A floral painting blossomed to sell for more than 40 times its estimate at a Teddington auction over the weekend.

The large 20th century oil on canvas flower study by Tim Maguire smashed its £80-£100 guide to achieve a hammer price of £4,200 at the Hansons Fine Art and Collectors Auction at Teddington's Normansfield Theatre on Saturday, November 26th.

The Australian artist Maguire is renowned for his innovative approach to painting flowers. Though born in Chertsey, England, he moved to Australia in 1959 where he studied painting at Sydney College of the Arts and at the City Art Institute before completing a post graduate in Germany.

His flair with flowers soon placed him in the international spotlight where his ability to magnify his work, adopting a traditional subject matter through his cinematic flowerscapes, set him apart from artists who painted similar subjects such as Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet.

Chris Kirkham, associate director of Hansons London, said: "It was a particularly strong result in an impressive sale. We also witnessed good prices achieved for delftware. A high flyer was a late 17th century William III (1650-1702) English delftware charger which reached £5,000.

"Other examples to sell well included an 18th century English delftware flower brick which made £1,800 and a mid-18th century London delftware punch bowl which was contested to £1,700. In addition, a pair of 18th century English delftware marriage plates achieved £2500.

High flyers at Teddington's Fine Art and Collectors auction on Saturday. (Credit: Hansons Auctioneers)

"Despite a fragile economy worldwide the desire to buy objects for pleasure or investment continues unabated. The competition to secure Maguire's floral art demonstrated that."

Gold and jewellery also attracted strong bidding at Saturday's Teddington auction.

A 9ct gold engine-turned cigarette case made £2,500 and a precious yellow metal, diamond and ruby cluster ring achieved £2,000.

In the watches section an Omega De Ville 18ct gold gentleman's automatic bracelet watch (pictured below) sold for £1,900 (lot 173) and an 18ct gold full hunter chronometer pocket watch made £1,400.

(Credit: Hansons Auctioneers)

Free antique, jewellery and collectables valuations are offered every Wednesday, 10am-4pm, at the Normansfield Theatre, 2A Langdon Park, Teddington, TW11 9PS, with entires also welcome for Hansons London monthly sales. 

To find out more, email: [email protected] or [email protected].