A small volume of watercolours and one pencil depicting topographical scenes in and around Havanna and St. Jago Cuba.
CUBA ; SCOTT Capt. Andrew (1857-9.)
£7500.00
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MID-19th CENTURY CUBA
18 watercolours on wove paper, 7 signed "A Scott", pasted or tipped onto brown paper album leaves, with ms captions to leaves in ink and pencil. Recently bound in handsome maroon morocco with gilt tooling and titles by Trevor Lloyd MBE. Three leaves remargined or mounted, with original captions preserved. Very good. Cuba,
Captain Andrew Scott Jr. (1798-1888) was a native of Portland, Maine. A sea-farer and trader he moved in mid-century to Flushing New York, where he is listed in the 1850 census as a ship's captain with real estate value of $1500. He travelled widely and made small watercolour sketches whenever he could, showing a proficiency and confident use of colour beyond that of a mere amateur. In his early years, Scott served on the Enterprise during the War of 1812, and was aboard when she came into port with her captured prize HMS Boxer.
The present album comprises a fine series of watercolour studies made in and around Cuba in the late 1850s. The subjects offer a broad insight into Cuban society in the mid-nineteenth century. From grand plazas and churches to a humble shack at the mouth of a river, with the traditional racks of drying fish, and a picture of what is almost certainly the beginning of construction on the church in rural sugar town Sagua la Grande. There is a fine bustling street view of the Spanish style balconied houses down Hernandez Street, and another image showing enslaved workers labouring at the Wilson estate at Camarioca near San Juan. (Slavery wasn't fully abolished in Cuba until 1886.) The waterfront views include a picture made whilst quarantining on St Jago Island (the largest of the Cape Verdes), and several boldly colourful sunsets.
The captions are as follow:
1. "Plaza Santiago de Cuba"
2. "Church Sagua la grande"
3. "St Jago from Fabo's(?) house"
4. "St Jago from Quarantine"
5. "St Jago from Tierra Fiegger(?)"
6. "Mercedees Street Havana - 1857"
7. "St Juan (Dr Wilson's) near St Jago"
8. "Paralta near St Jago"
9. "Sp. Frigate "Esperanza" Havana. Jany 1857"
10. "Facou Theatre Havana. 1857"
11. "St Francisco Church Havana 1857"
12. "Near Havana. 1857"
13. "Moro Havana from the Punta Gateway 1857 Havana - Lopez garroted here"
14. "Cuba Fountain Havana"
15. "Havana" [waterfront scene]
16. "Moro Santiago de Cuba"
17. "Entrance of the Sagua la grande river"
18. "wild passiflora Cuba"
Stock Code: 228284
