When a modest 19th-century silhouette portrait of a clergyman arrived at our salerooms, it came with a few intriguing notes – most notably that its subject, Reverend Edward Joseph Coltman, had once been considered the largest man in England. The artwork itself, a small unsigned English School watercolour, was estimated at a cautious £100-£200. But behind the simple black profile lay an extraordinary life story waiting to be rediscovered – and that, ultimately, made all the difference.
From the moment we began cataloguing the piece, it was clear there was more here than met the eye. Reverend Coltman had served as Perpetual Curate of Beverley Minster for over two decades and was a prominent figure in early 19th-century Yorkshire. Born in 1776 and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was not only known for his physical size – outweighed only by Daniel Lambert – but also for his civic and moral leadership. He was involved in establishing local schools, supported the Beverley Dispensary, championed Sunday schools, and even campaigned publicly for both the abolition of slavery and Catholic emancipation.
Digging deeper, we uncovered the extraordinary details of his life: Coltman travelled the streets of Beverley on a specially reinforced velocipede – essentially a hobby-horse on wheels – sometimes pulled by a footman. He was said to have needed a team of vergers to wheel him up an incline to the pulpit. And perhaps most unforgettable of all was the dramatic end to his life, reportedly suffocating in bed after rolling over and before his footmen could assist.
Recognising the strength of this human story, we set out to bring it to a wider audience. Our team developed a feature article and launched a focused campaign across our website, email newsletters and social media platforms. Rather than simply marketing a silhouette, we told the story behind the portrait. The item quickly caught the attention of journalists, and with carefully crafted press outreach, the story was soon picked up by a range of major publications.