Lot 78: Attributed to Francis Holman (British, 1767-1790)

A snow in three positions off Dover oil on canvas 66 x 111.8cm. (26 x 44in.)

Provenance : Gideon Smales, Whitby.

Gideon Smales (1776[?]-1817) was the founder of a dynasty of Whitby shipbuilders and shipowners which, at its height in the mid-nineteenth century, owned some twenty-one sailing vessels ranging from modest little schooners up to ocean-going barques. The family shipyards at Salt Pan Wells and Whitehall gradually expanded as the century wore on and after Gideon Smales (the elder) died at the early age of 41, having just completed the brig ‘Mirables’, his son Gideon (II) adopted the maxim that all his ships would be “completely sound, honestly built and honestly maintained.” The business prospered greatly under this tenet and, in 1871, Gideon Smales (III) launched the ‘Monkshaven’, the very last commercial sailing ship to be built at Whitby; the family firm eventually closed down in 1946.