LONDON.- A sledge from the first expedition to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton sold for £143,750 in the Bonhams Travel and Exploration Sale today. The sale made a total of £875,525.
Estimated at between £60,000-100,000, the sledge was the subject of fierce competition from bidders in the room, on the phone and on the internet.
The sledge was used on the 1907-9 British Antarctic (Nimrod) Expedition by Eric Marshall – one of the four men, with Shackleton, Jameson Adams, and Frank Wild, to undertake the sledge march to the South Pole. Although they had to abandon the attempt, they reached within 100 geographical miles of the Pole – at the time, the furthest south ever travelled.
Eric Marshall’s sledge flag which had been estimated at £30,000-50,00 sold for £75,000.
Bonhams Head of Books and Manuscripts Matthew Haley said: “This was a fantastic result for a rare survivor of one of the great journeys of Polar exploration.”
A detailed account of the expedition and the sledge’s crucial role in it can be found
here
Other highlights included:
• Views of Trinidad by Michel Cazabon, sold for £60,000 (est £3,000-5,000)
• The Tomb of Esther and Mordechai, Hamadan, Iran, with the Alvand range of the Zagros Mountains in the distance by Charles-Théodore Frère, sold for £47,500 (est: £20,000-30,000)
• Edward Roper (British, 1830-1909), The Goldfields of Australia, Ararat, sold for £32,500 (est £6,000-8,000)
• Diary written by Stephen B. Church, Signalman aboard the H.M.S. Perseus that sold for £32,500 (est £2,000-3,000)
