Hoard of paintings by Lincolnshire grocer-artist Herbert Rollett sells for thousands of pounds in Louth

Last week, the Louth Leader reported that more than a dozen Rollett paintings had come to light when lawyers handling the deceased estate of one of his granddaughters instructed specialists to clear her home in Saffron Walden, and every wall was covered with paintings.

In addition to the Rolletts, the hoard included a mass of watercolours by his artist daughter Kathleen, portraits of both Rollett and Kathleen by painter friends, sketchbooks, and more, which went under the hammer at John Taylors on Tuesday (May 23).

The biggest seller was a painting of Newsham Bridge, an 18th century bridge on the Earl of Yarborough's Brocklesby Estate, which sold for £600 to an online Scunthorpe buyer, who also bought another painting that attracted a lot of interest – 'Sails on the Humber' – for £560.

Another result of interest concerned the portrait of Rollett's daughter Kathleen painted by Vincent Galloway, the first curator of Hull's Ferens Art Gallery back in the 1920s, which sold for £150.

Auctioneer James Laverack said the people who sent the paintings up to Louth from Saffron Walden were “very pleased with the result” and that they were not aware of Herbert Rollett, and it was just the quality of the books and furnishings in Rollett's granddaughter's retirement flat that prompted the clearance team to look him up online and discover his fame.

“It is a wonderful find that I understand took the clearance team completely by surprise,” he said, "They had no idea the Saffron Walden flat was packed with art – and they knew nothing about Herbert Rollett.

"Fortunately they took the time to do an online search and they began to realise what they had on their hands.”

Herbert Rollett (1872-1932) was pushed into the grocery trade by his farmer father from Huckerby, near Gainsborough, and did not start to paint seriously until he was almost 30 years old.

Even then he had to fit it in around running his business, routinely rising at 5.30am in the morning to go out into the Lincolnshire countryside to paint, before returning to open up his shop in the centre of Grimsby to sell cheese and butter.

Rollett’s artistic breakthrough came in 1921 with an exhibition at the Victoria Galleries in Hull, before successful shows in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Nottingham, plus the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and then in 1924, Rollett had his first painting accepted the Paris Salon.