Earlier Canadian topographic watercolors

Only spotted this recently, though the dateline is from a week and a half back:

A collection of rare Canadian watercolours found recently in a basement at Oxford University were withdrawn from auction Monday after they were bought privately by the national archives in Ottawa and Quebec's museum of fine art.

The deal means that the watercolours, painted by a British army officer depicting landscapes of Eastern Canada in the late 1700s, will remain in public hands. . .

The price paid for the paintings, which were scheduled to go on auction Tuesday, was not disclosed. The auction house Bonhams, which negotiated the private sale, estimated their value at much as 87,000 pounds ($194,000 Cdn), although it expected them to realize more than that at auction.

"In light of the reaction we've had from Canada, the estimates are going to prove grossly conservative," Giles Peppiatt, director of Bonhams' topographical department, said in a recent interview. "We've had the most phenomenal amount of interest."

Posted by David on November 14, 2003 11:12 AM