Weekend: ANTIQUES & COLLECTING: Face Up to the Great and Good; Sally Hoban Previews the First Ever International Auction House Sale Entirely Devoted to Portraits

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Byline: Sally Hoban

The most extensive private collection of historical portraits to come to auction in recent years will be sold in October at Bonhams auctioneers in London.

The collection features images of Britain's most respected writers, artists musicians and philosophers and forms the first ever sale entirely devoted to portraits at an international auction house.

Paintings, busts, prints, medallions, pencil sketches, photographs and other media are all represented in the auction.

Manuscript expert and collector Roy Davids has compiled the images collection over the last 30 years, and it contains almost 300 portraits. A number of pieces were noted for their artistic strength and importance at the British Library's Millennium Exhibition, where they were last …