A PORTRAIT of a man who made his fortune from West Cumbrian coal could sell for up to £5,000 in auction.
The oil painting of William Lowther, First Earl of Lonsdale, is included in the Saturday, March 17, sale (LOT 549) by Tennants of Leyburn, North Yorkshire.
It has a pre-sale estimate of £3,000 to £5,000 and has been attributed to the artists Sir Thomas Lawrence, who lived from 1769 to 1830.
The Earl of Lonsdale lived from 1757 to 1844 and was based at Lowther Castle, near Penrith, which the family had owned since the Middle Ages.
He was MP for Appleby in 1780 and later for Carlisle; Cumberland and finally Rutland in 1802.
The painting comes a private collection.
Lowther Castle was largely demolished in the 1950s and a large auction sale of family treasures was held in 1947.
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