Leo Webster
Senior Specialist
Lot 113AR
Shane Couch(British, born 1963)'Golden Memories': the Prince of Wales's racing cutter Britannia lying in Cowes Roads at the end of her maiden season dressed with her 33 winners' flags
18 October 2017, 14:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £8,750 inc. premium
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Rhyanon Demery
Head of Sale
Jon Baddeley
Specialist Consultant Collectors, Science & Marine
Shane Couch (British, born 1963)
'Golden Memories': the Prince of Wales's racing cutter Britannia lying in Cowes Roads at the end of her maiden season dressed with her 33 winners' flags
signed and dated 'Shane M. Couch ©99', also signed, inscribed and dated 'MCouch 01/99 CMA005 "Golden Memories"' (on stretcher verso)
oil on canvas
101.5 x 152cm (39 15/16 x 59 13/16in).
signed and dated 'Shane M. Couch ©99', also signed, inscribed and dated 'MCouch 01/99 CMA005 "Golden Memories"' (on stretcher verso)
oil on canvas
101.5 x 152cm (39 15/16 x 59 13/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 28 April 1999, lot 195.
Purchased from above sale by the present owner.
The so-called 'King's Britannia' was arguably the most famous racing cutter of the breed and was built for King Edward VII – whilst he was still Prince of Wales – in 1893. Designed by the creative genius George L. Watson and launched from D. & W. Henderson's yard at Partick, on the Clyde, she enjoyed a hugely successful career and began it by winning 33 firsts out of 39 starts in her maiden season. Despite being re-rigged seven times in forty years, she remained remarkably competitive almost to the end of her long life and was probably the most instantly recognisable yacht in the world. In reality, she had two brilliant but quite separate lives, initially with her original owner the Prince of Wales until he sold her in 1897 – even though he subsequently bought her back solely for cruising – and then, secondly, under his son King George V, particularly after the latter had her refitted for big class competitions in 1921. Thereafter coming into her own, she completely dominated the international racing scene for well over ten years until finally outclassed by the big new J-class boats in the mid-1930s. By then however, her owner the King was ailing and when he died in January 1936, the terms of his will stipulated that she was to be scuttled if none of his sons wanted her. Sadly none did so, stripped of all her salvageable gear, she was towed out and sunk off the southern tip of the Isle of Wight where her remains still lie. With the King's death, he was at least spared the disappointment of her eventual eclipse but she nevertheless remains one of the legends of yachting on a par with the justly celebrated America of 1851.
We are grateful to Michael Naxton for his assistance with cataloguing this lot.