For many years, Sworders Auctioneers have been championing the work of the artists of Great Bardfield and Benton End. Our clients have come to trust us as the place to buy and sell their East Anglian art and as a result we have achieved many world record prices.

Although located within fifty miles of each other, these two groups were comprised of very different artists and practices. We can think of Great Bardfield, a small village in North Essex, as an artist’s community. Whereas Benton End, located on the outskirts of Hadleigh, Suffolk, was more formally established as an art school by Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines and was known as ‘The East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing’. Works by Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden have been achieving strong results for a number of years, but their counterpart John Aldridge has recently gained interest with prices accelerating in 2022. Similarly, with Cedric Morris’s auction prices becoming unattainable for many, the spotlight is now also falling on his pupils with prices for Lucy Harwood and Joan Warburton increasing year on year.

Results & Highlights