LONDON.- Sotheby’s sale of Victorian and Edwardian Art on Thursday, December 17, 2009 will bring together some 100 works by leading artists of the era and is expected to raise in excess of £4.2 million. Among the categories of works to be offered will be a strong contingent of classical, mythological, genre, landscape and fairy pictures. The sale will include a quintessential work by Charles Spencelayh (1865-1958). Considered his masterpiece, The Old Dealer (The Old Curiosty Shop) was immensely popular at the time of its exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1925. The subject is a purveyor of antiques surrounded by a vast array of objects. Such was the appeal of the bric-a-brac on display that Spencelayh was inundated with letters from admirers enquiring about whether they might be able to purchase the items on view. Estimated at £250,000-350,000, the painting was reproduced on the front cover of the monograph on the artist publis