Archivist Alex Jackson is hoping Telegraph & Argus readers will help him solve a possible £1 million mystery.

Mr Jackson believes he has an unsigned oil painting by 19th century French artist Maurice de Vlaminck but to prove it he needs to find out how it ended up in Bradford.

Mr Jackson who bought the painting at an auction in the 1970s for £52 always thought it was part of a collection of prints that came from a Bradford second hand bookseller called Hardaker.

He has searched old telephone and trade directories but the nearest he can find is B F Hardwick Bookbinders and Stationers which was around until 1975.

To help him find out how the painting, called Spring – Young Lady and Tree In Blossom, got into Bradford hands, he hopes someone from the Hardwick family or a former employee will be able to fill him in.

A leading expert on paint and pigment identification has already dated the picture to the beginning of the 1900s which fits with Vlaminck’s Fauvist period – the vivid and colourful Fauve movement was from 1904-08.

Mr Jackson is fascinated by the painting which he hopes to get authenticated and, although it is more detailed than Vlaminck’s other works, characterised by vivid colours, black and blue outlines, flat faces and circular heads, he is sure it is his.

The Wildenstein Institute in Paris rejected it but Mr Jackson is determined to prove it wrong and anyone who helps him with the provenance that backs up the Vlaminck link would be in for a reward, he said.

“If it is Vlaminck’s work and we can prove it, we’re looking at seven figures.

“It matches his style. It’s painted on a panel – he could not afford canvas. Looking at it, he has put more detail into this work, maybe the lady in it was the love of his life.

“Maybe the painting had belonged to someone French who brought it to England when they moved here or married here. I hope someone out there can help piece this mystery together.”

Over the past four decades Mr Jackson has collected about 50,000 Yorkshire postcards, prints and maps but he can no longer afford to continue the collection himself.

He hopes to sell it to another collector or entrepreneur who will get it digitised and make it available for research on the internet so it can become an important archive for future generations.

The collection is being sold by Dominic Winter Book Auctions on Wednesday, March 31, in Gloucestershire but there is a one day view today at the Yorkshire Hotel, Harrogate.

Anyone with information about the painting can contact Mr Jackson on either 07739 698479 or 07785 322844.