This portrait of Henry Hunt – of Peterloo fame – was owned by William Sisson. He voted for Hunt in 1830 when he became Preston’s first radical MP, and was sacked from his job in a Preston factory when his employer found out. The painting hung in pride of place above the family mantelpiece for a century afterwards. The portrait is part of a small collection of election medals, a small number of ceramics and items more widely associated with voting, the 1832 Reform Act and protest.