Two Italian Mannerist chalk drawings emerged as the top sellers in a section of Old Master drawings and prints at Cirencester saleroom Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium).
Offered first was a red chalk drawing of écorché arm studies and the head of a youth (far right) catalogued as ‘Circle of’ the 16th century painter and printmaker Bernardino Poccetti (1548-1612). It was part of a group of some 50 Old Master drawings from the collection of Michael Jaffé (1923-1997), an English art historian and former director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Most had recently been assessed by Christie’s and in most cases Dominic Winter followed its estimates for the March 5 sale. The small 8 x 4in (20 x 10cm) work was clearly deemed much closer to Poccetti’s hand. Estimated at £600- 800, it was eventually knocked down at £12,500. A French collector won the lot against underbidding from an “eminent English collector”.