Original railway art sold at railwayana auctions in 2021

This summary covers all original paintings of Britain’s railways sold in railwayana auctions between 2011 and 2021. General auction houses that hold occasional railwayana auctions are not recorded, nor are those that periodically include some railwayana in an otherwise mixed sale. Additional railway paintings will also have changed hands in fine art sales held elsewhere. Nevertheless, this account should give some indication of the current trends in the railway paintings market. Auction houses have responded to the second year of disruption caused by the pandemic by providing alternative online sales in a variety of formats, in place of the previous live events. The overall quality of online catalogue photos to advertise paintings for sale has also improved. At least one auction house has split its sales over two days, with more lots included overall. There have been some very successful sales since operators were obliged to move online. The usual outgoings associated with staging live events have been avoided and some record takings have been announced. Many more railway paintings have been offered for sale this year than last and some personal collections have become dispersed. One auction included 50 railway paintings in a single event, though a substantial proportion remained unsold. The work of a relatively small group of favoured contemporary railway artists continues to sell well above the rates achieved by the majority.

1. The number of original railway paintings sold at railwayana auctions rose sharply in 2021: 2011 - 32, 2012 - 41, 2013 - 61, 2014 - 88, 2015 - 105, 2016 - 136, 2017 - 81, 2018 - 66, 2019 - 87, 2020 - 70, 2021 - 144.

2. The number of railway artists represented also rose markedly in 2021: 2011 - 25,

2012 - 20, 2013 - 27, 2014 - 34, 2015 - 42, 2016 - 48, 2017 - 31, 2018 - 25, 2019 - 25,

2020 - 33, 2021 - 59. 

3. The number of auction events that sold railway paintings rose in 2021, reflecting some organisational changes in response to the pandemic. At least one auction house arranged more frequent sales but with each containing fewer lots than in the former live events:

2011 - 7, 2012 - 10, 2013 - 13, 2014 - 19, 2015 - 18, 2016 - 22, 2017 - 18, 2018 - 14,

2019 - 16, 2020 – 16, 2021 - 25.  

4. In 2021, eleven paintings by six different artists reached or surpassed a £1,000 hammer price at railwayana auctions. Over the last eleven years, works by Don Breckon [20], Barry G. Price [16], Philip D. Hawkins [12] and Malcolm Root [10] have been most prominent in this category. The number of such paintings sold at these venues each year and the artists concerned were: 

2011 - 3 paintings, by Heiron [2], Broom,

2012 - 3 paintings, by Bottomley, Hawkins, Broom,

2013 - 8 paintings, by Broom [2], Breckon [2], Heiron, Root, Price, Freeman,

2014 - 7 paintings, by Root [3], Elford, Breckon, Freeman, Hawkins,

2015 - 11 paintings, by Breckon [3], Hawkins [2], Root [2], Beech, Ellis, Elford, Price.

2016 - 13 paintings, by Breckon [4], Price [3], Hawkins [2], Freeman, Root, Broom, Greene                

2017 - 7 paintings, by Freeman [2], Price [2], Broom, Root, Breckon,

2018 - 9 paintings, by Hawkins [4], Breckon [2], Price [2], Root,

2019 - 9 paintings, by Breckon [4], Broom, Cuneo, P. O. Jones, Root,

2020 - 7 paintings, by Price [4], Freeman, P. O. Jones, Shelbourne,

2021 - 11 paintings, by Breckon [3], Price [3], Hawkins [2], Fearnley, Broom, Freeman,

Mike Jeffries' roundhouse scene was just one of the paintings sold at railwayana auctions this year.