Engravings of Daniel Lambert up for sale
PRINTS OF CITY’S FAMOUS FAT MAN IN LOT VALUED AT £500 TO £800
NEWLY-DISCOVERED pictures of the city’s famous fat man, Daniel Lambert, are to go under the hammer next week.
The 50-stone Leicester resident was declared the heaviest man in history after he was tricked on to a set of scales in 1805.
His huge chair is one of the main attractions at Newarke Houses Museum, in the city.
While he was shy about his weight and became a recluse for a while, Daniel moved to London and made money exhibiting himself until his death, while on tour in Stamford, in June 1809, aged 39.
When he died, he weighted 52st 11lb.
Two engraved, early 19th century prints have been found by Jim Spencer, associate director of Hansons Auctioneers.
He discovered them during a routine cataloguing at Bishton Hall, the firm’s Staffordshire saleroom at Wolseley Bridge. They are going on sale with other prints with a guide price of £500 to £800.
Mr Spencer said: “This is what I love about my job – bringing the past to life and celebrating history.
“I was working my way through five large boxes full of pieces of paper, mostly 19th century bookplates, portraits and topographical views, but all the while remembering that everything tells a story.
“Stop and study anything and it starts to speak.
“I’d heard about Lambert when I visited St Martin’s Church in Stamford some years ago and the prints just caught my attention.
“They don’t have much monetary value on their own but they depict a famous character from the past – a complicated sort of life but a fascinating one.”
Mr Spencer said according to historical records, Lambert was a renowned sportsman who taught swimming and could stay afloat with two grown men on his back.
He famously fought a bear in the streets of Leicester, and was able to stand on one leg while kicking his other leg seven feet into the air.
Lambert, who was born in Blue Boar Lane, Leicester, on March 13, 1770, was a jailer who befriended many of the prisoners. Mr Spencer said Daniel seems to have been sensitive about his size, refusing to be weighed, but was tricked when his friends invited him to see a cock fight in Loughborough.
The carriage he was travelling in was driven on to scales. The other members of the party jumped out and then calculated his weight by deducting the weight of the carriage.
In London, he became annoyed by the constant attention and returned to Leicester a wealthy man.
After his death, the wall of the apartment he was staying in had to be demolished to get the coffin out.
It took 20 men almost half an hour to wheel the casket to his grave at St Martin’s Church, Stamford.
The two engravings are being sold as part of an archive of prints in five boxes in the Hansons’ Country House Attic Auction at Bishton Hall, on March 3.
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