IN the introduction to her book: Art and Yorkshire, From Turner to Hockney, art historian Jane Sellars remembers returning a hugely valuable watercolour to its home, an obscure country house somewhere deep in the countryside.

Sellars, who was then principal curator of Harewood House, had the painting, by JMW Turner, wrapped in bubble-wrap on the back seat of her car, and together with a colleague, transported it much like a priceless tray of particularly delicate eggs.

It was then, something of a surprise, to find that the owner was somewhat casual about its return.

"It was not a big painting, but we curators are rather fussy about how art objects are handled, especially by their owners," writes Sellars. "We cringed as he whisked the package out of my hand and carried it by one corner into the blissfully Aga-warmed kitchen where he casually propped the picture against the fridge."

His Lordship, who Sellars does not identify, presumably for fear of alerting potential thieves to the location of the priceless piece of art, took Sellars on a tour of the 'icy but beautiful' house with its many pictures on the walls and views of rolling landscapes from its shuttered windows.

"Eventually, we went into an upstairs room with an empty space above the fireplace, apart from one lonely nail."

Sellars continues how his Lordship, spotting the nail, was reminded of having to 're-hang' the Turner, and went off to fetch a stepladder.

Back in the kitchen, a dog rushed in and knocked the painting with his tail - it just being saved from falling by Sellars' colleague.

"Back upstairs, a large stepladder was flailing about with His Lordship underneath it. I rushed to help while Caroline, wide-eyed, clung to the picture, reluctant to unwrap it."

The painting was eventually returned to its spot - but not without all three of them balancing on chairs.

"There were a few more minutes of slapstick as I directed His Lordship in getting the picture straight, then at last it was done. We said our goodbyes, got into the car and drove the long way home to Harewood in total silence."

Yorkshire-born Sellars, in addition to her connection with Harewood House, was director of the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth, is now curator of art at the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, for which the publication of her book was timed to coincide with an exhibition of many of the works of art included in the book.

Having studied art history at Manchester University, Sellars went on to teach before landing her first job in a gallery at The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

She developed an interest in the work of women artists, and on her move to the Bronte Parsonage Museum intended to develop her career as a feminist historian.

But she found that her new job required her to be keeper of so much more, including pencil drawings made by Charlotte Bronte of Bolton Abbey.

The book also includes a preface by playwrite Alan Bennett, who talks about the accessibility of the Turner paintings - because they are so topographical.

"Any one of the Turners in this book, the one of Fountains for instance, would sell for many hundreds of thousands of pounds but to the causal viewer it's a familiar prospect of a well-loved place," he writes. "It's good but its also ordinary. Is it a masterpiece? I don't know and I don't much care because it gets in the way. Here where we know these paintings and often know the places they depict, we can, and should ignore the rest. "

In addition to Turner, probably the most well known of all the artists included in the book, there are works by David Hockney, Atkinson Grimshaw, John Piper and Alfred Munnings.

Leeds born artist Edna Lumb, would arrive wherever she wanted to paint in a Transit van full of easels and paints. Her picture of Giggleswick Quarry, says Sellars, is transformed into a 'veritable Ghormenghast'.

John William Inchbold's picture of the White Doe of Rylstone is a blaze of bright, intense colours, and one can see how he drew the admiration of John Ruskin, a supporter of Pre-Raphaelite art.

The painting is an illustration of William Wordsworth's ballard of the same name and has great similarities with Holman Hunt's The Scapegoat, one of the most well-known paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite artists.

He was a contemporary of Atkinson Grimshaw, one of Yorkshire's most admired painters, whose work includes pictures of Ingleborough and Barden.

Art and Yorkshire From Turner to Hockney, published by Great NOrthern Books, is available now, priced at £20.

The accompanying exhibition at the Mercer Art Gallery , Swan Road, Harrogate, runs until Sunday, October 12, admission free.

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