In what undoubtedly surprised many auction goers, British painter Cedric Morris’s (1889-1982) modest little work July Flowers and Wood Warblers sold for $287,500 (including buyer’s premium) – almost 24 times its upper catalogue estimate of $12,000 – at Menzies Melbourne auction on August 10.
This was a new world record for Morris who, at the time he completed the work in the 1920s, was living in rural Suffolk and painted richly decorative flower studies....