London art dealers said demand for U.K. Victorian and 20th-century art has slowed, reining in prices, after sales in which nearly half the lots failed to sell.

The auctions, which missed estimates set by Sotheby's, came as buyers watched U.K. stock and real-estate prices fall. Confidence among some U.K. private art collectors had collapsed, said dealers. The lackluster sales followed a boom for Victorian art starting in the late 1990s, fueled by British collectors such as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Isabel Goldsmith.

``People are frightened; they are nervous,'' said Rupert Maas, a London-based specialist in 19th-century British art, in a phone interview. ``They see the value of all their assets going south and they can't see the point in increasing their possessions.''

This is a handout released to the media on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 of 'Summer Seas' by Herbert Draper

Sotheby's auction of Victorian and Edwardian art on July 15 attracted buyers for only 56 percent of its 124 lots. The total of 2.9 million pounds ($5.8 million) with fees was less than half the presale low-end estimate of 6 million pounds.

That morning, Sotheby's 214-lot sale of Modern British art took 6.4 million pounds with fees against a lower estimate of 7.5 million pounds. Forty percent of the works were left unsold.

Both sales -- which depend heavily on U.K. buyers -- fetched totals that were more than 30 percent lower than those achieved at the equivalent Victorian and Modern British auctions last year, said the U.S.-based auction house.

``Bidding was tentative and selective,'' said Grant Ford, Sotheby's senior director of Victorian and Edwardian art. ``It was more of a national sale, rather than an international sale, and we did have fewer buyers than last time.''

Fireplace Girl

James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot's 1870 painting ``La Cheminee,'' showing an elaborately dressed girl in front of a fireplace, was left unsold against an estimate of 1 million pounds to 1.5 million pounds. The work had been bought at Christie's International, London, in June 2003 for 1.6 million pounds, according to Artnet, which tracks auction results.

John William Waterhouse's 1916 Pre-Raphaelite style canvas ``Tristram and Isolde'' failed to sell against expectations of 500,000 pounds to 1 million pounds.

Sotheby's said the Tissot and the Waterhouse both found buyers after the sale, at prices near their low estimates.

At one stage of Sotheby's Victorian sale, a run of 25 lots failed to attract any bidders from a sparse audience.

The FTSE 100 Index has fallen about 20 percent this year.

Female Nudes

The highest price paid at the Sotheby's Victorian auction was the 337,250 pounds paid by a telephone buyer for the 1910 canvas ``By Summer Seas,'' by Herbert James Draper, showing two Edwardian female nudes lounging on rocks.

In the 1990s, Lloyd Webber, Goldsmith, U.S. stockbroker Jerome Davis and Australian cleaning-services magnate John Schaeffer generated seven-figure auction prices for Victorian art.

The market peaked in June 2000 when Lloyd Webber paid 6.6 million pounds with fees -- then the second-highest price ever paid for a British work of art -- for John William Waterhouse's ``St. Cecilia.''

Dealers said the four collectors have become less active in the market since.

Works with high estimates also struggled to attract bids at Sotheby's 20th-century British auction.

The 1950 abstract ``Walk Along the Quay,'' by the St. Ives artist Terry Frost was expected to fetch at least 400,000 pounds, doubling the previous record for the artist fetched at Sotheby's in December.

Nicholson Canvas

The 6-foot-high canvas failed to sell, as did the oil-on- board still life ``June 1949 (Lorca),'' by fellow St. Ives artist Ben Nicholson, estimated at 250,000 pounds to 350,000 pounds.

``There was bound to be a correction,'' said John Austin, co-founder of the London gallery Austin/Desmond, which specializes in 20th-century British art.

``The auction houses can't keep putting high estimates on things that were selling for fractions of those prices just a couple of years ago,'' said Austin in an interview. ``There's also a lot of bad news around.''

Austin said Sotheby's Modern British sale suffered from being at the end of the season and having too many lots.

Advance Estimates

``There is an element of uncertainty at the moment,'' said James Rawlin, Sotheby's senior director of 20th-century British art, in a telephone interview. He said that in many cases estimates had been decided several months before the sale. ``We have to fix prices in the light of precedent and the competition,'' said Rawlin.

The top price at the sale was the 825,000 pounds with fees paid by the London dealership Osborne Samuel for the 1930s Henry Moore stone sculpture ``Figure,'' estimated at 600,000 pounds to 800,000 pounds.

Formerly owned by Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren, this 2-foot, 4-inch-high sculpture had been offered in an Impressionist and Modern auction at Sotheby's, New York, in May with an estimate of between $2.5 million and $3.5 million; it didn't sell.