Little-known Dutch painting from English manor collection sells for £70,000 against £8,000 estimate

A painting that spent years in an old English family collection has emerged as one of the surprises of an October auction, selling for £70,000 after specialists attributed it to Dutch artist Hendrik Gerritsz Pot. The small oil painting, which depicts a woman in period clothing seated beside a lute with a dog at her side, had entered the sale with an estimate of £8,000. According to auction house Lawrences, competitive bidding pushed its final price to nearly nine times that figure, including the buyer’s premium.The painting came from the collection of the Bailward family, formerly associated with Horsington Manor near Wincanton in Somerset, England. Its significance extends beyond the unexpected auction result: specialists believe it could be the missing companion to a series of works known as Pot’s Merry Company paintings, raising the possibility of a connection to a recognised theme in 17th-century Dutch art.A woman, a lute and a possible artistic connectionThe painting is an oil on an oak panel, a format used by Dutch artists during the period. Its central figure is a woman dressed in Dutch period costume, wearing a lace ruff and seated at a table. A lute lies nearby, while a do...