Constable sketch and Lowry drawing to go under hammer in Scarborough auctioneers' autumn sale

The late owners of the property in the Leeds area had seemingly failed to recognise that their unsigned picture was a genuine long-lost Constable.

The pencil drawing is one of a series of sketches that Constable made in April 1803 when he spent almost a month on board the Coutts, an East Indiaman captained by his father’s friend Robert Torin, as the ship worked its way along the coast from London to Deal before departing for China.

Dominic Cox of auctioneers David Duggleby said: “Thanks to a letter that Constable sent to a friend we know that the sketch was done on the last day of the trip. He wrote ‘I came on shore at Deal, walked to Dover (about one and a half hours) and the next day returned to London’.

“It’s thought that Constable made as many as 130 drawings on the voyage although the whereabouts of less than 50 are known today.”

“It was only by the greatest good fortune that any of them survived.

"Constable had to get off the ship in a hurry when the decision to depart for China was taken and he left his carefully wrapped parcel of drawings behind.

"Luckily they were recovered before they ended up in the Far East.

“The sketch is a detailed view across the water of Dover harbour towards the quayside buildings, with the Castle high above the town and the cliffs stretching away into the distance.

“The frame glass was smashed when the drawing was found in a suitcase during the deceased estate house clearance so the drawing was removed while repairs were made and it was then discovered that the back of the drawing itself bore the handwritten inscription ‘J Constable’.

"That is an old inscription, perhaps added when members of his family sold off drawings and sketches after his death in 1837.

"It is not Constable’s signature.”

David Duggleby’s Autumn Fine Art Sale on September 15 also includes a pencil drawing of a Salford Square that artist LS Lowry reputedly tore from his sketchbook and gave to a member of the public.

That sketch is not only signed and dated (1959) but appears to have Lowry’s fingerprints all over it.

Dominic said: “The prints are visible in a couple of places on the drawing, the result of fingers touching the paper whilst they or the page had a bit of a dusting of bore pencil graphite.”

The account of the sketch’s history is given in an unsigned handwritten note attached to the back of the framed sketch: ‘Lowrey (sic) drawing given to a member of the public by Mr Lowrey and passed on through the years.

"The drawing was folded and has not been cleaned, it is in its original state.”

The Constable sketch has a pre-sale estimate of £2,000 to £3,000, with the Lowry sketch a pre-sale estimate of £700 to £1,000.

Viewing is taking place at David Duggleby’s Vine Street Salerooms in Scarborough throughout this week.