Rare Lowry paintings set to fetch £370,000 at auction

A collection of rare LS Lowry works are expected to fetch up to £370,000 at auction.

The four pieces by the Salford artist have been privately-owned for almost 40 years, but are due back on sale in September.

Lowry is best-known for his depictions of industrial districts of Northern England.

The three oil paintings and a pencil drawing belong to an unnamed family in Harrogate, Yorkshire.

Man Posting A Letter has a guide price of £170,000 to £200,000 and was bought by the couple, who have since passed away, from Lowry personally.

Their children are selling the works at auction.

Elizabeth Pepper-Darling, of auctioneers Morphets, said: "The late Harrogate residents were astute collectors, not only acquiring works by various leading Modern British artists but also by the French artists Bernard Buffet and Maurice Utrillo. They were purchased from leading London galleries in the 1970s."

The auction house previously sold a collection of seven monochrome works by Louis Wain for the family in September 2007.

Morphets, the Harrogate Auctioneers, are to offer a major collection of Modern British Art including the L S Lowry works in their Autumn Fine Art Catalogue Sale on 8th September.