'ENDURANCE' EXPEDITION, 1914-1917 Manuscript menu card for New Year 1916 image 1

Lot 182

'ENDURANCE' EXPEDITION, 1914-1917
Manuscript menu card for New Year 1916

Travel & Exploration Sale

7 – 15 July 2025, 12:00 BST

Online, London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £8,320 inc. premium

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'ENDURANCE' EXPEDITION, 1914-1917

Manuscript menu card for New Year 1916, the front depicting a penguin holding a union jack with "New Year/ 1916" above and "SY. 'Aurora' I.T-A.E." below the image, the menu written in black and red ink on reverse ("Roast Aptenodistes Forsteri/ Stuffing & Horseradish Sauce", "Asparagus", "Plum Duff", "Ye Olde Logge", "Muscatel Raisins", etc.), 2 pages on a bifolium folded at top edge, on thick watercolour paper, some smudging and dust-staining, 127 x 87mm., New Year, 1916

Footnotes

CELEBRATING NEW YEAR TRAPPED IN THE ICE: A MANUSCRIPT MENU FROM THE AURORA.

Our menu was painted by Aubrey Howard Ninnis (1883-1956), one of eighteen men stranded in the Antarctic ice aboard the supply ship Aurora for the best part of a year from May 1915 to March 1916. Captain Stenhouse wrote in his journal that he dreaded Christmas week, only too aware of the depravations suffered by the shore party, from whom they had been separated: '...seems a mockery...', he wrote, '...I wish to God the blasted festivities were over... what hypocrites we are...'. Ninnis drew the menus for Christmas Day so it may be assumed that he also provided those for New Year, which from all accounts was a much more cheerful occasion involving an improvised '...fou-fou band, equipped with a broken-winded melodeon, marline-spikes doubling as triangles, a kerosine tin for a drum... lusty, if rather dissonant, renditions of 'Britannia' and 'God Save the King'...' (Stephen Haddelsey, Ice Captain: The Life of J.R. Stenhouse, 2008, pp.63-64). Amongst the delicacies described on our menu is "Roast Aptenodistes Forsteri", otherwise known as Emperor Penguin. Ninnis notes in his log book of the expedition that "...our party kept up the celebrations until 4am. We did not turn out for breakfast..." (see adjacent lot).

Provenance: Aubrey Howard Ninnis (1883-1956); given to Ethel Gertrude Douglas (1893-1973); her niece Cicely Douglas; thence by descent. CELEBRATING NEW YEAR TRAPPED IN THE ICE: A MANUSCRIPT MENU FROM THE AURORA.

Our menu was painted by Aubrey Howard Ninnis (1883-1956), one of eighteen men stranded in the Antarctic ice aboard the supply ship Aurora for the best part of a year from May 1915 to March 1916. Captain Stenhouse wrote in his journal that he dreaded Christmas week, only too aware of the depravations suffered by the shore party, from whom they had been separated: '...seems a mockery...', he wrote, '...I wish to God the blasted festivities were over... what hypocrites we are...'. Ninnis drew the menus for Christmas Day so it may be assumed that he also provided those for New Year, which from all accounts was a much more cheerful occasion involving an improvised '...fou-fou band, equipped with a broken-winded melodeon, marline-spikes doubling as triangles, a kerosine tin for a drum... lusty, if rather dissonant, renditions of 'Britannia' and 'God Save the King'...' (Stephen Haddelsey, Ice Captain: The Life of J.R. Stenhouse, 2008, pp.63-64). Amongst the delicacies described on our menu is "Roast Aptenodistes Forsteri", otherwise known as Emperor Penguin. Ninnis notes in his log book of the expedition that "...our party kept up the celebrations until 4am. We did not turn out for breakfast..." (see adjacent lot).

Provenance: Aubrey Howard Ninnis (1883-1956); given to Ethel Gertrude Douglas (1893-1973); her niece Cicely Douglas; thence by descent.

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'ENDURANCE' EXPEDITION, 1914-1917 Manuscript menu card for New Year 1916

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'ENDURANCE' EXPEDITION, 1914-1917

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Spanskt sköldebrev, för adliga ätten Sanchez del Bellmont, utfärdat 1742.

Lars Tunbjörk, bok "Landet utom sig", 1993.

Johnston, Robert Travels Through Part of the Russian Empire and the Country of Poland, first edition, London: Printed for J.J. Stockdale, 1815.

X-15 & NEIL ARMSTRONG: 8 PHOTOGRAPHS

VIKING1 LANDER & ORBITER: 12 PHOTOGRAPHS 11 black and white and one (1) chromogenic color print, each 20 x 25 cm (8 x 10 inches), as follows:

APOLLO 9: 3 PHOTOGRAPHS OF APOLLO/SATURN V SPACE VEHICLE ON THE LAUNCHPAD

APOLLO 9: 4 PHOTOGRAPHS OF LUNAR MODULE SPIDER & EARTH VIEWS

APOLLO 9: RUSTY SCHWEICKART'S SPACEWALK

APOLLO 12: 4 PHOTOGRAPHS OF APOLLO/SATURN ON THE LAUNCHPAD

APOLLO 14: 5 PHOTOGRAPHS OF LUNAR SURFACE, PREPARATIONS FOR LAUNCH

APOLLO 15: 3 PHOTOGRAPHS OF SIM MODEL, LAUNCH, AND LUNAR ROVING VEHICLE DURING EVA

APOLLO 16: EVA PANORAMA Large format chromogenic color photograph printed on fiber-based photographic paper with "A Kodak Paper" water mark, 36 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches),

APOLLO-SOYUZ TEST PROJECT: 4 PHOTOGRAPHS

GEMINI I: GEMINI-TITAN II LAUNCH Large format chromogenic color photograph printed on fiber-based photographic paper with "A Kodak Paper" water mark, 36 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches),

GEMINI V: GEMINI-TITAN V LIFTS OFF FROM LAUNCH COMPLEX 19 Large format chromogenic color photograph printed on fiber-based photographic paper with "A Kodak Paper" water mark, 36 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches),

EARLY U.S. SPACE PROGRAM: 7 PHOTOGRAPHS OF LAUNCHES, 1958-1963 7 black-and-white photographs, each 20 x 25 cm (8 x 10 inches), as follows:

MERCURY-ATLAS 2: LAUNCH, FEBRUARY 21, 1961 Large format chromogenic color photograph printed on fiber-based photographic paper with "A Kodak Paper" water mark, 36 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches),

MERCURY-ATLAS 6: LAUNCH OF FIRST CREWD AMERICAN ORBITAL SPACEFLIGHT Large format chromogenic color photograph printed on fiber-based photographic paper with "A Kodak Paper" water mark, 36 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches),

PROJECT MERCURY: 9 PHOTOGRAPHS OF PREPARATION, LAUNCH, AND RECOVERY

APOLLO 11: ALDRIN STANDING BESIDE LUNAR MODULE

APOLLO 11: BUZZ ALDRIN DESCENDING THE LUNAR MODULE LADDER

APOLLO 1: WATER EGRESS TRAINING

APOLLO 17: CERNAN SALUTES THE FLAG

APPLE COMPUTER, INC. THINK DIFFERENT: MAHATMA GANDHI. Printed vinyl banner with metal rail, 1562 x 692 mm, [Cupertino, c.1997/1998], the recto featuring an image of Mahatma Gandhi, the verso featuring "Apple" in white letters against a red ground.

'ENDURANCE' EXPEDITION, 1914-1917
Manuscript menu card for New Year 1916

Johnston, Robert
Travels Through Part of the Russian Empire and the Country of Poland, first edition, London: Printed for J.J. Stockdale, 1815.

VIKING1 LANDER & ORBITER: 12 PHOTOGRAPHS
11 black and white and one (1) chromogenic color print, each 20 x 25 cm (8 x 10 inches), as follows:

APOLLO 16: EVA PANORAMA
Large format chromogenic color photograph printed on fiber-based photographic paper with "A Kodak Paper" water mark, 36 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches),

GEMINI I: GEMINI-TITAN II LAUNCH
Large format chromogenic color photograph printed on fiber-based photographic paper with "A Kodak Paper" water mark, 36 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches),

GEMINI V: GEMINI-TITAN V LIFTS OFF FROM LAUNCH COMPLEX 19
Large format chromogenic color photograph printed on fiber-based photographic paper with "A Kodak Paper" water mark, 36 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches),

EARLY U.S. SPACE PROGRAM: 7 PHOTOGRAPHS OF LAUNCHES, 1958-1963
7 black-and-white photographs, each 20 x 25 cm (8 x 10 inches), as follows:

MERCURY-ATLAS 2: LAUNCH, FEBRUARY 21, 1961
Large format chromogenic color photograph printed on fiber-based photographic paper with "A Kodak Paper" water mark, 36 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches),

MERCURY-ATLAS 6: LAUNCH OF FIRST CREWD AMERICAN ORBITAL SPACEFLIGHT
Large format chromogenic color photograph printed on fiber-based photographic paper with "A Kodak Paper" water mark, 36 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches),

APPLE COMPUTER, INC.
THINK DIFFERENT: MAHATMA GANDHI.
Printed vinyl banner with metal rail, 1562 x 692 mm, [Cupertino, c.1997/1998], the recto featuring an image of Mahatma Gandhi, the verso featuring "Apple" in white letters against a red ground.