Bradley fetches £9,000 at auction

UNDER the hammer . . . the Bradley painting

A PAINTING commemorating Queen Alexandra’s visit to Manchester by the Lees-born artist Helen Bradley sold for £9,000 at Bonhams in London this week.

Before the auction the picture, called When Queen Alexandra Came To Manchester, was predicted to sell for between £8,000 and £12,000.

It was painted by Bradley in 1967, when she was 67 and when her paintings rarely fetched more than £2,000. Bradley was only four when Queen Alexandra came to Manchester in 1905, but she vividly remembered the event.

Her picture shows Miss Carter, an acquaintance of the Bradley family who appears in many Bradley paintings and who inspired Bradley’s best-selling 1971 book, Miss Carter Wore Pink.