Lot Essay
In the Sotheby's sale catalogue, the colour box was sold with a sheet within the drawer inscribed 'Made at Pitcairns Island/By Adams/brought home by/Capt May 1820.' Adams, the sole surviving mutineer of the Bounty found on Pitcairn Island when it was rediscovered in 1809, is recorded as having given away items from the Bounty to visitors to the island, including the ship's chronometer, to an American whaling Captain, which is now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
The box was unlikely to have been made on Pitcairn Island from the limited materials at the Bounty survivors' disposal (see Country Life, November 26 and December 17 1992) and is more likely to have been a rescue from the Bounty. The only artist on the Bounty was Bligh himself, an amateur watercolourist, suggesting the present colour box may have been the property of the Bounty's Captain.
The box was unlikely to have been made on Pitcairn Island from the limited materials at the Bounty survivors' disposal (see Country Life, November 26 and December 17 1992) and is more likely to have been a rescue from the Bounty. The only artist on the Bounty was Bligh himself, an amateur watercolourist, suggesting the present colour box may have been the property of the Bounty's Captain.