An oil on canvas of William Paget, Marquess of Anglesey’s yacht Pearl by Nicolas Condy

An oil on canvas of William Paget, Marquess of Anglesey’s yacht Pearl by Nicolas Condy, the reverse with a paper trade label for ‘Akermann & Co, prepared millboards, pastels, canvass and *bladder colours, Repository of Arts 96, Strand, London’, in the original ornate gilt frame. English, circa 1842.

Provenance: Almost certainly commissioned by Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey (1768-1854)

References: The painting appears in several Paget family inventories, showing that it was hanging at their Staffordshire seat Beaudesert in 1863.

• Anon, Beaudesert / 1863 / Inventory, p. 107, in ‘My Lord’s Bedroom’, (Staffordshire Record Office, D603/7/4);

and then, since at least 1910, in the private apartments at Plas Newydd

• Thomas Agnew & Son, London, Valuation for Insurance of The Pictures and Drawings, The Property of the Most Honourable The Marquess of Anglesey, At Uxbridge House, St James Square, Plas Newydd, and 8 Lees Mews, 2 February 1910, at Plas Neywdd, probably no. 29, (as Painting of a Yacht (The Pearl), N M Condy) (Bangor University Archives and Special Collections, PN/IX/3198).

The Pearl and her Significance:

Built in Colchester in 1820 and launched the following year, The Marquess of Anglesey’s Pearl was

the dominant yacht in the early days of racing and the Royal Yacht Squadron. In ‘The Royal Yacht

Squadron; memorials of its members, with an enquiry into the history of yachting and the its

development in the Solent’, Montague Guest and William B. Boulton, 1902, the authors

wrote ‘Lord Anglesey in the possession of the Pearl was for many years secure against the rivalry of

the others who depended upon vessels of much smaller tonnage, and she remained unbeaten as long as her owner sailed her in the few matches of the early days’.  They also remarked that the

vessel was ‘an exceptional boat of 113 tons….and her lines were taken in to account in after years by

most of the crack builders of the southern ports’.   The Marquess took full advantage of the fact that Pearl was one of only two yachts of more than 100 tons at this time.  In 1832 she was in Naples being refitted as a cruising vessel for the Mediterranean and the Caribbean however she retained her position of prominence in the racing world and would frequently act as ceremonial starter for regattas etc.  In 1843 the Marquess was elected to membership of the Royal Thames Yacht Club as well, intriguingly on the very same day that N. M. Condy was appointed official painter to the Club.

Images of Pearl appear in the aforementioned history of the Royal Yacht Squadron.

The Marquess of Anglesey and his Part in Yachting History

Aside from his great military heroism (Paget famously lost a leg at Waterloo and was rewarded with his title and then, three years later, the Order of the Garter), the Marquess is a highly significant figure in yachting circles.  He was one of the founder members, in 1815, of what would later become the Royal Yacht Squadron.  He was also the owner of Cowes Castle, later to become the Squadron’s clubhouse.  Perhaps his lasting fame in sailing circles was most established by the fact that he was the man who presented the trophy which would later become the Americas Cup.  He gave the trophy to the Squadron for use as a prize, with no particular conditions attached, in 1848 or thereabouts but in 1851 the Squadron decided to use the trophy for its newly established “All Nations” race, later to be renamed the America’s Cup in 1857.

Nicholas Matthew Condy (1818-1851)

The son of a landscape painter, Condy was originally planning a career in the military but discovered, for himself, the joys of painting.  He attended the Mount Radford School in Exeter before studying painting under the Rev. C. Thomas.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy three times in the 1840s and was patronised by the Earl of Egremont, Turner’s most prominent patron, amongst other early supporters.  An article in Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 10^th September 1843, records that Condy was ‘elected marine painter to the (Royal Thames Yacht) Club.  Mr Condy has recently executed portraits of the Gnome and Phantom.  The former was exhibited to the club on Thursday – she is lying to, and the whole picture reflects great credit on Mr Condy’s nautical knowledge and skill as an artist.  It was painted whilst Mr Meeson was at Cowes with his yacht, and we understand that it was particularly admired by the members of the Royal Yacht Squadron, and a succession of orders was the consequence’.

Condy was based for most of his life in Plymouth, the setting for this picture, and an article in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, dated 30^th September 1843, describes a forthcoming exhibition of works by Devon artists including four views by Condy depicting aspects of Queen Victoria’s recent visit by sea to Plymouth.  The scenes were later issued as lithographs.

An advert placed in Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 9^th of June 1850, reveals that Condy had painted the Pearl on more than one occasion. It states that one of a series of scenes about to be issued as prints was ‘The Kestrel R.Y.S., the property of the late Earl of Yarborough, under weigh in the Cowes roads, in company with the Pearl, Camilla, Xarifa and the Flirt’.

Condy died suddenly in 1851 at a tragically early age.  His obituary, published in the Morning Advertiser on 24^th May of that year stated ‘His power of delineating shipping and all their material, has seldom been surpassed; every ship, however minute, was recognised at once by the sailor as a perfect likeness, and few artists enjoyed such royal and noble patronage‘. This painting is a fine example of the work of this talented painter.

*Pigs’ bladders were used for centuries, before the invention of the paint tube in 1841, to store their paints.