The Valley in art

BerkshireBob · December 2023

On the front page of today’s Daily Telegraph is a small clip from a painting of The Valley circa 1950. It is taken from a watercolour painted by Roy Badmin entitled ‘Here they come! The Valley’ and shows the crowd, ground and players at a match between Charlton and Arsenal. The clip is a link to an article in the Features section about art and football. (Unfortunately, the painting, though referenced in the article, is not shown in its entirety where the only picture is an - admittedly interesting - painting of a match at Crystal Palace with the CP in the background of an FA Cup tie between Corinthians and Manchester City in 1926.) The article concerns an online auction which opens today at Bonhams until noon on December 13 in which the painting of The Valley is included for sale. It was last bought in 1998 for £8,800 and is now expected to go for about £7,000. (The Palace painting went for a triple estimate £49,350 in 2003 and is expected to sell for double that now but who wants a Palace painting anyway?) So, if anyone has a bit of spare cash and a space on their wall, how about making a bid? Or better still, are there any philanthropists out there willing to donate it to the museum so we can all admire this piece of local footballing history?

AFKABartram · December 2023

Arkwright · December 2023

Ha! You got there first! The Valley as I remember it for my first match in 1969 - although less of a crowd for my game. Even though the ground looks so different now the picture is still a fresh memory for me. They reckon the watercolour is worth £7,000 now having lost a bit since it was last bought for nearly £9,000 in 1998 - is that art mirroring life?

se9addick · December 2023

Arkwright said:

Ha! You got there first! The Valley as I remember it for my first match in 1969 - although less of a crowd for my game. Even though the ground looks so different now the picture is still a fresh memory for me. They reckon the watercolour is worth £7,000 now having lost a bit since it was last bought for nearly £9,000 in 1998 - is that art mirroring life?

Wow, it’s list a fair old whack of it’s value!

Henry Irving · December 2023

https://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/comment/3163403#Comment_3163403

This painting has been put up for sale before and not sold as you can see from the above.

We have the catalogue from this previous attempt in the museum where the owner tried to sell the entire collection as one lot rather than break it up.

Now seems they have realised the pieces are more likely to sell individually.

It would be nice to have but the museum won't be bidding.

Arkwright · December 2023

se9addick said:

Arkwright said:

Ha! You got there first! The Valley as I remember it for my first match in 1969 - although less of a crowd for my game. Even though the ground looks so different now the picture is still a fresh memory for me. They reckon the watercolour is worth £7,000 now having lost a bit since it was last bought for nearly £9,000 in 1998 - is that art mirroring life?

Wow, it’s list a fair old whack of it’s value!

So unfortunately has CAFC itself……

TellyTubby · December 2023

@Henry Irving

Could the museum buy it and sell prints of it?

Henry Irving · December 2023

TellyTubby said:

@Henry Irving

Could the museum buy it and sell prints of it?

We could but we'd lose about £8k on the deal.

We'd have to pay a minimum of £8k plus the usual 15 or 20% commission on auctions.

We might sell a dozen prints, at £50 and I doubt that, so we'd still be well down on the deal.

Thanks to lots of generous fans who donate cash and great items, like old bits of fence!, we have a fighting fund to buy really rare stuff but personally I don't think this is one.