Yachting

Antique Yachting and Sailing Prints

This category brings together original antique prints, engravings and lithographs depicting yacht racing, sailing and the broader world of yachting as a sport and leisure activity, produced from the late 18th through to the early 20th century. These works document the development of recreational and competitive sailing from its aristocratic origins in the Dutch and English maritime traditions through to the establishment of organised yacht racing as a major spectator sport and the pursuit of ocean racing that defined the yachting culture of the late 19th century.

The yacht as a vehicle of aristocratic pleasure and competitive sport has its origins in the Dutch maritime culture of the 17th century, and the tradition of depicting yachts and sailing vessels in fine print was established early in the history of European maritime art. The founding of the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1815 and the subsequent formation of yacht clubs throughout Britain gave organised yacht racing an institutional framework that generated illustrated documentation on a substantial scale. Regattas on the Thames, the Solent and the great sailing waters of the British Isles attracted artists and illustrators whose work was engraved and lithographed for publication in the sporting and illustrated press and as independent prints for the yachting market.

The America’s Cup — the international yacht racing competition established in 1851 when the schooner America won a race around the Isle of Wight and carried the trophy to the United States — generated a sustained tradition of illustrated coverage that documented the successive challenges for the Cup across the second half of the 19th and into the 20th century. Prints depicting the competing yachts, the races themselves and the dramatic encounters between defenders and challengers carry a particular collector interest as documents of the most celebrated competition in the history of yacht racing.

Australian yachting prints document the development of competitive sailing in the colonies and the establishment of yacht clubs in Sydney Harbour, Port Phillip Bay and other Australian waters whose sailing conditions attracted enthusiastic yachting communities from the colonial period onwards. The Sydney Harbour racing scene — perhaps the most visually spectacular in the world, combining extreme natural beauty with highly competitive racing — generated illustrated coverage that captures the distinctive character of Australian yachting culture.

Antique yachting and sailing prints are collected for their nautical historical interest, their connection to the specific events and vessels of the competitive sailing tradition, and the decorative appeal of images combining beautiful vessels with dramatic maritime settings.