Ann Binyon by John Bedford (1846). (click on image to enlarge)
John Binyon by John Bedford (1846). (click on image to enlarge)
This pair of Victorian portraits of John Binyon and Ann Binyon, painted by John Bates Bedford (1823-1886) in 1846, will come under the hammer at the Ted Hegarty sale in Bandon on Sunday, September 12. The carved frames are by Birefield at Wellington St., The Strand, London. They are estimated at 6,000-10,000 for the pair.
The poet and dramatist Laurence Robert Binyon was a nephew of the sitters. The fourth verse of his most famous work, For the Fallen, often quoted at Remembrance Day Services, is familiar to everyone and has been claimed as a tribute to all casualties of war, regardless of nation.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
The sale of 400 lots is at the new Hegarty Auction Rooms at Parnell Business Park, the By-Pass, Bandon, Co. Cork on Sunday September 12 at 4 p.m.
UPDATE: The portraits failed to sell at the auction but went under active negotiation immediately afterwards and changed hands at a figure just below the low estimate of 6,000.