Lost portrait of Charles Dickens turns up at auction in South Africa Margaret Gillies’ 1843 work, found among trinkets, depicts author as young literary star (Guardian Article)

A portrait of a young and handsome Charles Dickens that was lost for over 130 years has been discovered in a tray of trinkets at an auction in South Africa.

The discovery is one of the most remarkable finds of recent memory. The art dealer Philip Mould, who was instrumental in its identification, said: "I've spent a career specialising in British art and this ranks among the most exciting things we have ever discovered. It is the lost portrait."

It was found last year in a general sale in Pietermaritzburg in the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal. A man paid the equivalent of £27 for a cardboard tray containing a metal lobster, an old recorder, a brass plate and a small painting which was so covered with mould that the face could barely be made out.

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