signed 'J. Steven Dews' (lower left) oil on canvas
76.2 x 101.6 cm. (30 x 40 in.)

FOOTNOTES
Provenance:- acquired directly from the artist.

After cutting his teeth on “Shamrock V”, the last of Sir Thomas Lipton’s boats bought after Lipton’s death in 1931, Mr T.O.M. “Tommy” Sopwith then built two successive yachts named “Endeavour” with which to mount his own challenges for the elusive America’s Cup. Both were J-class boats designed by Charles Nicholson and each was built in Camper & Nicholson’s yard at Gosport. The first “Endeavour”, displacing 143 tons and measuring 129½ feet in length with a 22 foot beam, carried 7,560 square feet of sail and was considered the best J-class boat of her day. During the America’s Cup series in September 1934, “Endeavour” was not only skippered by Sopwith himself but she also featured a double-clewed jib designed by her owner. Defeated by the defender “Rainbow” by only the narrowest of margins, “Endeavour” returned home to rightful acclaim and thereafter enjoyed a successful racing career in home waters. Still racing competitively, “Endeavour” is one of the only three surviving J-class yachts and featured prominently in Dews’ portrayal of the 1999 Antigua Classic Week Regatta sold in these rooms on 14th September 2004 (lot 115).

“Astra”, also designed and built by Camper & Nicholson at Gosport in 1928, was a large and splendid Bermudian-rigged composite cutter ordered for Sir A. Mortimer Singer, the naturalised British son of the fabulously wealthy American inventor of the sewing machine. Registered at 91½ tons gross (83 net), she was 115 feet in length with a 20 foot beam and enjoyed a highly successful racing career, first under her original owner and then, during the 1930s, under her subsequent owner Mr. Hugh Paul.

“Candida”, rated at ‘23 metres’, was yet another Charles Nicholson design built in the company’s yard at Gosport for Mr. H.A. Andreae, the wealthy merchant banker, in 1929. An equally magnificent Bermudian-rigged cutter of 95½ tons gross (174 Thames), she measured 117 feet in length overall with a 20½ foot beam and was completed principally as a response to a slight change in the International Rules in 1928. A very successful boat, she too was a frequent sight at Cowes during that golden decade before the Second World War interrupted the sport for so long.

Literature: Although not included in Louise Felstead’s book, the work offered in this lot is a worthy companion to Dews’ other paintings of those memorable regattas at Cowes in the early 1930s which have become his trademark (cf. “A Cloud of Sail”, p. 50 et seq.).