Mary Blood Mellen's Ship at Sea (1817-1882) is expected to provide the top lot of an upcoming art auction in Connecticut.

The newly discovered marine work is predicted to sell for between $200,000-300,000 when it auctions on October 24.

Mellen's Ship at Sea has a $300,000 high estimate

A member of New England's Hudson River school of artists, Mellen is noted for her Maine and Massachusetts seascapes and landscapes.

Mellen's work will have competition from 19th century Austrian artist Franz Richard Unterberger's Canal in Venice.

Famed for his colourful Italian works, the piece is expected to achieve between $150,000 and $250,000.

"We only conduct two sales a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. For every consignment we accept we probably turn away twenty artworks, so this auction represents a wide range of top-quality pieces, at price points that will appeal to the novice collector as well as the seasoned veteran," commented the auction house's Sandra Germain.

"There really is something for everyone."

Two works from the New Hope or Pennsylvania school of landscape painting, prominent during the first half of the 20th century, will also feature. Impressionist painter Edward Willis Redfield's Sleigh Days has a $150,000 high valuation while Rae Sloan Bredin's In June could achieve up to $75,000.

Burning Spider Web, a gouache work by modernist Gerome Kamrowski, will auction with a $60,000 high estimate.

We will bring you full details of the sale later in the month, so make sure you check back here.

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