Huge 5ft x 3ft map of Antarctica hand-drawn and signed by Ernest Shackleton and not seen in public for 30 years is tipped to sell for £70,000 at auction when it goes under the hammer alongside raft of polar memorabilia
- A hand-drawn map of Antarctica, created by British explorer Ernest Shackleton, is going under the hammer
- Ernest Shackleton charted his historic expedition in the doomed ship Endurance, which got stranded in ice
- The expedition, from 1914 to 1916, saw his crew of more than 20 men spend over a year stuck on board
- Shackleton left the stranded ship to get help, travelling to South Georgia and coming back to rescue his crew
- The enormous map, believed to have been used by Shackleton in lectures, could fetch as much as £70k
- Other polar memorabilia is up for auction, including a copy of the first book to be written in Antarctica
A remarkable hand-drawn map of Antarctica by Ernest Shackleton that he used for his lecture tours is on sale for £70,000.
The famous British explorer traced on the 5ft by 3ft map the route of his party when their legendary ship Endurance became trapped in ice in October 1915.
Shackleton and four other men were forced to make an astonishing 800-mile open-boat journey to South Georgia to get help rescuing the 22-man crew.
The historic map charts the Antarctic expedition of 1914 to 1916.
It is signed by Shackleton who marked the approximate point where Endurance eventually sank more than a year after getting stuck in ice.
A 5ft by 3ft map of Antarctica (pictured) hand-drawn and signed by the British explorer Ernest Shackleton is tipped to sell for £70,000, as it goes on auction alongside a raft of polar memorabilia
The map, which shows the point where Shackleton and his crew got stranded in polar ice, may have been used by Shackleton in lectures
After the crew got stuck in polar ice, Shackleton undertook an astonishing 800-mile open-boat journey to South Georgia to get help rescuing the 22-man crew. Pictured: A photograph of Ernest Shackleton on the Endurance in 1914
A first-edition copy of Aurora Australis, the first book to be printed and bound in Antarctica, will also be auctioned off. Pictured: A page from Aurora Australis
All of the crew survived Endurance’s sinking, thanks to Shackleton’s rescue mission.
Its wreck was finally discovered in 10,000ft of water at the bottom of the Weddell Sea in the Antarctic in March this year – 107 years after it vanished.
The map, produced in 1918, has not been seen in public for over 30 years.
It has been consigned from an American private collection and is tipped to sell for £70,000 with London-based auctioneers Sotheby’s.
The auctioneers say it is the largest known map produced by Shackleton.
Going under the hammer alongside it is a first edition copy of the first book printed and bound in Antarctica, which is valued at £70,000.
The rare book was produced using a cast-iron printing press in a hut during the winter of 1908.
A Norwegian flag which travelled with explorer Roald Amundsen to the South Pole in 1912, when he pipped Captain Robert Scott’s doomed party to it, is expected to fetch £30,000.
A three-volume set of The South Polar Times, produced to commemorate Capt Scott’s first Antarctic expedition of 1901 to 1904, which he inscribed to his mother, is estimated at £30,000.
The inscription, dated October 1907, reads ‘To my dearest mother with best love, Robert Scott’.
Scott and the rest of his five-man party died on his return from the South Pole in early 1912.
A ‘Terra Nova’ expedition sledge could fetch £50,000, while Shackleton’s bronze medal from the Chilean Historical and Geographical Society, awarded in 1916, is valued at £30,000.
Shackleton died in his cabin of the exploration ship Quest which was anchored off South Georgia in 1922.
He was 47 years old.
A Sotheby’s spokesperson said: ‘The very large hand-drawn and annotated map principally records Shackleton’s epic Antarctic expedition of 1914-1916 and the heroic rescue of his crew.
The book, Aurora Australis, was written and illustrated by Ernest Shackleton’s crew on a 1908-09 polar expedition – a cultural activity their captain promoted to keep the men occupied and sane through the harsh daily grind of the trip
A Norwegian flag which travelled with explorer Roald Amundsen to the South Pole in 1912 is expected to fetch £30,000, as it goes on auction alongside a host of other polar expedition memorabilia items
A bronze medal (pictured) awarded to Shackleton from the Chilean Historical and Geographical Society in 1916 is valued at £30,000
A sledge from the ‘Terra Nova’ expedition (1910-1913) could fetch £50,000
‘The aim of this expedition was to cross the continent with a sledge party to be landed by the Endurance in the Weddell Sea, while another party in the Aurora was to lay depots into the interior from their base at McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea for the trans-polar party.
‘The various tracks on the map tell the story of what actually happened.
‘The Endurance was beset by ice and drifted for nine months before Shackleton abandoned her and drifted on the ice for a further five months eventually reaching the uncertain safety of Elephant Island.
‘It was from here that Shackleton made his epic open boat trip in the James Caird to South Georgia in an effort to bring help to those left behind.
‘After three abortive attempts the remainder of the party were rescued.
‘Shackleton was a seasoned lecturer and this map may have been drawn by him to illustrate a talk.’
The timed sale ends on May 24.
Source: Read Full Article
