Two of Irma Stern’s most prized artwork; Zanzibar Arab, 1945 and Watussi Dancers, 1942 will go on auction in Bonhams South African Art sale taking place in Bond Street, London on 14 September

Bonhams confirmed that both pieces of artworks are estimated at £800,000-1,200,000.

Watussi Dancers was painted in the mid-1940s and is a showcase of Irma's Stern's extensive travels which the South African artist had made to Zanzibar and the region of the African Great Lakes during this period. It was in the Congo that Stern came across the Tutsi people whose personalities she captured in Watussi Dancers.

Zanzibar Arab, painted in Zanzibar in 1945, was also recreated in the artist’s book, Zanzibar, where the artist revealed her best works from this tour. One of Irma's works in the book, Arab Priest, set a world record, selling for £3.1 million at Bonhams.

The two paintings are framed in Stern's Zanzibar frames, created from pieces of wooden Zanzibar doorways, which is still now unique to the island.