The Golf Course by Sir John Lavery. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £193,250.
Sir John Lavery’s depiction of The Golf Course at North Berwick is the most expensively estimated lot at Christie’s sale of the world’s most important private collection of golf art and memorabilia. Passionately assembled over 25 years by Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, the founder of the world-famous Valderrama Golf Club, this historic collection includes some of the rarest and most valuable treasures representing the history of the sport. Ortiz-Patino, born in Paris in 1930, is the grandson of the Bolivian industrialist Simon Patino, known as the king of tin. The sale of 400 lots on May 30 is expected to realize more than £2 million.
The collection includes golf clubs and balls used by champions including Allan Robertson, Old Tom Morris, Young Tom Morris and Willie Park Snr. who, between them, won twelve Open Championships. Another highlight is the Morris Putter, a club owned by two of history’s most celebrated golf champions (£40,000 to £70,000). Crafted by Hugh Philp, a master club-maker based at St. Andrews whose thorn, apple and pear wood putters were particularly revered, it was owned and used by Old Tom Morris and his son Young Tom Morris who between them won eight Open Championships.
The Golf Course, North Berwick by Sir John Lavery, R.S.A., R.H.A., R.A. (1856-1941) will be offered with an estimate of £200,000 to £300,000. It last changed hands at Christie’s in 2005 for £456,000. It is from a series of works the artist painted at the Scottish golf course in 1921 and 1922, another example of which is at Tate Britain having been presented by Lord Duveen. They are the most valuable and desirable modern depictions of the game.
UPDATE: Two works by Lavery, The Golf Links, North Berwick and The Golf Course, North Berwick sold for £241,250 and £193,250. The sale brought in £1,838,731.