A Royal presentation prize ewer; The Queens Cup, Royal Albert Yacht Club
Edgar Finlay and Hugh Taylor, London 1890-91,
£15,000
Auction: 23 November 2008 at 15:00 GMT
Description
retailed by H.M.E. Manuel and Son, 12 and 13 Ordnance Row, Portsea
loosely modelled on the America's Cup by Garrard, of ewer shape, the bold C-scroll handle with acanthus clasping and rosettes, the everted lip with a bold mask of Neptune below, the whole body profusely chased with vinery and fruit, a small central oval cartouche with a crest, a leaf clasped cartouche with engraved inscription to one side, the other with a similar cartouche with a scene of yacht racing, all supported by a central leaf clasped column with three cast dolphinesque supports and shells between, lower gadroon border and inscribed around the circular base
61cm high, 110oz
Footnote
Engraved to the front; 'Presented by her Majesty The Queen to the Royal Albert Yacht Club 1890' and to the foot rim '"Queens Cup" won by DEERHOUND August 18th 1890, Charles G Nottage.
The Cup
Like the famous 'America's Cup', fashioned by Garrards forty years earlier, the Queen's Cup given by Queen Victoria to the Royal Albert Yacht Club, Southsea, in 1890 is a silver wine ewer, probably - if any function was ever intended for it - for use as a claret, champagne or hock/moselle jug in the fashion of the day. By 1890, Queen Victoria had, for many years, given three cups annually for yacht racing: one went automatically to The Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, one was given to either a Scottish or Irish 'Royal' yacht club and one was given to an English 'Royal' yacht club - 'Royal' yacht clubs were those with a Royal patron or commodore, or both. In 1890, it was the turn of the Royal Albert Yacht Club, founded in 1865 and which had previously received a Queen's Cup in 1873, to receive a Queen's Cup - The Queen's gift to the club being ascribed by The Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette of 23rd August 1890 to the 'co-operation of the commodore, H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh'. In 1890, H.R.H. The Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (1844-1900), second son of Queen Victoria, was an admiral in the Royal Navy and commander-in-chief at Devonport.
The Yacht
Yacht 'DEERHOUND's lines were drawn by the famous G.L. (George Lennox) Watson (1851-1904), the Glaswegian designer of H.R.H The Prince of Wales's famous racing yacht 'BRITANNIA' in 1893 as well as several British challengers for the America's Cup and many of the most famous British racing yachts of the last thirty years of the 19th century. Built in Southampton by Black & Co. for Charles Nottage and rigged as a cutter, she was launched in 1889, her Gross Registered Tonnage being 56 tons, overall length 72 feet 4 inches, waterline length 58 feet 10 inches and beam 13 feet 3 inches; her sails were by Lapthorn and Ratseys and her sail area 4,065 ½ square feet. She was a '40 rater' in the ratings of the Yacht Racing Association and raced in that class. Immediately successful as a racing yacht, she won Nottage nineteen prizes in 1890 and was top of her class in that year. Nottage sold her to the Marquis Ridolfi in 1892 and her name was changed to 'ORETTA'. Based in Livorno and subsequently Naples for the next twenty years, she changed hands several times, being renamed 'LUISA' in 1898, when bought by Vincenzo Murolo, and 'LUISA M.' in 1903. Last owned by Ernesto Murolo from 1909 to 1911, she disappeared from Lloyd's Register of Yachts in 1912.
The Owner
Charles George Nottage was the only son of George Swann Nottage (1822-85) and Martha Warner (1832-c.1914). In 1855, George Swann Nottage founded the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company and was proprietor of that highly successful commercial business until his death; he was also an alderman of the City of London, its sheriff 1877-78 and died in office as Lord Mayor in 1885. Charles George Nottage was born on 1st October 1852 and, after an education at Jesus College, Cambridge (BA and LLB 1879), was admitted to the Inner Temple, being subsequently called to the Bar on 11th May 1881. Nottage, generally known in yacht racing circles as 'Captain Nottage' because of his rank as such in the Devon Militia Artillery from 1885, first owned yacht 'FOXHOUND' and raced her from c.1886. 'FOXHOUND' was a 58 foot cutter, built by Fife of Fairlie in 1870 and Nottage sold her to the American yachtsman Harry North in 1889 when he bought yacht 'DEERHOUND'. By 1890, Nottage was one of the notable yachtsmen of his day, belonging to eleven yacht clubs - ten of them 'Royal' - in Britain and featuring in the yachting press on a regular basis from 1886 to 1892 as he and his crews sailed yachts 'FOXHOUND' and 'DEERHOUND' in regattas in both British and Continental waters. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Nottage succeeded his father as proprietor of the photographic business in 1885 and appears to have given up yacht racing when he sold 'DEERHOUND' in 1892. His health failing, he went on a world tour during 1892-93, visiting Hawaii and California and subsequently publishing a book on his travels. Nottage died in London on 24th December 1894. In his will, he left £13,000 for the establishment of the Nottage Institute at Wivenhoe in Essex - from which area he had drawn the crews for his two racing yachts - in order to instruct yachtsmen and other sailors, especially those from the Wivenhoe area, in navigation: this Institute, now known as the Nottage Maritime Institute, still exists in Wivenhoe. He also left money to the Yacht Racing Association for the annual award of what was to be called 'The Nottage Cup' but this bequest failed to meet appropriate charitable trust legislation and so could not be implemented.
The Race
Such was the interest at the time in yacht racing that the race for which The Queen's Cup of the Royal Albert Yacht Club was presented on 18th August 1890 was covered in both the national and the local press. The Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette specified the details of the race and course in the Solent on 23rd August 1890, as follows.
'Handicap for yachts of an above 25 Y.R.A. rating, owned by members of the Royal Albert Yacht Club. First prize, the Queen's Cup, value 100 guineas, presented by Her Majesty the Queen; 2nd prize, £30; 3rd prize £10. Course, from the starting vessel near the Spit Fort, round the Nab lightship, thence round the [Ryde] West Middle Buoy, and back round the starting vessel. Twice round - say 45 miles'.
The Portsmouth Times's report went on to list the names, rigs, ratings and owners of the competing yachts. There were twelve entries, six cutters and six yawls, ranging in size from the largest yawl, 'LETHE' rated at 123.79, and the largest cutter, 'THISTLE' rated at 121, down to smallest yawl, 'ANACONDA' rated at 25.43, and the smallest cutter, 'DEERHOUND' rated at 39.73. A detailed report of the race was contained in the Portsmouth Evening News of 19th August 1890, as follows.
'All started but Anaconda. Mohawk was first over the line, at 2 minutes 13 seconds after ten. Deerhound was seven seconds later, Vanduara 16 seconds after her, and then came Neptune, Thistle, Maid Marion, Lethe, Naeira, Castanet, Wendur and Foxglove in the order named. The yachts had all sail crowded on and made a stately progress down to the Nab without much change of position.
On their way down, the breeze freshened very slightly and veered to the westward. The Thistle assumed the lead and was well to the front on the way back to the West Middle Buoy, being followed by the Castanet, which was a long way ahead of the third vessel, the Vanduara. Wendur hugged the Isle of Wight shore too closely, forgetting the set of the tide, which caused her to fall sadly behind, with Foxglove as a near companion. These were the last two and the remaining six yachts filled up in processional order the gap between them and the three leading vessels. The wind had now gone round to the south and increased somewhat in strength, so that the yachts had more way on, although their progress was still far from exciting. Off Cowes there was a calm and it was a matter of no small difficulty to round the West Middle Buoy. In the meantime the Sailing Committee held a conference on board the starting vessel and, in view of the improbability that the wind would improve or even maintain its then strength, they decided to shorten the course to one round. The race continued to be a drifting match and the glorious uncertainty of yachting competitions in a light wind was well exemplified towards the finish, for in rounding the West Middle Buoy the conditions of wind and tide favoured some of the yachts that before had failed to hold their own. They maintained this advantage and the times of arrival were:-
Deerhound (Queen's Prize) 5 hours 12 minutes 50 seconds
Vanduara 5 hours 13 minutes 36 seconds
Castanet (2nd prize by time) 5 hours 15 minutes 49 seconds
Mohawk 5 hours 24 minutes 18 seconds
Thistle (3rd prize by time) 5 hours 24 minutes 44 seconds
Maid Marion 5 hours 40 minutes 9 seconds
The others were not timed.'
The Times of London devoted over a column in its edition of 19th August 1890 to a detailed story of the race, concluding that, 'the Deerhound owed her victory to the smart way in which she worked by short tacks on and off the Hampshire shore between Browndown and the Kicker [Gilkicker] point.'
The description given in the above newspapers of the race and of the yachts' fortunes as affected by the changeability of the wind, or lack of it, will be familiar to most racing yachtsmen in the Solent today, one contemporary distinguished sailor giving it the term 'Solent roulette'.
Stephen Wood MA FSA
(with thanks to Hugh Boscawen and Liza Verity)