A FINE BUILDER'S MIRROR-BACK MODEL OF THE TWIN-SCREW MOTOR YACHT VIRGINIA, DESIGNED BY G.L. WATSON & CO. AND BUILT BY WM BEARDMORE & CO. LTD, 1930

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A FINE BUILDER'S MIRROR-BACK MODEL OF THE TWIN-SCREW MOTOR YACHT VIRGINIA, DESIGNED BY G.L. WATSON & CO. AND BUILT BY WM BEARDMORE & CO. LTD, 1930
with cutaway masts, carved gold-painted figurehead in the form of a seahorse, metal anchors with 'D' chains and anchor davits with rigging, deck rails, deck lights, companionways, anchor winch, bell, bollards, fairleads, deck lockers, superstructure with wood-capped deck rails, wheelhouse with binnacle and telegraphs over, starboard lamp, two rowing boats with oars and one motor launch in davits, stayed yellow- painted funnel, engineroom lights, aft binnacle and helm, capstan and other details. The hull with lacquered decks, hawse pipes, boarding companionway, portholes, hinged bulwark ports, bilge keel, rudder and four-blade propeller is finished in white, green and red and with silver-plated fittings throughout is mounted on a mirror within mahogany-bound glazed case with builder's ivorine plaque (mirror replaced). Overall measurements -- 18¾ x 63½in. (48 x 161cm.)
See illustration

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. This lot is subject to Collection and Storage Charges.

Further details

END OF MORNING SESSION

Lot Essay

Designed by G.L. Watson & Co. of Glasgow, the twin-screw steel motor yacht Virginia was built by William Beardmore & Co. at Dalmuir in 1930. Rigged as an auxiliary schooner, she was registered at 675½ tons gross (712 Thames and 330½ net) and measured 182½ feet in length with a 29½ foot beam. Fast and powerful, she was driven by a pair of compound single-acting 6-cylinder oil-burning engines by Sulzer of Winterthur and was equipped with every modern convenience to reflect the taste of her first owner, Major Sir Stephen Courtauld, M.C. Courtauld, a member of the immensely wealthy textile manufacturing family, used her throughout the 1930's but offered her for government service on the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. Initially fitted out for anti-submarine patrols wearing the pennant FY.031, she then operated with the Examination Service from 1942 until released from duty in 1946. By this time however, Courtauld had lost his enthusiasm for yachting and sold Virginia to the 1st Viscount Camrose, Vice-Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron and chairman of the Daily Telegraph newspaper group. Sometime after Lord Camrose's death in 1954 -- she was still owned by his executors as late as 1957 -- she was eventually sold to the government of Liberia for official duties and renamed Liberian, this final phase of her career lasting until about 1970 when she disappears from record.

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