A 100-year-old oil painting of a Perthshire family’s labradors is poised to fetch up to £50,000 at an auction in America next week.
The 3ft 9in inches by 5ft 5in picture was painted by royal artist, Maud Earl, in 1912, and is titled Black Labrador, Peter Of Faskally, Holding A Cock Pheasant, With His Mate, Dungavel Jet, in a landscape.
The dogs belonged to Perthshire landowner and big game hunter, Archibald Butter, (1874-1928) and his wife Helen.
Mr Butter owned the Faskally estate, near Pitlochry, before selling it in 1911 to his younger brother, Colonel Charles Butter, whose son, Major Sir David Butter (1920-2010), was Lord Lieutenant of Perth and Kinross between 1975 and 1995.
Sir David’s younger daughter Marilyn, a great niece of Archibald Butter, is the Countess of Dalhousie who lives at Brechin Castle.
According to auctioneers, Bonhams, “The labrador retrievers featured in the painting were the property of Mr and Mrs Archibald Butter, whose residence at Faskally came to an end shortly before the first world war.
Maud Earl’s painting of the Butters’ labradors will be auctioned at Bonhams in New York on Wednesday, February 16.
If it does sell for £50,000, it will become the third-most valuable Maud Earl picture sold at auction.