Montague Dawson, FRSA RSMA, 
British 1890-1973- 
Tea Trader - the Clipper 'Titania'; 
oil on...

Montague Dawson, FRSA RSMA, 
British 1890-1973- 

Tea Trader - the Clipper 'Titania'; 

oil on canvas, signed 'MONTAGUE DAWSON' (lower left), bears Frost & Reed label with printed inscription '"TEA TRADER" - The Clipper / 'Titania' built in 1866 of 879 tons. / She sailed the seas for nearly 40 years' attached to the upper stretcher bar, 50.5 x 75.8 cm. ARR. 

Provenance: 
with Frost & Reed, London, 1954 [no.16914]. 
Anon. sale, Christie's, South Kensington, 15 November 1996, lot 597 (£20,000 hammer). 
A distinguished family collection. 

Note: 
Generally acknowledged as the finest-lined clipper to emanate from Robert Steele's yards at Greenock, Titania was built to the order of Lowther, Maxton & Co. of London in 1866. Registered in London at 879 tons, she measured 200 feet in length with a 36 foot beam, and these dimensions gave her the strength to carry a large sail plan aided by masts of steel plate. No expense was spared to fit her out and she was beautifully finished, yet her first two voyages proved disappointing as it became apparent that her master, Captain Deas, had lost his nerve due to advancing age. He had made his reputation with the ship 'Ganges' in the early 1850s, but Titania was an altogether different type of thoroughbred and Deas no longer had the temperament to drive her as she deserved.

Her maiden passage out to China began badly when she lost her foremast in a squall off the Cape Verde Islands but, after repairing in Rio, she loaded her first tea in August and was home in 115 days having left Shanghai on 2 September to dock in London on Boxing Day. The next year's voyage was slower - 126 days - with the result that her owners replaced Captain Deas with W. H. Burgoyne who immediately transformed her performance. Clearing Shanghai on 16 June 1869, he raced Titania home in 98 days in one of the fastest passages of the season. After two years Burgoyne was succeeded by Captain Dowdy and he was similarly successful, bringing Titania home in 93 days, Foochow to London, in 1871 in the best passage of her career.

After a serious dismasting in 1874, she was sold out of the Lowther, Maxton fleet but continued trading to both Australia and the Far East until she was bought by the Hudson's Bay Company at the end of 1885. In nine years with them she made regular voyages around Cape Horn and across the South Atlantic before being sold to Italian owners in 1894 who put her on their Mauritius and South American trade. Worn out and not considered worthy of major overhaul, she was broken up at Marseilles March 1910. It was a mundane end for a splendid ship yet she had the satisfaction of outliving virtually all of her more famous contemporaries from the golden era of the China Tea trade. 

Montague Dawson was the grandson of the marine painter Henry Dawson (1811-1878), and is celebrated for his detailed and accurate depictions of historical vessels, particularly clippers and warships of the 18th and 19th centuries. Dawson encountered the maritime artist Charles Napier Hemy (1841-1917), who was a significant artistic influence on the former, whilst serving with the Navy during the First World War, an experience which also undoubtedly informed his depictions of naval battles. 

Dawson exhibited widely over the course of his career, including at the Royal Academy between 1917 and 1936, and at the Royal Society of Marine Artists, of which he was a member, between 1946 and 1964. He also enjoyed the patronage of a number of prominent contemporaries, including American presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) and Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973), and members of the British royal family. His works can be found in the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.