JOHN LYNN (BRITISH, 1826-1869) Lord Belfast's Yacht 'Emily' ...

Hammer

£2,800

JOHN LYNN (BRITISH, 1826-1869)

Lord Belfast's Yacht 'Emily' in the Mediterranean

Oil on canvas

26½ x 38½in. (67.5 x 97.5cm.)

The Earl of Belfast, later 3rd Marquess of Donegal, was one of the most colourful albeit controversial personalities in the first decade of British competitive yacht racing. After some notable successes with his first three yachts – all cutters – he famously turned his attention to two square-riggers, the first of which was Emily, a brigantine widely regarded as “an outstanding little beauty”.

Built for Lord Belfast in 1830, Emily was measured at 30 tons and rigged, most unusually for a racing yacht, as a brigantine. In the event however, and despite her successes for Lord Belfast, it soon became apparent that he had commissioned her as little more than a ‘stalking horse’ for his real ambition to build a much larger square-rigger with which to astonish the yachting world. Thus, after only two years, and as soon as Lord Belfast took possession of his hugely celebrated Water Witch (in 1832), little Emily was laid up for two years and, in 1834, sold to Captain Pechell, M.P., who raced until 1837 after which she disappeared from record, probably renamed by a new owner.

Relined. Scattered retouching.