
HMS BOUNTY Four blue glass trading beads salvaged from the wreck of the HMS Bounty
£1,500 - £2,000
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HMS BOUNTY
Footnotes
RARE RELICS FROM HMS BOUNTY. Discovered by a National Geographic Society diver inside a glass vase at the wreck site, these decorative trade beads were used by the crew of the Bounty as currency to exchange for goods and services on their voyage to transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti. The mutineers, under the leadership of Fletcher Christian, landed on Pitcairn Island on 15 January 1790 after having taken the Bounty from Captain Bligh and cast him adrift in the ship's launch. The remoteness of the island and its abundance of natural resources proved an ideal place to make a permanent settlement. To prevent the mutineers escaping, the Bounty was destroyed by fire on 23 January, after having been stripped of everything that might be useful to the settlers. Luis Marden describes the discovery of the wreck and his time on Pitcairn Island in 'I found the Bones of the Bounty', National Geographic Magazine, December 1957, vol. CXII, no. 6, pp.725-789.
Provenance: Luis Marden, recovered from the wreck site in Bounty Bay, Pitcairn Island in January 1957; thence private collection from which acquired by the present owner.
Saleroom notices
THIS LOT HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN