ART consultant James Mulraine has uncovered a portrait of the man who founded the Somerset County Gazette in 1834.
The painting of lawyer and publishing entrepreneur Edward Cox was by the Hon John Collier and is signed and dated 1878.
Mr Cox, who was aged 25 when the first ever copies of the Gazette hit the streets, also founded or revived The Law Times, Exchange & Mart, Crockford’s Clerical Directory and The Field.
He was a Serjeant-at-Law and a judge, as well as a pioneer psychic investigator, but he has chosen to be painted as a Victorian gentleman of leisure surrounded by his prized orchids.
His collection was one of the best-known and most valuable of the time - when his orchids were auctioned after his death, one lot sold for £12 12s, the equivalent of about £1,300 today.
The National Portrait Gallery archive and the Orchid Society of Great Britain have agreed that this newly-identified painting is the only-known oil portrait of Serjeant Cox.
The painting is currently with Mr Mulraine’s client, Tony Roberts of Cider House Galleries.
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