AN oil painting by a Worcester artist could fetch £80,000 at auction tomorrow - 133 years after it "vanished" from the county.

The rural scene, called simply Breakfast, was painted by Foregate Street artist Edward Thompson Davis in 1855.

But the 24in by 31in oil has not been seen in public since it was snapped up at Christie's in 1869.

The Victorian painting, part of a catalogue entitled The Remaining Pictures and Sketches of the Late Edward Davis of Worcester, was bought by a Worcester family, who have kept it ever since.

At some stage they moved to Oxfordshire - and it was there that it was re-discovered during a routine valuation.

Charles O'Brien, picture specialist at London auctioneers Bonhams, dubbed the find "an exciting new discovery" and said it could fetch between £50,000 and £80,000 when it goes under the hammer tomorrow.

The work shows a room with light flooding through the window, illuminating a baby.

The rest of the family are gathered round while the elder brother tucks into his breakfast bowl of porridge.

Davis painted the scene while he was living in Foregate Street.

Mr O'Brien said it confirmed Davis among the foremost genre painters of mid-Victorian England.

Davis often portrayed scenes of everyday rural life in villages surrounding Worcester, but it was his detailed oils of rural folk, both young and old, that gained him his greatest acclaim.

Born in 1833, Davis was the second son of a tradesman based in the city. Having shown an early talent for drawing, he studied at Birmingham School of Art and, later, the Worcester School of Design.

He was one of the first exhibitors at the newly-formed Worcester Society of Arts, but first made his mark in 1853, at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.

His London debut at the Royal Academy in 1854 brought him immediate success.

For most of his life, Davis lived in Worcester city centre, or in nearby Northwick, though he spent a short time in London in 1856.

Like many of his contemporaries he travelled abroad, including Holland and Italy. He died in Rome in 1867, aged only 34, after a short illness.

"It makes one wonder what further strengths Davis would have revealed had he lived longer," Mr O'Brien said.

The painting is believed to have been exhibited only once, at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, in 1856.

The auction is due to take place at Bonhams, New Bond Street, London, tomorrow.