Captain Scott's last birthday dinner (6 June, 1911)

Details

Herbert George Ponting (1871-1935)
Captain Scott's last birthday dinner (6 June, 1911)
stamped 'H.G. Ponting' (lower right), with inscription 'Autotype "Captn Scotts last Birthday" H Ponting' on a label on the reverse
carbon print
17½ x 23in. (44.4 x 58.4cm.)

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

'Tuesday, June 6. - ... It is my birthday, a fact I might easily have forgotten, but my kind people did not. At lunch an immense birthday cake made its appearance and we were photographed assembled about it ... After my walk I discovered that great preparations were in progress for a special dinner, and when the hour for that meal arrived we sat down to a sumptuous spread with our sledge banners hung about us. Clissold's especially excellent seal soup, roast mutton and red current jelly, fruit salad, asparagus and chocolate -- such was our menu.' (L. Huxley (ed.), Scott's Last Expedition, London: 1913, pp.304-5.

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