Dorothy Kay Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Dorothy Kay Art Value Price Guide

Aug. 16, 2023
Kay (Dorothy, 1886-1964). Old Oyster Woman, 1922 [and] The Old Oyster Girl
Est: £100 - £200
Kay (Dorothy, 1886-1964). Old Oyster Woman, 1922 [and] The Old Oyster Girl * Kay (Dorothy, 1886-1964). Old Oyster Woman, 1922 [and] The Old Oyster Girl, two sepia etchings with plate tone, both titled and signed in pencil to lower margin (first work also dated), plate sizes 24.8 x 20.2 cm (9 3/4 x 8 ins) and 19.8 x 24.5 cm (7 7/8 x 9 3/4 ins) respectively, window mounted, framed and glazed (42 x 32 cm and smaller) QTY: (2)
Dominic Winter Auctions
Oct. 23, 2022
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Watercolour, Fisherman, Signed, 23 x 17
Est: R3,000 - R5,000
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Watercolour, Fisherman, Signed, 23 x 17
5th Avenue Auctioneers
Sep. 21, 2022
Dorothy Kay; Irish/South African 1886-1964; Old Oyster Woman
Est: R1,500,000 - R2,000,000
Dorothy Kay Irish/South African 1886-1964 Old Oyster Woman signed oil on canvas 59 by 59cm excluding frame; 80,5 by 80,5 by 8,5cm including frame
Strauss & Co
May. 16, 2022
Dorothy Kay; Irish/South African 1886-1964; Watching the Veld Fire
Est: R120,000 - R160,000
signed oil on canvas 55 by 60cm excluding frame; 69 by 74 by 5cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Apr. 05, 2022
Dorothy Kay; Irish/South African 1886-1964; The Boxer
Est: R400,000 - R600,000
signed oil on canvas 107 by 88,5cm excluding frame; 124 by 105,5 by 5,5cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Sep. 05, 2021
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Watercolour, Fisherman, Signed, 23 x 17
Est: R4,000 - R6,000
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Watercolour, Fisherman, Signed, 23 x 17
5th Avenue Auctioneers
Aug. 10, 2021
Dorothy Kay; Irish/South African 1886-1964; Salt
Est: R100,000 - R150,000
signed; inscribed 'Philip's Collection' on the reverse. oil on canvas 73 by 85,5cm excluding frame; 86 by 98,5 by 4cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Jul. 12, 2021
Dorothy Kay; Irish/South African 1886-1964; Les Modes Parisienne, 1844; The Officers, 1848, two
Est: R6,000 - R9,000
each inscribed with the titles on labels affixed to the reverse oil on board each; 33,5 by 25,5cm excluding frame; 50 by 42 by 2cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Jul. 12, 2021
Dorothy Kay; Irish/South African 1886-1964; Figurehead, Queen of Thames
Est: R1,500 - R2,000
unsigned pencil on tracing paper 52,5 by 30cm excluding frame; 75,5 by 50,5 by 2cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Apr. 18, 2021
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Watercolour, Fisherman, Signed, 23 x 17
Est: R5,000 - R7,000
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Watercolour, Fisherman, Signed, 23 x 17
5th Avenue Auctioneers
Dec. 06, 2020
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Watercolour, Fisherman, Signed, 23 x 17
Est: R8,000 - R12,000
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Watercolour, Fisherman, Signed, 23 x 17
5th Avenue Auctioneers
Sep. 22, 2020
OLD MALAY DRIVER
Est: R5,000 - R8,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) OLD MALAY DRIVER etching, signed and inscribed with the title in pencil in the margin sheet size: 26,5 by 20,5cm
Stephan Welz & Co
Mar. 16, 2020
Dorothy Kay; South African 1886-1964; Cape Fisherman
Est: R2,000 - R3,000
Dorothy Kay South African 1886-1964 Cape Fisherman signed and inscribed with the title in pencil in the margin etching plate size: 25,5 by 20cm 52 by 40,5 by 1cm including frame Starting Bid: ZAR 2000
Strauss & Co
Mar. 16, 2020
Dorothy Kay; South African 1886-1964; The Ochre Blanket
Est: R8,000 - R12,000
Dorothy Kay South African 1886-1964 The Ochre Blanket signed and inscribed with the title pencil and watercolour on paper 29,5 by 38,5cm excluding frame 63 by 66,5 by 2cm including frame Starting Bid: ZAR 8000
Strauss & Co
Mar. 16, 2020
Dorothy Kay; South African 1886-1964; The Old Oyster Woman
Est: R3,000 - R4,000
Dorothy Kay South African 1886-1964 The Old Oyster Woman signed and inscribed with the title in pencil in the margin etching 19,5 by 24,5cm excluding frame 43,5 by 45 by 1,5cm including frame Starting Bid: ZAR 3000
Strauss & Co
Dec. 02, 2019
Dorothy Kay Elvery (1886-1964) COLLECTION OF ETCHINGS, c. 1924 (SET OF SEVEN)
Est: €1,500 - €2,000
all signed and titled
Whyte's
Oct. 19, 2019
Dorothy Kay - Pack of Dogs
Est: R5,000 - R7,000
Dorothy Kay Pack of Dogs signed; inscribed with 'Sept 19th' and the caption on the reverse; inscribed with the publication's name and the caption on a label adhered to the reverse mixed media on artist's board 36 by 52cm
Strauss & Co
Oct. 19, 2019
Dorothy Kay - Two Dogs
Est: R5,000 - R7,000
Dorothy Kay Two Dogs signed; inscribed with 'Dec 22nd' and the caption on the reverse; inscribed with the publication's name and the caption on a label adhered to the reverse mixed media on artist's board 36 by 52cm
Strauss & Co
Oct. 19, 2019
Dorothy Kay - Comedy and Tragedy
Est: R4,000 - R6,000
Dorothy Kay Comedy and Tragedy signed, dated 1953 and inscribed with the title on the reverse glazed ceramic height: 21cm
Strauss & Co
Oct. 19, 2019
Dorothy Kay - Flora
Est: R6,000 - R8,000
Dorothy Kay Flora signed, dated 1953 and inscribed with the title painted and glazed ceramic height: 24cm
Strauss & Co
Oct. 07, 2019
Dorothy Kay; Tug 'Talana' on the Slipway
Est: R40,000 - R60,000
Dorothy Kay South African 1886-1964 Tug 'Talana' on the Slipway signed; inscribed with the artist's name and title on a South African National Gallery label on the stretcher oil on canvas 63,5 by 59cm
Strauss & Co
Apr. 08, 2019
Dorothy Kay - Ship's Figurehead, HMS Flora, recto; Frottage Composition, verso
Est: R6,000 - R8,000
Dorothy Kay Ship's Figurehead, HMS Flora, recto; Frottage Composition, verso with partly abraided label bearing the title adhered to the reverse monotype and mixed media on paper 44 by 40cm excluding frame; 62 by 55 by 2cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Apr. 08, 2019
Dorothy Kay - Wall End, Syon House, London
Est: R10,000 - R15,000
Dorothy Kay Wall End, Syon House, London signed, dated 1947 and inscribed with the title mixed media on paper 37,5 by 50cm excluding frame; 67 by 73,5 by 2,5cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Apr. 08, 2019
Dorothy Kay - Leopard Hunt
Est: R7,000 - R10,000
Dorothy Kay Leopard Hunt signed charcoal and gouache on paper 92,5 by 37,5cm excluding frame; 75 by 58,5 by 1,5cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Apr. 08, 2019
Dorothy Kay - The Basuto Blanket
Est: R4,000 - R6,000
Dorothy Kay The Basuto Blanket signed and inscribed with the title in pencil in the margin etching sheet size: 27 by 22cm; 39,5 by 34 by 3cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Apr. 08, 2019
Dorothy Kay - Ship's Figurehead, Swellendam
Est: R30,000 - R50,000
Dorothy Kay Ship's Figurehead, Swellendam signed, dated 1958 and inscribed with the title oil on board 97,5 by 66cm excluding frame; 105 by 73 by 3cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Nov. 12, 2018
Dorothy Kay SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1964 - The Song of the Pick
Est: R10,000 - R15,000
Dorothy Kay SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1964 The Song of the Pick signed, dated 1938, numbered 4/75 and inscribed with the title in pencil in the margin etching plate size: 38 by 32cm Dorothy Kay was best known as a painter and portraitist, producing numerous quirky self-portraits, family portraits and 23 official portraits of the Mayors of Port Elizabeth, but she was also an expert etcher. She acquired her initial art training at the Royal Hibernian Academy in her home country of Ireland, but on settling in Port Elizabeth in South Africa, she enrolled at the city’s Art School to study etching under Frank Pickford Marriott. He taught Dorothy the processes of etching, aquatint and dry point using copper and zinc plates, and she revelled in ‘the thousand and one difficulties’ of the process and the powerful smells of ink and nitric acid. Kay became a master printmaker, producing more than 44 plates over the course of her career. The present lot, Song of the Pick, one of her most popular prints, was etched in 1938, before she began numbering and limiting her editions. A number of Kay’s works focus on groups of men at work, for example, The Tanning Pits (1920s), The Fish Market (1930s), Gold (c. 1936) and Salt (1940s). With reference to the tannery workers, in particular, she records being fascinated by ‘the rhythmic actions of lifting and moving’ their sticks and their own bodies in ‘unvarying beautiful movements’. In Song of the Pick , Kay makes the rhythm of work the overriding compositional device, the repeated arms and pick handles setting up a visual rhythm that implies a matching vocal rhythm as the men accompany themselves in song. The repeated pose is reminiscent of the work of British post-Vorticist artists Sybil Andrews and Cyril Power, whose work depicted speed and movement through similar repetition of form and manipulation of scale. The source of the title of the present lot is unknown, although Kay may have been familiar with the Australian construction workers’ song of the same name that dates from at least the early twentieth century. It goes: ‘Click, click, the song of the pick; A bolt in the socket, a bar in the brick; Lay well the foundation, a miniature hell; A prison perchance, therein someday to dwell’. A similar repetition of form was later used in a work of the same title by Gerard Sekoto, first in a watercolour (c. 1939) and later in the iconic oil painting now widely regarded as his masterpiece (c. 1946). Marjorie Reynolds 'Everything you do is a Portrait of Yourself': Dorothy Kay, A Biography , Cape Town: AMR, page 55.
Strauss & Co
Nov. 12, 2018
Dorothy Kay SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1964 - Flora
Est: R10,000 - R15,000
Dorothy Kay SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1964 Flora signed, dated 1953 and inscribed with the title painted and glazed ceramic height: 24cm
Strauss & Co
Nov. 12, 2018
Dorothy Kay SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1964 - Pack of Dogs; Two Dogs, two
Est: R15,000 - R20,000
Dorothy Kay SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1964 Pack of Dogs; Two Dogs, two Pack of Dogs : signed; inscribed with 'Sept 19th' and the caption on the reverse; inscribed with the publication's name and the caption on a label adhered to the reverse; Two Dogs : signed; inscribed with 'Dec 22nd' and the caption on the reverse; inscribed with the publication's name and the caption on a label adhered to the reverse mixed media on artist's board each 36 by 52cm -2 Inscription on the reverse of Pack of Dogs reads: No. 1 'The Outspan'. Illustration, Original. Caption: "In a minute both Bles and Napoleon were completely surrounded by a pack of some of the ugliest, fiercest dogs in creation". Inscription on the reverse of Two Dogs reads: No. 17 'The Outspan'. Illustration, Original. Caption: "Between the greyhound and Bandit there soon developed a deep affection; strengthened in the months that followed by a common love of the chase, by mighty trials of speed and by adventurous larcenies". In 1927, the editor of The Outspan asked Dorothy Kay to produce illustrations for the stories in the new weekly magazine, and for the next eighteen years, she regularly produced from two to four illustrations a week in charcoal, with white gouache accents, on artist’s illustration board. Kay was an absolute stickler for accuracy and posed and sketched family and friends in the inevitable action poses required by the adventure stories. She spent hours researching accurate detail, such as military insignia or the correct way to tie the knot in a noose, in the Public Library or at the zoo if a story included animals, and she amassed vast quantities of anything that might conceivably be helpful, which she stuck into voluminous scrapbooks for future reference. In the 1940s, Kay gradually withdrew from producing illustrations and passed the torch to her daughters Joan and Patricia, who were subsequently to have their own work published in Outspan magazine on their mother’s recommendation to the editor
Strauss & Co
Oct. 28, 2018
Dorothy Kay, The Song of the Pick; Malay Driver; Fingo Witch Doctor
Est: R25,000 - R35,000
Dorothy Kay, The Song of the Pick; Malay Driver; Fingo Witch Doctor
Aspire Art
Oct. 22, 2018
Dorothy Kay; Comedy and Tragedy
Est: R6,000 - R9,000
Dorothy Kay South African 1886-1964 Comedy and Tragedy signed, dated 1953 and inscribed with the title on the reverse glazed ceramic height: 21cm; width: 13cm; depth: 14cm
Strauss & Co
Oct. 22, 2018
Dorothy Kay; The Mountebank
Est: R4,000 - R6,000
Dorothy Kay South African 1886-1964 The Mountebank signed etching plate size: 25 by 19,5cm; 53 by 44 by 1,5cm including frame
Strauss & Co
Sep. 17, 2018
Dorothy Kay; Surgery
Est: R3,000 - R5,000
Dorothy Kay; Surgery
Strauss & Co
Apr. 15, 2018
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Lithograph, "Old Dolley", Signed in Pencil, 24 x 35
Est: R2,500 - R3,500
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Lithograph, "Old Dolley", Signed in Pencil, 24 x 35
5th Avenue Auctioneers
Feb. 10, 2018
Dorothy Elvery Kay etching
Est: $100 - $200
Dorothy Elvery Kay (Irish 1886-1964)- ''Nonggai (Watchman)''- etching, 1925, signed, dated and titled in pencil, support sheet- repaired tears in margin, foxing in image, possibly cleaned. 9 3/4 x 7 3/4''
Rachel Davis Fine Arts
Dec. 03, 2017
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Lithograph, "Old Dolley", Signed in Pencil, 24 x 35
Est: R3,000 - R5,000
Dorothy Kay (SA 1886 - 1964) Lithograph, "Old Dolley", Signed in Pencil, 24 x 35
5th Avenue Auctioneers
Nov. 13, 2017
Dorothy Kay - War News
Est: R450,000 - R550,000
Dorothy Kay War News signed; inscribed with the artist's name and the title on a label adhered to the reverse oil on board 60 by 53cm
Strauss & Co
Nov. 12, 2017
Dorothy Kay, The Train
Est: R200,000 - R300,000
Dorothy Kay, The Train
Aspire Art
Mar. 28, 2017
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) CAPE TO CAIRO RAILWAY signed charcoal
Est: R8,000 - R12,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) CAPE TO CAIRO RAILWAY signed charcoal and heightening on paper 37,5 by 50cm, unframed
Stephan Welz & Co
Mar. 28, 2017
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) McBEAN SAT UP INSTANTLY, AND LOOKED I
Est: R8,000 - R12,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) McBEAN SAT UP INSTANTLY, AND LOOKED IN THE DIRECTION OF THE BOY'S POINTING HAND signed; inscribed with the title on the reverse, a label affixed to the reverse bears the title and notes that this work was illustration number 42 in The Outspan gouache on card 38 by 53,5cm, unframed
Stephan Welz & Co
Mar. 28, 2017
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) IT WAS HIS PEACE OFFERING - HE LONGED
Est: R8,000 - R12,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) IT WAS HIS PEACE OFFERING - HE LONGED FOR THE GREAT BEAST'S FRIENDSHIP AND HE KNEW NO OTHER WAY OF GAINING FAVOUR signed; inscribed with the title on the reverse, a label affixed to the reverse bears the title and notes that this work was illustration number 36 in The Outspan charcoal on card 38 by 53,5cm, unframed
Stephan Welz & Co
Mar. 28, 2017
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) CAPTAIN HARDY'S TUGBOAT signed charco
Est: R8,000 - R12,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) CAPTAIN HARDY'S TUGBOAT signed charcoal and heightening on paper 38,5 by 54cm, unframed
Stephan Welz & Co
Mar. 28, 2017
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) LASCARS SPLICING ROPE drypoint, signe
Est: R6,000 - R9,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) LASCARS SPLICING ROPE drypoint, signed and titled in pencil in the margin sheet size: 25,5 by 32cm, unframed
Stephan Welz & Co
Nov. 22, 2016
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) SELF PORTRAIT signed charcoal and heightening on paper laid down on card 48 by 54,5cm, unframed
Est: R8,000 - R12,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) SELF PORTRAIT signed charcoal and heightening on paper laid down on card 48 by 54,5cm, unframed
Stephan Welz & Co
Nov. 22, 2016
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) YOUNG GIRL drypoint, signed in pencil in the margin sheet size: 37,5 by 27cm
Est: R5,000 - R8,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) YOUNG GIRL drypoint, signed in pencil in the margin sheet size: 37,5 by 27cm
Stephan Welz & Co
Nov. 22, 2016
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) MINERS signed on reverse gouache on card 51 by 35cm, unframed
Est: R8,000 - R12,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) MINERS signed on reverse gouache on card 51 by 35cm, unframed
Stephan Welz & Co
Nov. 22, 2016
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) EXPLORER signed charcoal and heightening on paper 51 by 36cm, unframed
Est: R8,000 - R12,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) EXPLORER signed charcoal and heightening on paper 51 by 36cm, unframed
Stephan Welz & Co
Nov. 22, 2016
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) MONGOOSE signed charcoal and heightening on paper 51 by 36,5cm
Est: R8,000 - R12,000
Dorothy Kay (South African 1886-1964) MONGOOSE signed charcoal and heightening on paper 51 by 36,5cm
Stephan Welz & Co

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