John Copley Auction Prices and Value Guide

John Copley auction prices are tracked in Appraisily's artist market index, with source-directory coverage of 202 records. Use this page to review sold-lot activity, market context, and valuation factors before requesting a formal appraisal.

John Copley auction prices: quick answer

John Copley auction prices depend on medium, size, date, condition, provenance, edition details, attribution confidence, and recent comparable auction sales.

Artist
John Copley
Source records
202
Market update
2026-02-06

John Copley market snapshot

John Copley shows solid auction liquidity with 117 tracked lots. Median realized sale is around $130. Category concentration is still broad or sparse. Last 12 months recorded 3 sales. Latest recorded sale: 2025-10-22.

Realized price distribution

  • Under $1,000 (93.5% · 58 sales)
  • $1,000 to $10,000 (6.5% · 4 sales)
  • $10,000+ (0.0% · 0 sales)
Median sale (last 12 months)
$220
Sales recorded (last 12 months)
3
Median shift vs prior year
+83.3%
Latest recorded sale
2025-10-22

Artist context

About John Copley

John Copley portrait
John Singleton Copley · Public domain · Source

Born

1738

Died

1815

Nationality

American, British

Also known as

John Singleton Copley, Copley, John Singleton

John Copley is the shortened auction and search form used here for John Singleton Copley (1738–1815), an American-born British painter. He established his reputation through portraits of affluent sitters in colonial New England before moving to London in 1774. There he continued portrait work and produced large history paintings, including treatments of contemporary events and figures in modern dress. Collectors therefore encounter his name across two connected contexts: colonial American portraiture and later British portrait and history painting. The distinction matters because the short name “John Copley” can be ambiguous in databases, while authority records identify this artist under his full name. This page uses the full-name identity for entity matching while preserving Appraisily's public display name. Sources in the collected pack chiefly document paintings, especially portraits, together with the large history subjects associated with his London career. Any individual object still requires work-level attribution and evidence.

Colonial American portraitureBritish portrait and history paintingPaintingPortraitsHistorical and contemporary events

Common works and media

Public identity sources characterize Copley as a painter. The documented body of work centers on portraits—first associated with colonial New England sitters and later with London patrons—and on large history paintings made after his move to Britain. This pack does not establish prints, editions, sculptures, ceramics, drawings, or posters as common auction forms, so those categories should not be inferred from the artist name alone.

Market and appraisal context

Market review should begin by confirming that a record refers to John Singleton Copley, not merely to a creator indexed as “John Copley.” Comparable selection should then separate colonial New England portraits from London-period portraits and history paintings, since the source pack documents different subjects and career contexts. The supplied Appraisily page indicates an auction-record corpus, but this research pack contains no fetched major-auction-house cataloguing, work-level provenance, condition reports, or verified price trend. Accordingly, this profile does not predict value or rank demand. Appraisal should examine the specific object's attribution, date, subject, materials, documentation, and physical state, then compare it with public lots whose cataloguing, sale dates, and realized prices are available.

Auction categories and appraisal factors

Value drivers

  1. Confirmation that a record or object refers to John Singleton Copley rather than an ambiguous short-name match
  2. Career context, including whether a work is associated with colonial New England or the artist's London period after 1774
  3. Subject classification as portraiture or history painting when selecting comparable works

Appraisal caveats

  • The collected pack contains no fetched major-auction-house catalogue text, work-level provenance, condition report, or verified price-trend evidence.
  • The Appraisily input reports an auction-record corpus, but the supplied pack does not establish which media or subjects occur most frequently within those records.
  • The shortened name John Copley requires identity checking before auction records are combined or compared.

Evidence

Sources for artist context

This source-grounded artist context is based on collected public records: medium confidence, adequate source quality.

Source-grounded artist Markdown

Data basis

This page is built from Appraisily's public auction market index. Private transactions, incomplete sale feeds, and attribution changes may not be fully represented.

LLM-readable Markdown summary for John Copley

LLM summary index · LLM full index

Artist value FAQ

How much is John Copley worth?

Comparable public auction sales are the best starting point, but final value depends on the specific artwork, condition, size, medium, provenance, and attribution confidence.

Can Appraisily value my John Copley artwork?

Yes. Appraisily can review photos, dimensions, signatures, condition, provenance, and comparable market data to prepare a current valuation.