Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Charles Spencelayh, RMS, HRBSA (British, 1865-1958) Overdrawn at the bank image 1
Charles Spencelayh, RMS, HRBSA (British, 1865-1958) Overdrawn at the bank image 2
Charles Spencelayh, RMS, HRBSA (British, 1865-1958) Overdrawn at the bank image 3
Lot 54*,AR

Charles Spencelayh, RMS, HRBSA
(British, 1865-1958)
Overdrawn at the bank

27 September 2023, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

£40,000 - £60,000

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our 19th Century & Orientalist Paintings specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

Charles Spencelayh, RMS, HRBSA (British, 1865-1958)

Overdrawn at the bank
signed 'C.SPENCELAYH.' (lower left); inscribed 'COPYRIGHT/THE PROPERTY OF/MESSRS BEMBROSE+SONS LTD/DERBY/C.S.' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
61 x 50.8cm (24 x 20in).

Footnotes

Provenance
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 5 November 1997, lot 268.
With Richard Green, London.
Private collection, USA.
Acquired from the estate of the above by the present owner.

Charles Spencelayh was born in Rochester, Kent in 1865. The youngest of eleven children, he displayed a natural flair for painting from an early age, reproducing old masters for local art dealers. After a more formal education in London, Spencelayh began exhibiting at the RA in 1892 and continued to do so until 1958, winning the 'Picture of the Year' award for Why War in 1939. He is most widely known for his genre portraits of old men in interiors, indulging their hobbies of collecting antiques or painting. His skill as a miniaturist translates to breathtaking attention to detail in larger canvases, while his subject matter conveys a particularly British, Dickensian sense of nostalgia. The following lots represent a range of Spencelayh's favourite subjects; the nobility and wisdom inherent with age, the gentility of the Victorian working class and most importantly for Spencelayh, the simple joy to be had by an old man pursuing his passion.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

Sidney Richard Percy(British, 1821-1886)The Barnmouth Water near Dolgelly, North Wales

Julius Olsson(British, 1864-1942)Summer Sea, Newquay

Edward Seago, RWS, RBA(British, 1910-1974)Old houses, Istanbul

Alois Arnegger(Austrian, 1879-1967)Sunset, Untersberg

Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant(French, 1845-1902)On the roofs

Louis Monro Grier(Australian, 1864-1920) St Ives, Cornwall

Edward Seago, RWS, RBA(British, 1910-1974)The lion of S. Mark - Venice

Sir Alfred James Munnings, PRA, RWS(British, 1878-1959)The leading horses of the Royal Carriage before the Ascot Procession, June 1925

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt., ARA, RWS(British, 1833-1898)Portrait of Elsie York

Franz von Defregger(Austrian, 1835-1921)Touristen auf der Alm

John McGhie(British, 1867-1952)Dutch Fisherwomen and Child

Louis-François Cassas(Azay-le-Ferron 1756-1827 Versailles)Studies of Egyptian figures

Ken Howard R.A.(British, 1932-2022)Debora