A FINE FIGUREHEAD RECOVERED DURING THE ATTEMPTED SALVAGE OF THE PRUSSIAN BRIG GEORGE FORSTER WRECKED UPON THE GOODWIN SANDS, 30TH NOVEMBER, 1856 carved from solid elm with laminated arms as a half-length portrait depicting George Forster wearing a braided coat with finely carved jabot and hair, terminating in a scroll, faintly inscribed to front GEORGE / FORSTER / Wrecked on / Goodwin / Sands / March 30th 1830 [sic] -- 50in. (127cm.) high Provenance: Until recently this figurehead adorned the True Briton public house, Folkestone, where it had resided for an unknown period of time. The Times for 1st December, 1856 reported the grounding of the Prussian ship George Forster the previous day, 30th November - one of six groundings between September and December that year. At the time it was stated that she was laden with timber and that steam tugs and lifeboats were standing by as it was "feared she would become a wreck". Both her main and mizzen masts had been cut away in an effort to re-float her at the next high tide and it seems highly likely that this figurehead - a weighty adornment when every ounce mattered - was removed at the same time in a last, desperate attempt to save the vessel. In the event it was all in vain as the ship broke her back and became a complete loss, although her crew was entirely saved. George Forster (1754-94) was born near Danzig in what was then Polish Prussia to a family that had British antecedents. His father Johann, a reluctant cleric, took every opportunity to expand his travel and scientific knowledge and his enthused son soon followed suit. In 1766 the pair travelled to London in search for an appropriate position and, on their arrival, the elder Forster established contact with other German-speaking clergy and intellectuals in London. Among them was Carl Gottfried Woide, the Lutheran preacher and man of letters, who helped them find lodgings in Denmark Street and establish contacts within the British scientific and scholarly communities. In 1772 he was engaged to replace Joseph Banks as naturalist on James Cook's second Voyage of Discovery in the Resolution, and took young George along as his assistant. The voyage took the Forsters round the Cape of Good Hope to New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga, and south beyond the Antarctic circle. George Forster's later reputation was based largely on the descriptions of the voyage he published after their return in 1775. The first of these was a botanical work, Characteres generum plantarum... MDCCLXXII-MDCCLXXV, published together with his father, which earned him election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. A Voyage Round the World, in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop, Resolution (1777), which Forster published after his father had been denied the opportunity to write the official account of the voyage, had much greater impact. In 1779 he returned to Germany where he held several academic posts and from April to June 1790 he undertook a further journey, accompanied by Alexander von Humboldt This time be travelled along the Rhine, through the Low Countries, and on to London, returning through revolutionary France and Forster's account of the journey was held in great esteem by contemporaries. Forster remained in Mainz after the occupation of the city by French revolutionary forces in 1792, becoming active in Jacobin circles. A supporter of the incorporation of the west bank of the Rhine into the French republic, in early 1793 Forster was elected deputy for Mainz to the national convention in Paris. His writings about the revolution were significant, if highly contentious, contributions to its reception in the German-speaking world. He died suddenly in Paris on 10th January, 1794 at the age of 39. It is not surprising that such a famous and significant character was honoured with the name of a ship by his fellow countrymen. The George Forster figurehead in Perspective The world of Ships Figureheads can be divided in to roughly four main subject forms: Female
A FINE FIGUREHEAD RECOVERED DURING THE ATTEMPTED SALVAGE OF THE PRUSSIAN BRIG GEORGE FORSTER WRECKED UPON THE GOODWIN SANDS, 30TH NOVEMBER, 1856 carved from solid elm with laminated arms as a half-length portrait depicting George Forster wearing a braided coat with finely carved jabot and hair, terminating in a scroll, faintly inscribed to front GEORGE / FORSTER / Wrecked on / Goodwin / Sands / March 30th 1830 [sic] -- 50in. (127cm.) high Provenance: Until recently this figurehead adorned the True Briton public house, Folkestone, where it had resided for an unknown period of time. The Times for 1st December, 1856 reported the grounding of the Prussian ship George Forster the previous day, 30th November - one of six groundings between September and December that year. At the time it was stated that she was laden with timber and that steam tugs and lifeboats were standing by as it was "feared she would become a wreck". Both her main and mizzen masts had been cut away in an effort to re-float her at the next high tide and it seems highly likely that this figurehead - a weighty adornment when every ounce mattered - was removed at the same time in a last, desperate attempt to save the vessel. In the event it was all in vain as the ship broke her back and became a complete loss, although her crew was entirely saved. George Forster (1754-94) was born near Danzig in what was then Polish Prussia to a family that had British antecedents. His father Johann, a reluctant cleric, took every opportunity to expand his travel and scientific knowledge and his enthused son soon followed suit. In 1766 the pair travelled to London in search for an appropriate position and, on their arrival, the elder Forster established contact with other German-speaking clergy and intellectuals in London. Among them was Carl Gottfried Woide, the Lutheran preacher and man of letters, who helped them find lodgings in Denmark Street and establish contacts within the British scientific and scholarly communities. In 1772 he was engaged to replace Joseph Banks as naturalist on James Cook's second Voyage of Discovery in the Resolution, and took young George along as his assistant. The voyage took the Forsters round the Cape of Good Hope to New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga, and south beyond the Antarctic circle. George Forster's later reputation was based largely on the descriptions of the voyage he published after their return in 1775. The first of these was a botanical work, Characteres generum plantarum... MDCCLXXII-MDCCLXXV, published together with his father, which earned him election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. A Voyage Round the World, in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop, Resolution (1777), which Forster published after his father had been denied the opportunity to write the official account of the voyage, had much greater impact. In 1779 he returned to Germany where he held several academic posts and from April to June 1790 he undertook a further journey, accompanied by Alexander von Humboldt This time be travelled along the Rhine, through the Low Countries, and on to London, returning through revolutionary France and Forster's account of the journey was held in great esteem by contemporaries. Forster remained in Mainz after the occupation of the city by French revolutionary forces in 1792, becoming active in Jacobin circles. A supporter of the incorporation of the west bank of the Rhine into the French republic, in early 1793 Forster was elected deputy for Mainz to the national convention in Paris. His writings about the revolution were significant, if highly contentious, contributions to its reception in the German-speaking world. He died suddenly in Paris on 10th January, 1794 at the age of 39. It is not surprising that such a famous and significant character was honoured with the name of a ship by his fellow countrymen. The George Forster figurehead in Perspective The world of Ships Figureheads can be divided in to roughly four main subject forms: Female
Testen Sie LotSearch und seine Premium-Features 7 Tage - ohne Kosten!
Lassen Sie sich automatisch über neue Objekte in kommenden Auktionen benachrichtigen.
Suchauftrag anlegen
