 |
 GILES, J.L.
[Steam-Ship Quaker City 1,800 Tons Regular U.S. Mail Line between New York and Charleston. W.H. West, Commander] (proof before letters)
[N.p. but New York: n.d. but circa 1860?]. Lithograph, proof before all letters, printed in colours by Macay & Herwig, drawn by J.L. Giles & Co., signed in the image 'J.L. Giles'. Good condition. Sheet size: 21 1/2 x 34 inches. Image size: 16 7/8 x 30 1/4 inches.
A very rare proof of this spectacular view, in Charleston Harbor, of the paddle steamer that took "Mark Twain" on an excursion to the Holy Land
The schooner-rigged ocean paddle-steamer Quaker City was built in Philadelphia "for the express pupose of running between Philadelphia and Charleston [where the current scene is set. She also made ] ... "trips to Havana and the Gulf ports during the early part of career. She was very well designed and strongly built and was always a popular vessel" (India House p.108). During the Civil War she was seconded to the U.S. navy for blockading service, and then in 1867 she "carried a large excursion group to the Mediterranean and Holy Land, one of the first examples of an ocean mail steamer being employed on a yachting cruise ... One of her passengers on this cruise was Mark Twain [aka. Samuel Clemens], and he wrote the greater part of "Innocents Abroad" on board her." (op.cit).
Cf. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Collection to be found at India House (New York: 1935) item number 355; Parker & Bowen Mail and Passenger Steamships of the Nineteenth Century (London: 1928) p.245
#19923 $3,000.00  
|
|
