Michael J. Whitehand, 20th Century
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Michael J. Whitehand, 20th Century

Fair weather sailing: Britannia leading Velsheda, Cambria, Astra and Candida in the Solent

Details
Michael J. Whitehand, 20th Century
Fair weather sailing: Britannia leading Velsheda, Cambria, Astra and Candida in the Solent
signed 'M J Whitehand' (lower left)
oil on canvas
40 x 50 in. (101.6 x 127 cm.)
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The second of the two famous Cambrias - her earlier namesake had been the first America's Cup challenger in 1870 - was designed and built by William Fife at Fairlie in 1928. Owned by Sir William Berry, later Viscount Camrose, the proprietor of the Daily Telegraph newspaper, she was a magnificent Bermudian-rigged 23-metre composite cutter which soon became one of the most well-known racing yachts of her day. Registered at 162 tons Thames (86 gross and net), she measured 93 feet in length (75 feet at the waterline) with a 20½ foot beam and a 10½ foot draft.

After a relatively short career at Cowes and elsewhere in home waters, she was sold to H.F. Giraud of Izmir (Turkey) in the mid-1930s; he renamed her Lillias, removed her to Chios in the Aegean and thus she was lost to the British racing scene for which she had been created in its golden years.

For details of the other great yachts in this painting, see lots 381 (Velsheda), 388 (Britannia) and 389 (Astra and Candida).

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