Alfred Wallis

First Light Gallery is pleased to be able to offer this unique & authentic piece of Alfred Wallis art work for sale.

In the late 1960s David Perkin, a fisherman who was born and grew up in St Ives, inherited his grandfather’s wooden tool box. Seeing the tools at the top, he didn’t look further and the chest was left in storage until 2007. When eventually the contents of the chest were examined, some items which had come from Alfred Wallis were found beneath the tools.
The items included paintings of ships on wood and card. There were also painted tin lids and glass fishing floats, and a number of drawings on the reverse of old cigarette packets.

A number of the cigarette packets from the Perkin collection have already been sold at auction for prices ranging from £2,500 to £3,500, excl. Lot money. Some of the other pieces have been lent to Cornish museums.
We can now offer this drawing on the reverse of an old Player's cigarette packet. It depicts a lug-sailed fishing boat, a section of pier and bollards, Alfred Wallis’s signature and a schooner. There are slight paint-smudges to the upper part. In view of this, we are offering this unique piece of Wallis’s story at £1,750. It is double-framed to show back and front.
I know David Perkin, and I have no doubt that this is an absolutely genuine piece of Wallis’s work. I will feature more on this unique collection in the third edition of my book on Alfred Wallis.

Robert Jones