Philippa Iles
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 136
English School19th CenturyA pair of views of Ascension Island
7 – 15 July 2025, 12:00 BST
Online, London, KnightsbridgeSold for £1,664 inc. premium
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Rhyanon Demery
Head of Sale
Polly Cornthwaite
Senior Cataloguer
English School, 19th Century
A pair of views of Ascension Island
inscribed 'John C Clark' (verso)
watercolour heightened with white and traces of pencil
each 23.8 x 54.6cm (9 3/8 x 21 1/2in).
(2)
inscribed 'John C Clark' (verso)
watercolour heightened with white and traces of pencil
each 23.8 x 54.6cm (9 3/8 x 21 1/2in).
(2)
Footnotes
Provenance
With Martyn Gregory, London.
Exhibited
London, Martyn Gregory, Revealing the East, 2013-2014, nos. 6a and 6b, catalogue 91.
Ascension Island is a volcanic outcrop which lies approximately 900 miles off the African coast and around 700 miles north-west of St Helena. Afonso de Albuquerque saw the island in 1503 whilst on route from Lisbon to India, at this time the name had already been given.
In 1815, the island was claimed and occupied by the British, who feared that the island could be used by the French to facilitate the escape of Napoleon from St Helena. At this time, the island was officially designated HMS Ascension, 'Stone sloop of War of the smaller class' and remained occupied until 1899.
Considered as a victualling point, Ascension Island offered little more than green turtles, seabirds and goats, the latter of which was introduced by the Portuguese. The island was used most frequently in the nineteenth century by naval ships involved in the suppression of the slave trade from Africa. Currently, Ascension Island houses both RAF and USAF bases, communications and relay stations, and a missile tracking station. In 2001, remains were rediscovered of William Dampier's ship HMS Roebuck which sunk around the island in 1701.