Copy of ‘A Scene at the Mitre’ by Eyre Crowe (1857), published in The Bookman, September 1909
Medium: oil
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1857
It is not known who first purchased this picture, but it was bought in by Christie’s auction house from Hayward and Leggatt on 7 December 1864 for £38 17s 0d. It was then sold to John Knowles. It was auctioned again by Christie’s on 7 April 1865, and sold to the art dealers Messrs Agnew for engraving purposes for £79 9s 0d.
The Reader, December 1864:
The Hayward and Leggatt Gallery. Some few months ago the public were startled by the account of the death of Mr. Leggatt, the eminent picture-dealer of Cornhill, which was occasioned by his swallowing a large iron nail in some soup supplied at the refreshment-room of the Rugby station. In consequence of his death, the above gallery, part of the stock-in trade of the firm of which he was a partner, was dispersed under the hammer of Messrs. Christie, Manson and Woods at the Gallery in Change Alley, Cornhill, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week … 281, Eyre Crowe – Dr Johnson, Boswell and Goldsmith at the Mitre Tavern supping together, 24 in by 19 in, the engraved picture, 37 guineas
It was auctioned again at Sotheby’s on 4 June 1969, but its current ownership is unknown.
Eyre Crowe (1824-1910) 