May 24, 2009
How Philip Mould found a Gainsborough on eBay
Philip Mould has discovered, restored and found 'lost' paintings including a Gainsborough, he reveals in his book Sleuth
Ed Caesar

As a teenager, Philip Mould loved to perform magic tricks. He’s still at it now. Indeed, in his 22 years as a debonair dealer and “sleuth” of English portraiture, he has become one of the greatest conjurors in the business. Through discovery, restoration and historical research, he has — shazam! — found “lost” paintings, turned unloved tat into minor art gems and traded portraits that have unstitched the seams of art history.
One of his most treasured foundlings — a jolly portrait of a country squire — is sitting with us now, perched on an easel in the office of Mould’s Mayfair gallery. The story of its discovery is related in his new book, Sleuth, about his adventures in the high-art world. The dealer first saw the painting two years ago while idly browsing on eBay. It was described as “American school, 19th-century”. Although it was clearly overpainted, Mould became convinced, in one of the nervous, thrilling moments that have punctuated his career, that he was on to something. He bought the lot for less than $200. When the painting arrived in London, Mould decided, for the first (and last) time in his career, that he would start the restoration work himself (see extract below). What he found confirmed his suspicions that he was looking at an original, Ipswich-era Gainsborough.
He calls the painting “Mr eBay”. It’s clear the pair are still very much in love. “I know it’s an unsophisticated early work, but there is,” says Mould, in his public-school chirrup, “a chuckling humanity in the face.” And the recent private sale of Mr eBay must have had the dealer chuckling all the way to the bank? “I can’t give you an exact figure,” he says, suddenly coy. “This is not a great Gainsborough, but his portraits can sell for anything from £15,000 to £5m. Let’s just say he paid for a couple of months’ overheads at the gallery.”
Mould’s love for the Suffolk painter has led him to a more significant discovery, which will be formally recognised by Gainsborough’s House on June 1. The dealer has promised not to reveal the exact nature of the new work, but is happy to say that the painting comes from when the artist was “14 or 15, and will shed new light on our understanding of his precocity. It will show that Gainsborough was a Mozart, a juvenile genius”. ...