Turner's Donnington Castle painting up at auction

The painting being auctioned today (Wednesday) is expected to fetch up to £60,000

A TURNER watercolour of Donnington Castle is set to go under the hammer at a Newbury auction today (Wednesday), with an guide price tag of between £40,000 and £60,000.

Dreweatts at Donnington Priory, is selling the 19th-century watercolour by renowned landscape painter J M W Turner (1775-1851), on behalf of a private local vendor who lives in Donnington.

Dreweatts spokeswoman Vanessa Clewes Salmon said: “It's not every day that an auction house, particularly one outside London, can boast a signed Turner watercolour in one of its sales.

“It is particularly appropriate that the vendor should have brought the picture here, as not only is it of Donnington Castle half a mile away from us, but it is also a key part of local history.”

Donnington Castle played a major part in the English Civil War and First and Second Battles of Newbury, before a 1646 Parliamentary demolition order, which left only the gatehouse and surrounding earthworks.

The watercolour went on view on Saturday morning.