# George Armfield artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/george-armfield/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T11:52:42.372Z
Quality: medium confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: British
- Common media: Painting, Drawing

## About George Armfield

George Armfield was a nineteenth-century British painter and draughtsman associated especially with animal, hunting, and domestic genre pictures. The British Museum records him as George Armfield Smith and describes his subjects as hunting scenes, animals, and genre; VIAF also lists the abbreviated name G. Armfield. Art UK documents works held in British public collections, including pictures of dogs, puppies, spaniels flushing birds, terriers, and hunting activity. These records show a practice centered on closely observed animal behavior, often placed within sporting or narrative settings. Collectors most often encounter Armfield through paintings featuring dogs and game, although authority records also identify him as a draughtsman. His recurring subjects and substantial public-auction record make accurate identity matching important, particularly where catalogues use abbreviated signatures or variant forms of his name. Published sources disagree on whether he was born in 1808 or 1810, but they consistently give 1893 as his death year.

## Common works and media

Armfield is most commonly associated with paintings of animals, particularly dogs such as spaniels and terriers. Documented subjects include dogs with puppies, sporting dogs flushing birds, ratting terriers, hunting activity, game, and domestic animal scenes. The British Museum also identifies him as a draughtsman, so drawings and other works on paper may appear alongside paintings in appraisal contexts. Any work should be evaluated for medium, support, dimensions, condition, signature or inscriptions, provenance, and attribution rather than accepted on subject matter alone.

## Market and appraisal context

George Armfield has a substantial public-auction history, but an appraisal should be based on closely comparable works rather than an artist-wide average. Relevant comparisons should align in medium, dimensions, subject, date, condition, and attribution status. Dog and sporting scenes form a recognizable part of his documented output, yet composition, species, narrative interest, and execution can distinguish one picture from another. Signature and inscription evidence, provenance, restoration, surface quality, and catalogue history also require review. Appraisily's current market index contains hundreds of matched records, but private sales, incomplete feeds, changing attributions, and inconsistent treatment of auction fees mean those records are a starting point rather than a final valuation.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine public artist-identity research with matched auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Public-sale data is used as supporting market evidence and does not replace object-specific examination.

## Sources

- British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG46554
- Art UK: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/armfield-george-18101893
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/95883869/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500032843
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21288958
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/george-armfield/