Strauss & co - 14 March 2016, Cape Town

122 291 Frederick Timpson I’ONS SOUTH AFRICAN 1 802-1887 An English Lady in Grahamstown oil on canvas 61,5 by 50,5cm R35 000–50 000 The sitter is believed to be Mary Pote (née Wathall) wife of Charles Pote, highly respected citizen of Grahamstown and prominent in civic affairs during the 1850s and 1860s. 292 Attributed to Charles Davidson BELL SOUTH AFRICAN 1 813-1882 Bassouto War Dance circa 1836 inscribed on the reverse with the title and ‘for Captain Wood’, in pencil watercolour 26,5 by 36,5cm R40 000–60 000 LITERATURE This relates to the group of seven finished watercolours in MuseuMAfricA which Kennedy attributes positively to Bell. The initials ‘FG’ lower left are consistent with other Bell watercolours which bear initials that seem to function as some kind of coding. In the opinion of Michael Godby, Emeritus Professor of History of Art at the University of Cape Town, “Charles Bell is one of the most significant – and interesting – of all nineteenth-century South African artists.” cf. RF Kennedy. (1966) Catalogue of Pictures in the Africana Museum . Johannesburg; Africana Museum, pages 178-181, B787-793. cf. Phillida Brooke Simons. (1998) The life and work of Charles Bell , Cape Town: Fernwood Press. cf. Michael Godby. (2015) Battleground: Charles Bell’s drawings of the War of the Axe, 1846 , Cape Town: Primavera Publishing 291 South African and International Art 292