The country pursuits of hunting and shooting are strongly represented in Tennants Important Autumn Catalogue Sale (23-24 November 2006) with some fantastic items for sale including some important paintings, silver and taxidermy.

A very exciting and unusual painting entitled "The Fox-Hunter's Dream, After a Pantomime & Kidney Supper with a Friend" by an artist in the circle of John Austen Fitzgerald (1832-1906) is expected to sell for £5,000 to £6,000.

This is a Victorian genre picture in oils, the work of which is built-up by extremely thin glazes of oil paint. Tennants’ Picture Specialist, Allan Darwell considers this painting may be by the fairy painter, John Austen Fitzgerald (1832-1906) who specialised in producing subjects of dreams.  Very little is known of his life and only a few of his paintings exist. He belonged to the Maddox Street Sketching Club and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1845-1902. 

The sale also includes two paintings by the artist George Edward Lodge (1860-1954).  “Grouse”, is a moorland landscape with grouse amongst rocks in watercolour and gouache which is expected to sell for £600-£900 and “English Partridge amongst a Field of Stubble”, is also a watercolour and gouache painting and is expected to sell for £1,500-£2,500.

Also by George Edward Lodge is a taxidermy Lanner Falcon, originally owned and conserved for posterity by George Edward Lodge which is expected to sell for £600–£800.

After the highly successful sale of the Kenneth Whitehead Collection in 2005, where a number of works by George Edward Lodge were commanding extremely high prices, we are pleased to be able to offer these two further works by this artist, both of which are of extremely good quality and are typical of the painter. Lodge was a great naturalist, having a fine understanding of his subject matter and aptly lived at “Hawk House” in Camberley, Surrey.

Tennants sales often feature paintings and other works of art on a sporting theme and this sale features a large dedicated section which includes a variety of large stags heads and also a set of large Moose Antlers sold together with a photograph of the hunter, Heinz Becker, holding the them during a hunting trip.  These antlers are expected to achieve £300-£500 in the sale.   

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