His easel paintings cost between £48,000 and £195,000 new. According to "The Guardian" he earns £500,000 a year in print royalties. Vettriano's 1992 painting, "The Singing Butler", has been the best-selling image in Britain. On 21 April 2004 the original canvas of "The Singing Butler" sold at auction for £744,500. It had been rejected in 1992 by the Royal Academy summer exhibition. The composition for the painting, as discovered by Scottish designer Sandy Robb, had been sourced from the "Illustrator’s Figure Reference Manual".