Nov 25, 2014 - Sale 2368

Sale 2368 - Lot 33

Price Realized: $ 2,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(ARCTIC.) Tinker, John Jr. A View of the Snow Houses of the Esquimaux Inhabitants * View in the Arctic Regions near the North Magnetic. Pair of watercolors on paper, each 4 x 6 inches, with manuscript captions; the first with early tape repair on top edge in margin and a small area of loss in the image, both with modern cello tape remnants on verso. Np, 1838

Additional Details

These are well-executed early copies of the engravings published in Sir John Ross's "Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage," which was published in 1835. They depict the expedition's time on the Boothia Peninsula of the Canadian Arctic in 1831, with a small party of Englishmen trading with larger groups of Eskimo or Inuit under starry night skies. In both images, the English have laid down their rifles and appear to be communicating with gestures. In one, their ship is partly visible, while in another a British flag has been planted atop a snowy peak above a group of "snow cottages" (igloos). Their original captions in Ross's book were "North Hendon" and "1st Communication."