
Polly Cornthwaite
Senior Cataloguer
Sold for £48,180 inc. premium
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Head of Sale
Provenance
Sir Frank Williams CBE, UK.
Chrysolite was built in 1851 by Alexander. Hall & Co. in Aberdeen to the order of Taylor, Potter & Co. of Liverpool. Launched in March 1851, she measured 156 feet in length with a 29 foot beam and was registered at 564 tons. Her maiden voyage was heralded in the Aberdeen Journal as a spectacular success, noting that she returned to port in seven months and six days, the quickest passage recorded at the time, despite the loss of at least seven men who left the ship in China (Aberdeen Journal, December 10, 1851). The 1852 season dawned with her greatest competition the Stornoway, a product of the same yard in Aberdeen and belonging to the famed merchant trading house of Jardine, Matheson & Co. Close in size to the Chrysolite, measuring 158 feet in length with a 29 foot beam and registered at 527 tons, the Stornoway had been built in 1850 for speed but not necessarily to break records.
Please note the measurements for this lot should read 73.7 x 107.3cm (29 x 42 1/4in) and not as stated online and in the catalogue.