Good Fortune: Almshouse Told Its Triptych is Worth Millions
- Editor OGN Daily
- 22 minutes ago
- 2 min read
The 15th-century Flemish triptych that hung for centuries at St John’s Almshouse in southern England will be sold to raise funds for social housing.
“The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and He adds no sorrow with it,” so says the Bible, Proverbs 10:22. And this lucky church almshouse can now count its blessings after discovering that a triptych painting - displaying the five miracles of Christ - that has hung there for centuries is a 15th-century Flemish masterpiece worth £3.5m ($4.6m).
The panelled artwork has been housed at the Almshouse of Saint John the Evangelist and John the Baptist, in Sherborne, Dorset, since before the Reformation. Almshouses are founded by charity, offering accommodation for poor people, and this particular one received its royal charter from King Henry VI in 1437. The chapel was completed in 1442, four years after a royal licence was granted for 20 brethren (trustees) to provide shelter for 12 men and four women.
After analysis, experts concluded that the triptych was fashioned from East Baltic oak between 1480 and 1490 in Brussels by an unknown Flemish artist. Due to its rarity and quality, the 8ft wide, 3ft high oil and gold on panel triptych has been valued at such a significant amount. The almshouse has decided to put the triptych up for sale, with the proceeds to be spent on supporting various projects to fund social housing in the Dorset market town.
Auction house Sotheby’s said: “The Sherborne almshouse triptych is a quite remarkably intact altarpiece which has preserved its integrity from its construction and execution right through to the present day, for it has never left the almshouse in which it has been housed. Its survival is of considerable rarity, for few such works have survived both the Dissolution and the Puritan Iconoclasm of the following century.”
The sale will take place at Sotheby’s on 3 December.