Sweet Painted Lady

Rain this afternoon meant that, rather than go through a couple of boxes in the garage, I went up to the loft to see if there was anything there that needed shifting. And found this picture. Originally from Mrs C’s ancestral home, it went to the nursing home with her mother and ultimately ended up in our loft after she passed away in 2017.
Where it has sat until today. Neither of us are particularly keen on it, and it certainly won’t fit in with the new decor. The question is, how to dispose of it. It might have some value, so the council tip is not really an option. Charity shops not keen on this sort of thing and I can’t see it proving a hit at a car boot sale. I think we have to pursue the “has it any value” option, so the first step is to see what the local auction house thinks. Due to covid, they prefer to deal with initial enquiries online and will only need to see the actual thing if it looks like it could be saleable. Simple enough then to upload a few photos snd a short description. Well, the photos were simple enough anyway. Trying to find out out details of the artist, subject, date, etc proved to be a lot more time consuming. However, after close scrutiny of what was written under the picture and much trawling of the internet, I now know that this is not an original, but a hand coloured print (mezzotint) dating to 1933 and hand signed by the person responsible - one Ellen Jowett. It seems that mezzotinting was very popular in the first few decades of the 20th Century, taking historic works of art and giving them a new lease of life. This picture is “Mrs William Urquhart” by Henry Raeburn and the original 1814 oil painting hangs in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery.
I shall be interested to see what the auction house think of it. Similar works, also signed by Ellen Jowett, are for sale on eBay for anything between £50 & £120, which implies there could be a value. With 20% commission and a flat £5 sale fee, we need to achieve at least £7 to be in profit - surely we can do better than that!
I’m hoping their response to our enquiry will include such phrases as “lost masterpiece” or “significant discovery”, but suspect that “fairly common” and “best chopped up for firewood” might be nearer the mark.