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£2.95 charity shop painting set to sell for £3,000

A woman who bought a painting at a charity shop for £2.95 is set to sell it for £3,000 at auction.

Jan Buglass, 53, could make 1,000 per cent profit after the portrait, showing a pretty girl in a straw hat, was identified as the work of Royal Academician William Powell Frith.

The mother bought the picture at the PDSA shop at Portishead, near Bristol, 15 years ago, because she thought it suited her Victorian house's decor. But after hearing how much it could fetch she has decided to sell, to help pay her children's university fees. The painting is due to be auctioned by Dreweatts auctioneers in Donnington Priory near Newbury, Berks, in October.

Born in 1819, Firth specialised in portraits and was elected to the Royal Academy in 1852.

He is best known for his 1858 work Derby Day, a portrayal of the scene at the Epsom races which is part of the Tate Britain collection.

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