Firm selling price at auction for Devon-based artist's study of wayside scene with Buzzards circling overhead

                                                     

Publicity in The Wryneck did no harm to  the selling  performance on Friday of this watercolour, A Wayside Gossip, by Devon-based Wycliffe Egginton (1875-1951). According to Yorkshire-based Tennants auction house, the hammer came down at £200, comfortably higher than the pre-sale estimate of £80-£120. In an era of intensive development, 'wayside' has, alas,  become a vanishing habitat so this painting is a useful reminder of a time gone by.