Auction Find of a Random Bird Print

I was toying with the idea of writing a post about an auction find yet hesitated until I was reading Chronica Domus' latest post 
about some information on her beautiful slop bowls by a very informative reader. 
 I thought I would share my little object with its background 
which is by no means on the same level as the level of research 
nor beauty of object.

In smaller auction houses, there tends to be lots where not one object but a group of objects are sold together.  I won the bid for another print but this print came along for the ride.  
When I bid on the object, I did see this print but ignored it.

It was strange in retrospect that I didn't pay this much attention.
But I was concentrating on figuring how much 
I would put on my absentee bid.  
I rarely bid live because one can get carried away!  
But I love bird prints and I have a small collection to prove it.

Please ignore the white paint - I know I try to!

I actually have more prints ready and waiting to be framed.
I even have a matching bird themed bowl for the aperture for the wash stand.

But I think the intense calculation and more importantly the cracked glass distracted me from examining the print further.

It was only after I brought it home that I started reading up on the print.
I looked at the penciled autograph, and the raised blind stamp and thought perhaps it was worth googling the name I was unfamiliar with.

Truthfully speaking, I would not be too swayed by a print with a name and date on the lithograph alone.  But one had to consider that for a name that is not particularly well known to the general public, it wouldn't be worth the hassle to create a blind stamp to give false credibility to a possible forgery.

I had a look and there was a website that served as an archive of the artist Archibald Thorburn.

I then turned the print around and inspected the reverse where there were two stickers.

One of the stickers refers that a certain Lady D Hunt might have left or her items were held at Allens' Depositories.  The possibility of an item belonging to a then aristocrat still doesn't guarantee that the item is worth anything.
There is a bit of the sticker which had ripped off.
I googled it and it led to this bit of information written by a local historian of the area.
It seems that perhaps it was one of those general broad businesses that dealt in matters of the home
but also house clearances.

The other sticker seemed to be from the possible seller of this artwork.
I googled and all there was were references to auction houses whose art had provenances that led back to W. H. Embleton on Jermyn Street in London.
Jermyn Street is a rather smart address and always has been but of course while researching this I was reminded that not everything is on Google!

Some may say it is crass to discuss money but we have all watched enough episodes of Antiques Roadshow to know that we all love the stories but we are curious to see if the emotional value the family or bearer of the object matches the financial value.
In my case, there was no expectation.

I went and got the glass replaced and 
it shows the piece in a better light.  
It is nice but I don't know if I would have put a bid on this myself.

Upon researching past results and prices for art ready to purchase, 
the item could fetch up to £275 which is a bonus considering the piece I aimed to buy was only half that price.

But let me remind you that the item an art gets sold for isn't the item one pockets.
If I were to auction it then I would lose at least 25% of the price and the fee wouldn't be too dissimilar at an art gallery.

 
The other bird prints on the wall are of a different nature as it was by another artist, period and country.


And even though I have hung the prints without taking this one into consideration 
I am still going to stick it next to them and enjoy my bargain find!

 
I must reiterate that for those of you who are into art history that you will enjoy the latest post by Chronica Domus! 
( Please click on name for link.)