A RARE HOUSE FLAG FROM SIR THOMAS LIPTON'S J-CLASS YACHT SHA...

Hammer

£4,800

A RARE HOUSE FLAG FROM SIR THOMAS LIPTON'S J-CLASS YACHT SHAMROCK V, CIRCA 1931

stitched green and yellow cotton bunting depicting a three-leaf clover attached to canvas sleeve with lanyard (old wear and signs of use) -- 30 x 36in. (76 x 91.5cm.); together with a contemporary burgee from the Royal Harwich Yacht Club, the sleeve with makers' label for Wolff of Southampton and inscribed 'E.H' in ink

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Edward Carrington Heard (1879-1947), Skipper of Shamrock V for 1930 America’s Cup and Endeavour to son, Edward Albert Rose Heard (1906-1999) to friend Albert Kalizsewski (1918-1975) and thence by descent.

Shamrock V was the last in a series of splendid racing yachts, each an improvement upon her predecessor, built for the immensely wealthy tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton. Between 1899 and 1930, Lipton mounted no less than five challenges for the elusive America's Cup - or the "Auld Mug" as he invariably called it - and, even though all were unsuccessful, his efforts and tenacity rewarded him with an almost heroic status among the British public. The last of the celebrated Shamrocks was designed by Charles Nicholson and built by Camper & Nicholson in their yards at Gosport in 1930. A centreboarded Bermudan-rigged cutter, she was registered at 103.86 tons gross (93.98 net & 163 Thames) and measured 120 feet in length with a 20-foot beam. Despite her failure to capture the America's Cup in 1930, she was still a magnificent boat and, when Lipton died late in 1931, she was bought by Mr. T. O. M. (later Sir "Tommy") Sopwith, another of yachting's most colourful characters. He too would soon become an America's Cup challenger, with his two successive Endeavours (in 1934 and 1937, see lot 75), but for several years he was content to 'cut his teeth' on Shamrock V.

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