Name: The Contraption
Brand: L S Lowry
Rating: 5 (236 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of L S Lowry's The Contraption (signed) is estimated to be worth between £2,100 and £3,150. This lithograph print, created in 1975, has shown consistent value growth since its first sale in March 2005. In the last 12 months, the average selling price was £1,850 across 2 sales. Over the past five years, the hammer price has varied from £1,700 in October 2024 to £3,814 in May 2023. The current average annual growth rate is -8%. This work has a strong auction history with 24 total sales. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 750.

Meaning & Analysis

The inspiration for The Contraption came from the driver of the vehicle once having shouted abuse at Lowry. Intrigued, Lowry followed it down the street, since it seemed another despicable object of the modern town like the mills and the scenes of poverty that attracted him. Once he had painted the picture, he never saw the man or the contraption again - Lowry never drove and famously walked or took trains wherever he went. He had a street eye view of his subject and he was very much a part of his world. He lived in Manchester, worked as a rent collector and never married or had children. Although he had a normal job and mixed with the people he observed, Lowry worked every day after his shift finished. Once called a Sunday painter he retorted ‘I’m a Sunday painter who paints every day of the week!’ The contraption is a strange picture inspired by a single moment in a life of wandering around a place the artist knew like the back of his hand.