I AM delighted to read that John Knox's magnificent painting of the Glasgow Fair has been returned to the city ("Lost painting is displayed", The Herald, February 3).
About 20 years ago, while undertaking a day-by-day search of Glasgow newspapers and journals for any information relating to the fine arts in the city, I found a very interesting and useful advertisement which helped fill a gap in the provenance history of Knox's painting.
On Monday, April 30, 1860, The Glasgow Herald carried an advertisement for an auction to be held at the rooms of P. Burn & Co., at 9 Exchange Place. The sale was of the property of the late John Miller, of Muirshiels, removed from Grosvenor Terrace and Muirshiels, and included furniture, and "two very valuable oil paintings", one of which was Glasgow Fair in the Olden Time, by Knox. It was a described as "a rare work of Art, and very suitable for a public collection". The other painting in the sale, an Old Master, subsequently entered the collection of Robert Napier, the renowned marine engineer. It now is in a public collection in the United States.
It is fortunate for historians that Glasgow's 19th-century newspapers contain so much information relating to the fine arts, which cannot be found elsewhere.
George Fairfull-Smith,
342 Kilmarnock Road,
Glasgow.
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