Thomas Dutton

[A Pair of East India Company Trading Ships]

The ALFRED, EAST INDIAMAN, 1400 TONS.
To Captain A. Henning & the Officers of the Ship...
[&]
The EARL BALCARRAS, EAST INDIAMAN, 1488 TONS. To Mess.ss J. F. & I. Somes, Capt.n H. Morris & the Officers of the Ship...

19 x 14 inches

A pair of hand coloured lithographs, drawn and lithographed by Thomas Dutton and published by William Foster in London circa 1870.

The Alfred and The Earl Balcarras were two of the many sailing vessels commissioned by the omnipotent East India Company who dominated colonial trade throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton was one of the most talented and prolific maritime artists of the mid nineteenth century and his evocative paintings and lithographs capture the golden age of sail. When the East India Company wished to commission paintings of their fleet it is highly unsurprising that they enlisted the services of Dutton who was, at the time, at the peak of his career.