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PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF MR. & MRS. THOMAS J. WATSON, JR. JAMES EDWARD BUTTERSWORTH 1817-1894 YACHTS RACING OFF SANDY HOOK

signed J.E. Buttersworth, l.r.

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Kennedy Galleries, New York
CATALOGUE NOTE

It has been suggested that this painting depicts the 1887 America's Cup race between Volunteer and Thistle. According to Ranulf Rayner, "Excitement was intense for the first of the two duels, but as the morning fog lingered over the course and obscured the heights of Staten Island, the start had to be postponed. It was the last time, as it happened, that the race was to be held on the Club's inside course, and down in the narrows an immense fleet had gathered to send the tow boats on their way. Thistle made the most of the delay, and her skipper, Captain Barr, threading his way through the spectators, caused gasps of dismay as he dodged among their clumsy craft, seeming to find a breeze as if by magic. The stock of the Volunteer and General Paine, sitting quietly in her stern wearing his old straw hat, went down even lower when from the Mohican, whose deck was crowded with fair dames glorying in the colours of the Thistle, there came the skirl of the bagpipes and the pungent aroma of a haggis which her cooks were preparing in the galley.

"Such was the scene off Owl's Head as the starting cannon boomed, and Thistle, first over the line, basked in a few moments of glory before being determinedly and decisively overhauled by her opponent." (The Story of the America's Cup 1851-2003, Toronto, Ontario, 2003, p. 48).