Bonhams 1793 : WILSON (EDWARD) Sketch of a fantastic pressure ridge, 1911; together with 2 ALS, primus stove, aneroid barometer, and typescript ms with notes by EW (small quantity)

Sketch of a fantastic pressure ridge, pencil drawing on a leaf from a sketchbook, 122 x 201mm., dated "4.30 pm, 1 September, [19]11"; together with a Radius primus stove, and a watch form aneroid barometer (lacking thermometic capillary); a 9-page typescript relating to a controversy between Borchgrevink and the Natural History Museum (1902) with ink annotations in the hand of Edward Wilson; 2 autograph letters signed by Reginald R. Wishaw to Wilson's father concerning Edward's health, dated 1898 (small quantity)

Sold for £3,250 inc. premium

Footnotes

A fine pencil sketch, dated a couple of days before Scott named the sixteen men who would set out on the journey to the Pole. In the travelling exhibition of Wilson's watercolours, held in 1913, there were a number of pictures dated September 1911, mostly of views near Cape Evans, and of the Barne Glacier, the catalogue noting that Wilson used pencil as "owing to the very low temperatures it was impossible to use water colours out of doors in the Antarctic".

The Primus stove, commonly known as a "Nansen cooker", was an essential piece of equipment for the Antarctic expeditions, first used by Borchgrevink. This is a "Radius 5S:or" model, with soldered repairs. The aneroid barometer is made by "L. Casella, Maker to the Admiralty". For other scientific instruments from the Wilson family see Bonhams sale "Exploration and Travel", 16 September, 2009.

The typescript is a copy of the correspondence, carried out in a series of letters to The Times, between Carsten Borchgrevink, the taxidermist E. Ray Lankester, and Bowdler Sharpe of the Natural History Museum, relating to specimens collected on the "Southern Cross".

Provenance: Edward Wilson and family, and by descent.

Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

Auction terms and conditions