December 10-13, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2024
Attributed to George Hathorn, RN (1803-1869). Watercolor on paper, 13 x 20 1/2 inches; conservation framed. HMS Orestes was an 18-gun, ship-rigged, sloop of war launched in 1824. During the Carlist War of 1831-32 (Portuguese Civil War), she was the flagship of Captain William Nugent Glascock, Royal Navy, who had charge of a small British naval squadron station on the River Douro to look after British national interests, as well as to protect British persons and property in that war-torn country. It depicts the crew of the wave- and wind-battered sloop cutting down her foremast to prevent her being blown from her moorings and cast up against the docks of Barcelona or into another vessel. This drastic measure allowed the warship and her crew to safely ride out the hurricane without any further undue damage or loss. This well-rendered drawing, found in a 19th century scrapbook relating to the naval career of Vice Admiral George Hathorn, RN, then serving as a lieutenant in Glasscock's command. Drawing was a course of instruction at the Royal Naval College and many talented amateur watercolorists (some who later became professional artists, such as Yates and Strickland) could be found in naval ship wardrooms. Provenance: George Hathorn and by descent in the Hathorn family; J. Welles Henderson Collection to 2008; private collection to present. Literature : J. Welles Henderson and Rodney P. Carlisle. "Jack Tar: A Sailor's Life, 1750-1910"(Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collector's Club, 1999), 231.