Endeavour Whitby Cottages http://www.endeavourcottage.co.uk/ Lowry oil painting of Sandsend is expected to fetch up to £180,000 at an upcoming auction. Sandsend near Whitby is one of fourteen L.S. Lowry oil paintings once owned by the late multi-millionaire caterer and hotelier, Lord Forte, which are set to fetch between £11 million and £16 million at Christie's in London on 16 November. The 14 inches by 22 inches Sandsend picture - featuring Lowry's trademark matchstick figures and matchstick dogs - was painted by Lowry in 1953,the year after he retired as chief cashier at the Pall Mall Property Company in his native Manchester. Yorkshire views by Lowry are comparatively rare, although the City of York Art Gallery owns an oil painting, titled Clifford's Tower, York, which, coincidentally, Lowry produced in 1953, the year he painted his Sandsend picture. Earlier this year, at an auction in Leeds on May 24, a Lowry drawing of Sandsend, possibly a preparatory sketch for the painting coming up for sale at Christie's, sold for £26,450. The current world record for a Lowry work is £5,641,250, the sum paid at Christie's in London earlier this year for his 1949 oil painting, The Football Match. This Tuesday (1 Nov) marked the 124th anniversary of Lowry's birth in Manchester, while this month also marks the 103rd anniversary of Lord Forte's birth, in Italy, on November 26,1908. Lord Forte started his working life in an ice cream parlour and sandwich bar in Weston-super-Mare before going on to create a world-wide hotel and restaurant empire. In 1963,he paid £4.3 million for the York chocolate manufacturers, Joseph Terry. When he died,at the age of 98 in 2007, he left £80,150,694 in his will. Lowry was 88 when he died on February 23,1976 and in his will he left £298,459, which would today barely buy one of his own paintings.

• published: 14 Oct 2013
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