Rare Nightingale photo sold off

The photograph is listed to sell for between £300 and £500

A rare photograph of Florence Nightingale has been sold for £5,500.

The picture, taken by Lizzie Caswell-Smith, shows the famous nurse in bed at home in London's Park Lane, shortly before she died aged 90 in 1910.

The lot had been listed to sell for up to £500 at auction house Dreweatts in Newbury, Berkshire, on Wednesday.

The photograph came to light when a relative of Ms Caswell-Smith's brought it in to be valued at a branch of Dreweatts in Bristol.

Auctioneer Peter Rixon said: "We have regular valuation days and this came through our Bristol office.

She essentiality remained a private person and did not seek great publicity for herself Auctioneer Peter Rixon

"It was in amongst a bundle of documents in a carrier bag.

"It came down through family of the photographer after passing through several generations."

The black and white picture has the pencil note: "Taken just before she died, house near Park Lane.

"The only photograph I ever took out of studio. I shall never forget the experience."

Mr Rixon said photographs of Miss Nightingale were very rare.

"She essentiality remained a private person and did not seek great publicity for herself.

"So the number of known photographic images are very low, estimates suggest fewer than a dozen."

Miss Nightingale, known as the Lady with the Lamp, gained worldwide renown for her work as a nurse during the Crimean War.

She emerged as a heroine from the conflict, during which she led a team of 38 female nurses ministering to wounded soldiers in extremely difficult conditions.

A spokeswoman from Dreweatts said: "Somebody obviously really wanted it."

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