Philippa Iles
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 107
Muirhead Bone(British, 1876-1953)'The Bridge of a Merchant Ship at Sea'
30 April 2025, 14:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £1,280 inc. premium
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Polly Cornthwaite
Senior Cataloguer
Rhyanon Demery
Head of Sale
Muirhead Bone (British, 1876-1953)
'The Bridge of a Merchant Ship at Sea'
signed 'Muirhead Bone' (lower right) and inscribed 'N.59/The Bridge of a Merchant Ship at Sea' (lower left, verso); bears a red stamp that reads 'PASSED/CHIEF CENSOR, ADMIRALTY' with indistinct initials and the date '9/8/1917' (lower right, verso)
charcoal
35 x 53cm (13 3/4 x 20 7/8in).
Together with a black and white photograph thought to show Captain David W. Bone on the bridge of a ship. (2)
signed 'Muirhead Bone' (lower right) and inscribed 'N.59/The Bridge of a Merchant Ship at Sea' (lower left, verso); bears a red stamp that reads 'PASSED/CHIEF CENSOR, ADMIRALTY' with indistinct initials and the date '9/8/1917' (lower right, verso)
charcoal
35 x 53cm (13 3/4 x 20 7/8in).
Together with a black and white photograph thought to show Captain David W. Bone on the bridge of a ship. (2)
Footnotes
Provenance
Captain Sir David W. Bone (according to gallery label attached to the backing board).
Private collection, UK.
Literature
The Western Front: Drawings by Muirhead Bone, published by Authority of the War Office from the offices of Country Life Ltd., London, 1917, illustrated (Ixxx).
David W. Bone, Merchantmen-At-Arms, London, 1919, illustrated on p.7 (titled 'The Bridge of a Merchantman').
Captain Sir David W. Bone, Muirhead Bone's brother, was employed by the Anchor Line throughout his long career in the Merchant Marine (1890 – 1946). In 1917, when this drawing was executed, Captain Bone was in command of Elysia II, the second vessel in the Anchor Line's fleet to bear this name. Built in 1908, Elysia II was torpedoed three times during the course of the Great War but somehow survived until sunk by a Japanese submarine east of Durban in June 1942.