This article aims to shed light on the hitherto rather neglected art collecting activities of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, British ambassador in Florence from 1825 to 1828. His purchases, which include Paolo Uccello's 'The Hunt in the Forest' and 'Annunciation', the 'Crucifixion and Pietà' by a 'chompagno' of Simone Martini and Buffalmacco's 'John the Baptist Enthroned', form the early nucleus of the 'Primitives' in the Ashmolean Museum and Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford. A careful analysis of the letters he exchanged with his nephew Henry Fox Talbot offers up an unprecedented insight into the Florentine antiquarian trade and makes it possible to reconstruct a price list of the most expensive works on sale, thus providing objective facts relating to the history of taste. His inquiring eye – being the amateur botanist he was – also gives us a clear picture of those who populated the art market and provides first-hand information on the workshop practices implemented by restorers to make artworks appear more appealing. A comparative reading of contemporary texts, from guidebooks and travelogues to books on collections, makes it possible to build up the vast panorama within which Fox Strangways – more or less consciously – initiated this fortunate buying season.