In a fine example of American ship portraiture, Baltimore artist Otto Muhlenfeld shows the Maine-built bark ‘AMY’ on a starboard tack with all sail set. At her main truck flies the owner's flag of the New York firm of Goss and Sawyer. The foremast shows her personal ship’s flag while her name pennant flies from the mizzen. Beneath the American ensign on her gaff truck is a four flag international code signal identifying her by number.

Carrying four jibs and royals set above her topgallants, the bark-rigged ‘AMY’ was obviously designed for speed when she was built in 1883 in the downeast shipbuilding capitol of Bath, Maine. The 700 ton vessel was 159 feet in length with a 32 foot beam and drew 16 feet of water. Goss and Sawyer used her in the Atlantic and Coastal trades.

Shown at the turn of the century, this view shows ‘AMY’ most likely off Baltimore, the region where Muhlenfeld created most of his work. The sea and sky are reminiscent of Antonio Jacobsen, the New York port painter, but Muhlenfeld shows his own singular drafting skills in the depiction of the ship’s lines, rig and deck detail.

Radiant with its red iron hull, the 1876 Sunderland-built Welsh barque would be identifiable even without the Eryri Shipping Company house flag proudly aloft. Along with three near identical sister ships of the line, they sailed the world, delivering Welsh slate mined from the Snowdonia region and returning to Great Britain with New Orleans cotton, Canadian timber and the spices, silks and silver of the Orient.

On approach to the island of Hong Kong and City of Victoria, the crown jewel of British colonialism (if one excuses them for America), the barque has every stitch of canvas driving her 219.5 feet, 1081 ton-plus stone cargo weight to port. Undoubtedly, Welsh quarrymen traveled along with the sailors to deliver their expertise in carving the sought-after building material, both in Asia and the Americas.

The unidentified Chinese artist used a uniquely styled blue rolling sea to set the sailing merchant upon, complimenting the vivid coloration further with crisp lines and mature shadowing. The sky holds a subtle white vapor which gives the tall ship plenty of breadth. Along with Glanpadarn, Glanperis & Glanivor, Glandinorwig was managed by D.P. Williams, a druggist of Llanberis, Wales, from her home port of Caernarvon. They derive their names from towns of the region, while the company name translates as “place of the eagles”, referring back to the mountain where the slate was mined. The stone was shipped to cities the world over, including China’s recognizable island.

A beautiful medium clipper of iron, Pegasus and her identical sister ship, Reliance, were built in 1884 for Charles W. Corsar , a leading canvas maker of Liverpool. They sailed the world’s oceans, carrying British goods to the east and west coasts of America, and from there buying the raw materials of lumber, coal and nitrate for transport and trade to the South Pacific colonies. They would then visit the exotic ports of the far East, and return the teas, silvers, furniture and materials of the Orient to Liverpool. Pegasus held to this circuit for nearly 30 years.

The uncredited Chinese artist who created this portrait did a masterful job, showing her strengths of a full-bodied rake with the canvas full and flags on display, including her international merchant code flags exactly performed. Although owned by Cosar & Sons with their prominent houseflag and beautiful carved pegasus figurehead, the ships were managed for their interest by W.T. Dixon & Sons of Liverpool, who were connected to brokers and ports all over the world. She measured 314'l x 42'3"b x 24'9"d at 2564 tons.

The prominence of the four-masted barks is accentuated with the six-courses of sail on the fore, main and mizzen masts. Pegasus and Reliance were the first ships ever built and recorded with their officers quarters located midship, and the bright fine hardwood of their construction stands out on this painting of superb coloration. Pegasus sailed until 1912, when a storm ran her onto market island in the Gulf of Bothnia. Her load of Scandinavian lumber helped keep her afloat, and she made her last stop at the Baltic Sea port of revel under tow.

In this full port beam view, John Hughes presents a fine portrait of the American full rigged ship M.P. GRACE approaching Liverpool with South Stack, Angelesey coming up just under her bowsprit. Note top-hatted Captain Robert Wilbur, the vessel's first master, on deck reading signals from the Holyhead Signal Station through his long glass.

Hughes' detailed draftsmanship portrays the wooden hulled GRACE, built by Chapman & Flint of Bath, Maine in 1875 with all sail set, striving for a record run to Liverpool. Nice detail is shown in the deck structures and layout and the elegant scrollwork on her bows.

The 1,928.13 gross-ton M.P. GRACE was 229.9 feet in length with a beam of 42.1 feet and a draught of 19.7 feet. Her first home port was New York. In 1898 she became a salmon packer with the San Francisco fleet of George W. Hume & Co. where she worked steadily until 1906.

This excellent narrative portrait by Antoine Roux, Jr. Shows a rare scene of the merchant brig Le Theodore, hailing from the channel port of Saint Malo in Northwestern France, heaving to and hoisting a white flag of surrender under the guns of an independent privateer while voyaging off the Canary Islands.

The work is a fine portrait of Le Theodore with the extra dimension of the corsair adding an element of drama to the painting. Privateers operated throughout the Mediterranean and along the Western coast of Africa during the period this work was completed. Roux has portrayed both vessels quite well with deck details on the brig showing the captain observing the corsair through his long glass while the ship's crew anxiously looks on.

Roux's knowledge of ship rig and sail handling emerges here with his accurate depiction of the brig's spanker being doused with a system of brails, the top gallant sails are being clewed up and the jib is coming down as the vessel prepares to be boarded. Roux watercolors such as this are considered strong historical references to accurate ship type and detail.

This beautifully detailed and proportioned ship portrait is the earliest known surviving work by the artist, but undoubtedly, it is far from the first he painted. It has such professional styling and bearing the commander’s name, B. Pittman and as such was almost assuredly a direct commission. The only other known work held in a public collection compares favorably - Bark ELLEN Passing Elsinore Castle - is in the Collection of the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem. Undoubtably others exist in private European and American collections. The Danish Castle made famous in Shakespeare’s Macbeth is unmistakable as the headland setting.

MOSCOW was built by the Portland, Maine yard of David Spear and Son, circa 1830. She originally was rigged as a full ship and weighed 300 tons. Her configuration here is after conversion to a bark, with her identity not only twice written by the artist, but shown in the Boston Flag Code high on the mizzen mast, a pre-cursor to the developing International Merchant Flag Codes. MOSCOW served as an Atlantic Packet for a succession of Boston owners, as is most remembered under the command of Captain William Dane Phelps, when he sailed her to San Francisco and came home to much fanfare in 1849 with one of the first barrels of California gold.