Lot 215•
HURLEY (FRANK) Photographs of Scenes and Incidents in Connection with the Happenings to the Weddell Sea Party, 1914, 1915, 1916, [1917]
26 February 2020, 13:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £87,562.50 inc. premium
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HURLEY (FRANK)
Photographs of Scenes and Incidents in Connection with the Happenings to the Weddell Sea Party, 1914, 1915, 1916, album containing 79 carbon prints (mostly 150 x 200mm.) in various tones comprising blue (15), warm brown (15), red (1) and black and white (48), printed directly onto the cream card leaves, the first 30 with printed captions pasted below, leaves numbered in pencil in upper right corners, preceded by photographic index leaf and lithographed title and staff list, a dozen images bound in a different order from the index, original blue half morocco, heavily rubbed, contents shaken, g.e., oblong 4to (370 x 290mm.), [1917]
Footnotes
A NEWLY-DISCOVERED DELUXE PRESENTATION ALBUM by Frank Hurley. Six of these albums were previously recorded: one in the Royal Collection; two at Dulwich College; Leonard Hussey's copy (sold Christie's, 23 September 2004, lot 218); and copies presented to the Buenos Aires shipping magnate Frank Henry Houlder (sold Christie's 21 September 2005, lot 383) and to expedition sponsor Janet Stancomb Wills (sold Christie's 27 September 2006, lot 225). Some of these albums are in full morocco with the photographs in window-mounts, whilst others match the format of the present album; all share the same title page and crew list.
"Hurley joined the Endurance in Buenos Aires on 12 October 1914... Once the ship became stuck fast in the ice, Hurley photographed the activities of the crew and the dogs as they occupied themselves, waiting to see what would happen. When the ship began to disintegrate in October 1915, Hurley spent almost three days out on the ice, intent on not missing the final moments of the vessel... Hurley had the heart-wrenching task of selecting, with Shackleton, 120 plates to keep and smashing the remaining 400 plates. This was necessary to reduce the weight of the equipment that the men would have to carry" (Sophie Gordon, The Heart of the Great Alone, pp.61-62). Upon his return to London in November 1916, Hurley commissioned the photographic studio Raines & Co. of Ealing to produce lantern slides for lectures, and the handful of presentation albums.
Provenance: UK private ownership, the album having remained in the family for at least 40 years.
