4 - 18 September 2025
The Timlin Collection of paintings, watercolours, works on paper, and editioned prints by William Mitcheson Timlin was assembled by the artist’s brother, Clifford Timlin, also the architect of the William Humphreys Art Gallery in Kimberley, Northern Cape. Comprising 62 outstanding original works, the collection captures the remarkable breadth of Timlin’s imaginative output.
The collection later passed to Clifford’s daughter-in-law and grandchildren, before being offered to the market in 1987, when De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited acquired it and placed it on long-term loan to the William Humphreys Art Gallery (WHAG). For nearly four decades, the Timlin Collection, together with WHAG’s own holdings, represented the largest public collection of the artist’s work in South Africa.
Now, Aspire Art is delighted to present Enchanted Worlds: The Timlin Collection in its original entirety. Having remained under WHAG’s custodianship for almost forty years, the release of this collection by De Beers opens a rare opportunity for collectors worldwide to encounter and acquire these extraordinary artworks.
A British-born architect, illustrator and artist, William Mitcheson Timlin (1892–1943) made Kimberley his permanent home in 1912, at the age of twenty. He quickly became a central figure in the city’s cultural life – as a Founder Member of the Art Section of the Kimberley Athenaeum, a pioneering organisation that laid the groundwork for a permanent art gallery, and as a respected member of Kimberley’s architectural fraternity. Beyond these roles, he firmly established himself as a uniquely imaginative artist.
Timlin is best known for The Ship that Sailed to Mars (1923), the extraordinary fantasy book he both wrote and illustrated, and which today is considered a classic of early 20th-century fantastical illustration.
Alongside his architectural career, he produced enchanting paintings, watercolours, drawings and etchings that reveal his fascination with dreamlike realms. Often populated with ethereal figures, fantastical cities and otherworldly landscapes, his works reveal a mastery of delicate line and luminous colour, blended in a distinctive creative vision of architectural precision and whimsical fantasy.
Lot 2 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) The Portrait Painter
Sold for R29,312
Lot 3 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Blue Beard's Daughter
Sold for R21,105
Lot 4 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) The Present
Sold for R6,000
Lot 5 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Waiting
Sold for R3,518
Lot 6 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Clifford Peter
Sold for R4,690
Lot 7 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Weathercrock Inn
Sold for R2,000
Lot 8 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Autumn near Paarl
Sold for R2,931
Lot 9 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Landscape with Trees
Sold for R5,862
Lot 13 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) At St Lucia Estuary, Zululand
Sold for R3,000
Lot 14 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) A Sussex Homestead near Worthing
Estimated at R6,000 - R8,000
Lot 15 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) A Cape Road
Sold for R15,242
Lot 16 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Portrait of a young woman
Estimated at R7,000 - R10,000
Lot 17 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Classical Woman with Interior
Sold for R7,621
Lot 22 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Illustration to 'The Leopard' by E. Lewis
Sold for R2,345
Lot 24 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) The Old Fort, Grahamstown
Estimated at R3,000 - R5,000
Lot 26 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Jonkershoek
Sold for R938
Lot 27 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) The Old Fort, Grahamstown
Sold for R2,110
Lot 28 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) The Old Farm, Addo Drift
Sold for R4,690
Lot 29 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Old Bath, Constantia
Sold for R5,394
Lot 30 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Cogman's Kloof, Cape
Sold for R5,394
Lot 31 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Javanese dancer
Sold for R21,105
Lot 32 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Balinese dancer
Sold for R21,105
Lot 33 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Mount Fiji
Sold for R3,500
Lot 34 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Old Spanish House, Wall City, Manila
Estimated at R25,000 - R35,000
Lot 35 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Burial Huts, Zanzibar
Estimated at R25,000 - R35,000
Lot 37 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Seascape
Sold for R4,500
Lot 38 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Seascape with Table Mountain
Sold for R3,500
Lot 39 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Newbiggin
Sold for R3,518
Lot 40 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) The Valley of Desolation
Sold for R4,690
Lot 41 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Near Riversdale
Sold for R2,500
Lot 43 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) At Stellenbosch, Cape
Sold for R3,048
Lot 44 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Abechuanalanand Mission Bell
Sold for R2,000
Lot 46 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) The Castle Gate, Cape Town
Estimated at R5,000 - R7,000
Lot 48 - William Timlin (United Kingdom 1892-1943) Brussels
Sold for R586
