A PAINTING depicting a 17th Century auction will go under the hammer next month.

A Dutch Auction was painted by Antoon Francois Heyligers.

The work is expected to fetch between £4,000 and £6,000 at Tennants, in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, at the auction house's spring catalogue sale on April 12 and 13.

Head of pictures Allan Darwell said the oil painting evoked a certain amount of tension, leading experts to speculate that it depicted a bankruptcy or deceased estate sale.

"This very fine painting is in good original condition and is signed and dated 1858," he said.

"It remains in its original elaborately-decorated Victorian gilt plaster frame which has the title of the work and the artist's name inscribed."

The painting hung for many decades in Field House, the home of the Tillotson family, in Bolton, Lancashire.

Marcus Tillotson, who died in August 2005, was a well-known figure in Bolton.

He was the grandson of the founder of the Bolton Evening News and was chairman of the company from 1956 to 1971.