# William Stephen Coleman artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/william-stephen-coleman/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T20:46:25.875Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: English
- Common media: Painting, Book illustration

## About William Stephen Coleman

William Stephen Coleman (1829–1904) was an English painter and book illustrator whose career belongs to the nineteenth-century British art and publishing context. Authority records from Wikidata, Getty ULAN, VIAF, and the British Museum help distinguish him from other artists named Coleman, while Art UK documents works held in several British public collections. Those collection listings show a varied figurative practice: naiads and female musicians appear alongside children, birds, kittens, garden pools, and an everyday wheelbarrow. Collectors may therefore encounter Coleman through imaginative figure paintings, domestic or pastoral scenes, and material connected with illustrated books rather than through one securely documented movement or single series. His VIAF record also associates him with a published work about seaside pebbles, crystals, and precious stones. The artist's full name, lifespan, subject, medium, signature or inscription, and any publication or collection history provide useful starting points when separating his work from that of similarly named makers.

## Common works and media

Public collection and authority records support paintings and book illustration as the clearest documented parts of Coleman's practice. Art UK collection listings include mythological female figures, children beside pools, birds, a kitten, and an everyday wheelbarrow, indicating both imaginative figure subjects and quieter domestic or pastoral imagery. Auction records also place his name in works-on-paper, print, decorative-art, edition, sculpture, and mixed-media categories, but those broader classifications require object-level verification before they are treated as characteristic Coleman work.

## Market and appraisal context

Appraisily's matched public auction records place works associated with Coleman across broad categories that include paintings, works on paper and prints, sculpture or mixed media, and decorative art or editions. These category labels are not equally well established as characteristic parts of his oeuvre, so an appraisal should begin with the individual object's medium, dimensions, subject, date, condition, signature, inscriptions, and attribution. Provenance, exhibition or publication history, and catalogue references can strengthen identification. Comparable sales are most useful when the works share these characteristics and when reported prices are compared on the same fee basis. Public results do not capture every private transaction, and changes in attribution or condition can make headline price comparisons misleading.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist-identity research with matched public auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Private sales, incomplete feeds, attribution changes, and differences in fee reporting may not be fully represented.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18911913
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500015088
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/44146514/
- British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG23233
- Art UK: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/coleman-william-stephen-18291904
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/william-stephen-coleman/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stephen_Coleman