This year Bonhams annual sale of East Anglian Art will feature a pair of portraits which document the early beginnings of the famous Ransome family, the agricultural dynasty which was to transform the industrial fortunes of 19th Century Ipswich. The auction will take place on Thursday 2nd December at the Athenaeum, Bury St Edmunds.
The paintings, by the Circle of Sir William Beechey (British 1753-1839), depict Thomas Ransome and his bride Elizabeth Ann and were probably painted in Norwich around 1778 when the couple married. An advert in The Norwich Chronicle of March 10th 1781 details the firm of Thomas and Robert Ransome ‘ironmongers, crate makers and brass founders’ supplying parts to the thriving clock making industry of Norwich. It is difficult to discern how Thomas’s fortunes fared, but in 1789 his younger brother Robert moved his family and business to Ipswich and founded the now world renowned firm of Ransomes. His accidental invention of chilled iron, patented in 1803, was a major contribution to the industrial revolution. Robert Ransome identified that cast iron when chilled was given a greater hardness, and used this theory to produce ploughshares with a hard underside and soft face which were effectively self-sharpening.
The firm diversified throughout the 19th Century into bridge-building, traction engines, railways and most famously lawn mowers, by the mid-19th Century it was Suffolk’s largest private employer.
The pair of portraits is estimated at £3,000-5,000.
The history of Ipswich is further documented in this year’s sale with a set of four engravings dating from 1801 which illustrate the Ipswich docks and show the thriving shipbuilding business of the time. Shipbuilding was one of the town’s earliest industries and by the 19th Century naval and merchant vessels were being constructed in large numbers along the banks of the Orwell.
Ipswich artists are also well represented in the auction with works by artists including Thomas and Edward Smythe, Leonard Squirrell, George Frost and Robert Burroughs.
Bonhams picture specialist Daniel Wright comments, “In the 11 years this sale has been running we have never seen such a fine collection of Suffolk School artists – most of the significant artists of the 19th and 20th Centuries are represented and these are not only beautiful paintings but also important historical documents. We can often identify the location of these landscapes and subjects in this auction include Stoke Windmill and Ipswich Docks as well as Gainsborough and Ipswich town centre views, many predating the major urbanisation of early 20th Century Ipswich.”
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