A portrait with bonus – the sitter’s waistcoat

Old portraits will typically long outlast the garments worn in them. Lot 135 in an auction held at Cheffins (22.5% buyer’s premium) in Cambridge on March 6 was one of those rare instances when both portrait and clothing had survived together.

The portrait, dated 1750, was painted by Italian neoclassical painter Marco Benefial (1684-1764) a…

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