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Lot Essay
Magic is a particularly famous yacht for winning the first official America's Cup in 1870. In 1851, the yacht America was invited to compete against seventeen British yachts as part of the Great Exposition. America was victorious and in 1857, a silver cup was presented to the New York Yacht Club to be challenged for by any foreign yacht club. Such a challenge came in 1868 by James Ashbury, an Englishman, who owned Cambria. The race was held in Lower New York Harbor from Southwest Spit to Sandy Hook Lightship and return. Cambria finished tenth and Magic, then owned by Franklin Osgood, won.
Magic was a centerboard schooner, 84 feet long overall, and was owned by a series of yachtsmen. This trophy was won by Magic in 1887 when she was owned by Thornton N. Motley, an industrialist. The regatta was held in Newport, Rhode Island. The Citizens Cup was raced around the Sow and Pigs, Hen and Chickens Course in moderate winds shifting from east to south. Magic won on corrected time over Sachem and Phantom in 10 hours 40 minutes and 13 seconds. (John Parkinson, Jr., The History of the New York Yacht Club, New York, 1973, p. 129)
CAPTION: Magic, by James Edward Buttersworth, 1870
Magic was a centerboard schooner, 84 feet long overall, and was owned by a series of yachtsmen. This trophy was won by Magic in 1887 when she was owned by Thornton N. Motley, an industrialist. The regatta was held in Newport, Rhode Island. The Citizens Cup was raced around the Sow and Pigs, Hen and Chickens Course in moderate winds shifting from east to south. Magic won on corrected time over Sachem and Phantom in 10 hours 40 minutes and 13 seconds. (John Parkinson, Jr., The History of the New York Yacht Club, New York, 1973, p. 129)
CAPTION: Magic, by James Edward Buttersworth, 1870