Lot 941: Pr. Keith Miller Canadian Nautical Watercolors, Cayuga & Bluenose

Two (2) Keith Miller (Canada/Mexico, b. 1949) maritime watercolor paintings depicting historical ships or races. 1st item: Watercolor depicting the Canadian steamship Cayuga flanked by a tugboat. Signed lower left. 2nd item: Watercolor depicting a race between the Canadian schooner Bluenose and the American schooner Henry Ford, likely competing in the 1922 International Fishermen's Race at Gloucester, Massachusetts. Both items housed under plexiglass in giltwood frames with cream double-mats. Both sights: 14" H x 21 1/4" W. Both framed: 23" H x 29 1/2" W. Note regarding the Cayuga: "One of Toronto 's sentimental favourites, the Cayuga was a 305-foot, twin-screw, steamship of 2,196 gross tons…The first owners, in 1906, the Niagara Navigation Company, sold the Cayuga in 1911 to the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company. Canada Steamship Lines bought her in 1913 and kept her in their fleet until 1953 when the Cayuga Steamship Co. Ltd. purchased her…The Cayuga was painted white until Canada Steamship Lines bought her, and painted her bottom black with stripes of black and red around the smokestacks…[S]he was sold in 1961 to Greenspoon Brothers Inc., dismantled, and turned into scrap. Pieces of the Cayuga have been saved at the Pier Museum, and a scale model built by Robert G. Bleasby of Toronto resides at the museum in Kingston." (Source: Toronto Historical Association) Note regarding the Bluenose: "The Bluenose, Canada's most famous ship, was launched at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1921. The schooner was designed by William J. Roue to fish the Grand Banks and to race. Skippered by Capt Angus J. Walter against the fastest American schooners, it won the International Fisherman's Trophy, emblematic of the sailing championship of the fishing fleets of the North Atlantic, in 1921, 1922 and 1923. Its only defeat was by the Boston schooner Gertrude L. Thebaud in the Lipton Cup in 1930, but it outraced the Thebaud for the Fisherman's Trophy in 1931 and 1938. The Bluenose also held the record for the largest catch of fish brought into Lunenburg…A sculptured profile of the Bluenose has been reproduced on the Canadian dime since 1937." (Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia).

CONDITION: Both items in excellent condition, with fresh colors. Not examined outside of frames.