Portrait of S.S. Beaver

A watercolour ship portrait of the SS Beaver.

Built in England in 1836 and sent to the Pacific Northwest for service in transporting trade goods, people and furs for the Hudson's Bay Company along the Pacific Coast until the 1880s.

Monogrammed T.H.

8.5 inches x 12 inches (sight)

The SS Beaver arrived in Vancouver in 1836 as the first steam ship on scene.  It was operated by the Hudson Bay Company as a floating trading post for fur and other goods along the BC pacific coast. Later it was converted to a passenger ferry and vessel for cartographers to chart the BC coast.  For all of its service in the earliest of times, the vessel has been referred to as 'the ship that built Vancouver'. 

During conservation, it was discovered that the watercolour is painted on a book binding that was widely used from the 1830s on.   I can count the number of images I have been able to find on one hand which leads me to believe this is a fairly rare period portrait of a historically important west coast ship.  After having the black paper medium dry scraped from binding, it was placed in a 19th c frame using conservation materials.