$7,995
Chinese School, 19th Century Portrait of the Merchant Ship Boston Light . Unsigned. Oil on canvas, the ship identified by the red flag with black running dog, and by the signal flags flying from the gaff, an American flag flying off the stern, shown under full sail off a mountainous coast, 21 x 26 in., in original black lacquer frame with gilt liner, sold together with a variety of mid-19th century documents and papers relating to the history of the vessel including: a printed document with an accounting of the names of the officers and men on a voyage in 1861; two letters (one dated 1861, the other 1862) addressed to Captain Sturgis Crowell from Hallet & Carman, the merchants and ship owners; two hand-drawn maps charting the Boston Light's progress on an 1855 voyage from Boston to San Francisco; a printed map with pen lines plotting the Boston Light's voyage to the Far East from 1861-1863; two shipping "Report and Manifest" documents for the vessel from the late 1850s and early 1860s; an 1862 Customs Document from Calcutta; a business card from Chong Seng, a Chinese Shoe-Maker doing business at No. 8, Gage Street. Condition: Relined. Note: According to a letter dated August 25, 1970, and written by Philip Chadwick Foster Smith, Curator of Maritime History at the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, the Boston Light was built in 1853 by Briggs of Boston, and was owned by Henry Hallet and Jamal Hutchins (a 1/4 share each) and others, and later by Hallet and Carman, Read more…
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2015-08-08
