Lot 365: At the South Pole

Henry Robertson 'Birdie' Bowers (1883-1912), Edward Adrian Wilson (1872-1912) and others
At the South Pole
six photographs, mounted on card, titled in ink as above, and lettered A-F respectively on the Fine Art Society labels on the reverse of the mounts
carbon prints
12 x 15in. (30.5 x 38.2cm.) and similar
within original green and oatmeal cloth portfolio, lettered in brown on upper cover 'THE BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1910-1913 AT THE SOUTH POLE PUBLISHED BY THE FINE ART SOCIETY 148 NEW BOND STREET, LONDON' (6)

'It was felt that a selection of the photographs taken by Lieutenant Bowers at the South Pole must be included, for they are without doubt the most tragically interesting in existance. The films from which they are made were brought back by Captain Scott, as evidence of what he had found and accomplished, to the final camp where he and his two surviving comrades died, and they lay beside the dead body of the leader for eight months before they were found. They were developed a month later in the hut at Cape Evans ... This historic picture, showing Captain Scott and his four comrades at the Pole, was ... taken by Lieutenant Bowers, who obtained the photograph by means of a string attached to the camera. He is seen in the act of pulling ... The flags are light silk sledging flags which each member of the Expedition carried, and which bore a crest or some individual device' (The Fine Art Society, The British Antarctic Expedition 1910-1913, Exhibition of Photographic Pictures of ... Ponting [1913], pp.23-4).