record prices: In addition to the record price for Bhupen Khakhar, and the record prices for an original work on paper and an early painting by Howard Hodgkin, a record price was achieved for William Henry Florio Hutchisson, among the leading European painters in Bengal after Geroge Chinnery, whose work was popular with the local Indian rulers. His oil on canvas A Nautch at the Court of Humayaun Jah, Nawab of Bengal (1810-1838) at Murshidabad, with the Nawab and the British Resident seated on the right (lot 32) fetched £25,000 – five times the pre-sale high estimate of £3,000-4,000.