£800 - £1,200
JOHN H. 'JOCK' WILSON (BRITISH, 1774-1855)
Lord Yarborough's Yacht the 'Falcon' R.Y.S.
signed 'J. Wilson' (lower left)
Oil on canvas
11½ x 19½in. (29 x 49.5cm.)
Of all the ships involved in the China Tea trade during the first half of the nineteenth century, one of the most interesting was Falcon. Launched in June 1826, she was built for Lord Yarborough at a cost of £l8,000 in List's yard at Wootton Bridge, Isle of Wight. Though designed as a private yacht, her full-rig and general appearance prompted one spectator to remark that she more resembled a "20-gun ship-of-war" and she undoubtedly proved a highly impressive flagship to the Royal Yacht Squadron, a role she fulfilled for ten years. Yarborough, the R.Y.S's first Commodore, was a legendary character in the early history of yachting and employed fifty-four "choice" hands under the command of a naval officer to crew Falcon whenever she raced.
A serious accident at sea followed by illness prompted Yarborough to dispose of Falcon and in 1836 she was sold to Baring Brothers for £5,500. They considered her to be faster than any other vessel in the China trade and although no details exist of her passage times, she seems to have come up to expectations judging by a notable early run to Batavia in 92 days. After being modernised at Liverpool in 1839, she went out to China the following year where she was bought by Jardine Matheson who operated her out of Calcutta carrying opium to Macao until she disappears from the record in the mid-1850's.
The builder's model of Falcon was sold by these Rooms 2nd May 2017, lot 315.
relined, scattered retouching throughout
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