Adam's IRISH OLD MASTERS 5th November 2024

Irish Old Masters| 5 November 2024 www.adams.ie 111 76 RICHARD FOLEY (FL.1861) Choice, 1861 Signed and dated Watercolour, 41 x 61cm Exhibited: Maritime Paintings of Cork, Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork 2005 € 1,500 - 2,000 The barque Choice is depicted sailing close-hauled, with the Pilot Jack raised on the foremast, indicating the need for a pilot. A Cork pilot cutter is seen veering away astern, suggesting that the pilot has just boarded. In the background, Roche’s Point lighthouse is visible, along with a paddle steamer heading toward the harbour entrance. The Choice , a 355-ton vessel, is recorded in both the 1861 and 1865 editions of the American Lloyd’s Register of American and Foreign Shipping . Constructed in Newcastle in 1854 for the owners Foley and Daley, the vessel’s signal number was 455. Choicewas registered in Cork, and its captain was D. Sullivan. The vessel, measuring 111 feet in length, was metalled in 1859 and again in 1863. Its survey in New York in 1860 suggests that the Choice was employed on trans-Atlantic voyages, in addition to European routes. The owners, Daley and Foley, also possessed the Juliet Er- skine , a slightly smaller barque, built in Sunderland in 1843.