Ultra-Rare War Of 1812 Privateer U.S.S. Comet Oil Painting Item #200600201

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Ultra-Rare War Of 1812 Privateer U.S.S. Comet Oil Painting

The Privateer U.S.S. Comet and her Captain Thomas Boyle were the epitome of Privateering in the War of 1812! Her fame was only eclipsed by Boyle's next ship, the Chasseur, which became known as "The Pride Of Baltimore".

The artist of this painting is as yet unknown to me, but it is signed "W.A.H.". It was painted in 1845 from oil paint on canvas. It does have minor condition issues, and needs a professional restoration/cleaning to bring out its original color. The painting came to me as just the canvas. It was purchased by a lady in Iowa at the estate sale of a 90+-year-old lady. Reputedly, it had always been in her family. The lady who bought it there, and in turn sold it to me said that the original frame and stretcher disintegrated when she picked it up. I had it re-framed with a modern-made hardwood frame.

As best as I can determine, this is the only painting of the Comet by an American artist, and one of only three paintings in existence of the Comet. The other two were by a British artist, who never actually laid eyes on the Comet, and who portrayed it in combat with a British ship, the Hibernia, with the artist's intent being to glorify the Hibernia. This painting depicts, I believe, the Comet's cruise off the coast of Vera Cruz when it had it's famous encounter with the armed British merchantmen and the Portuguese warship escort. The artist applied the paint fairly thinly, as opposed to some I have seen.

The exposed portion of the canvas is 29 3/4 inches by 22 3/4 inches. The frame's outer measurements are 38 by 31 inches. It comes with all my research material on both the Comet and Captain Boyle, her master and commander. This includes some extremely rare first edition books and an original 1890's copy of Harper's Weekly depicting the Comet running the British blockade into Baltimore Harbor. The painting should really appeal to a Baltimore audience, as that was home port to the ship and her master. To read more about the Comet, I suggest you see: http://www.thetroubleshooters.com/comet/comet001.html