What subjects come up most often?

Landscape and coastal views of real, named places. "Landscape" is the commonest subject word in the titles, with rivers, castles, lakes, cottages and bridges recurring, and seascapes forming a smaller run. Portraits are the next group, followed by still lifes. Botanical studies, birds, dogs and cattle, and architectural and design drawings make up the remainder.

Why are so many dated only to a century?

Because that is how the works themselves are marked. Watercolours were rarely dated on the sheet, so dealers fall back on "19th Century", used on 889 listings, or "Victorian" on a further 229. Where a decade is given, the 1900s, 1920s and 1910s hold the largest groups. Looser tags such as Georgian, Regency and Edwardian also appear.

Are pairs and sets common?

Steadily present rather than common. The word "pair" is in 192 titles, roughly one listing in twenty. Sets run beyond two: three, four, six, eight, and one framed run of twelve Chinese Export gouaches.

Which places turn up in the titles?

Yorkshire is the dominant name, in 301 titles, with York in 108 and Whitby in 85. No other county or town comes close. The Lake District, Cornwall, Wales and Scottish lochs all recur, and "near" appears in 78 titles, placing a view at the edge of a village or town rather than in it.

Does "attributed to" mean the same as signed?

No. Signed means the sheet carries a name or initials. Attributed to is the dealer's judgement on style and handling, without documentary backing. The archive uses a whole sub-language for degrees of doubt: Circle of, Manner of, After, Style of, Follower of and Possibly by. These hedged forms sit in the lower and middle reaches of the range.

How many are listed on Sellingantiques each year?

Around 535 antique watercolours a year, handled by 217 different dealers. That is one of the broadest dealer bases of any category on Sellingantiques. The spread of forms is wide too. Alongside framed views the archive has carried a London wallpaper design, a stained-glass window design for a cottage, three designs for a swimming pool in Nairobi, and watercolours painted on postcard, linen, silk, pith and ivory.

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Antique Watercolours

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A watercolour is pigment worked with water on paper, and in Britain it became the standard way to record a real place: a framed view, usually landscape or coast, made to hang on a wall.