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'ENDURANCE' EXPEDITION, 1914-1917 Manuscript menu card for New Year 1916
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Description
'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. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing
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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. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing
Travel & Exploration Sale
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London
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SW7 1HH
United Kingdom
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