Artist: Bryan Moon
Title: HMS Bounty Approaches Pitcairn Island
Year created: 1988 / Year Released: 1989
Medium: Multi-Signed Lithograph on Paper, with Section of Iron cut from Ballast recovered from the sunken remains of the HMS Bounty
Edition: Rare Signed, Numbered Artist's Proof, Pitcairn Island Edition, Artist's Proof 2/2; Signed by the Artist, Ben Christian and Brian Young (the ancestors of mutineers Fletcher Christian and Edward Young); with Fragment of the recovered Iron Ballast from the HMS Bounty
Height (inches): 21
Width (inches): 24
Signed by the Artist & 2 Others
Signed Area: front
This piece is framed.
Description of piece:
Add this rare and irreplaceable historic display— commemorating the 200th anniversary of the famous Mutiny on the HMS Bounty— to your collection!
MUTINY ON THE HMS BOUNTY
The fabled tale of “Mutiny on the Bounty”— which has spawned countless books, articles, films, and theatrical productions— is based on the true story of the HMS Bounty, a Royal Navy vessel which eventually met its fate at Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific Ocean.
The mutiny on the HMS Bounty occurred on 28 April 1789. Bounty had left England in 1787 on a mission to collect and transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies. Relations between the ship's captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and his crew deteriorated after Bligh began handing out increasingly harsh punishments, criticism and abuse, with master's mate Fletcher Christian being a particular target.
Disaffected crewmen, led by Christian, seized control of the ship from Captain Bligh, and set him and eighteen loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. Twenty-five men remained on board afterwards, including loyalists held against their will and others for whom there was no room in the launch. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island.
On arrival at Pitcairn Island, the HMS Bounty was unloaded and stripped of most of its masts and spars, for use on the island. It was then set ablaze and destroyed on 23 January 1790, either as an agreed-upon precaution against discovery or as an unauthorized act by Quintal— in either case, there was now no means of escape.
After Bligh reached England in April 1790, the Admiralty dispatched HMS Pandora to apprehend the mutineers. Fourteen were captured in Tahiti and imprisoned onboard Pandora, which then searched without success for Christian's party that had hidden on Pitcairn Island. After turning back towards England, Pandora ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, with the loss of 31 crew and four prisoners from Bounty. The ten surviving detainees reached England in June 1792 and were court-martialed; four were acquitted, three were pardoned, and three were hanged.
Christian's group remained undiscovered on Pitcairn until 1808, by which time only one mutineer, John Adams, remained alive. Almost all of his fellow mutineers, including Christian, had been killed, either by each other or by their Polynesian companions. No action was taken against Adams; descendants of the mutineers and their Tahitian captives live on Pitcairn into the 21st century.
THE ARTWORK
This rare signed and numbered Artist’s Proof by artist, MIA and sunken-ship hunter Bryan Moon commemorates the 200th anniversary of the historic mutiny on the HMS Bounty, which occurred on 28 April 1789.
Released in 1989, and Numbered 2 of only 2 Artist’s Proofs, the artwork is signed and dated in the plate (1988, the date the work was created). Titled “HMS Bounty Approaches Pitcairn Island by Bryan Moon”, beneath the image area, center lower margin. Hand-signed by the artist Bryan Moon, who has signed “Moon” in pencil, right lower margin. Edition number “Pitcairn Island Edition / Artist’s Proof 2/2”, left lower margin, also in pencil.
The lithograph additionally bears an affixed Pitcairn Islands postage stamp, which has been carefully hand-cancelled with a circular Pitcairn Islands Post Office postmark.
The artwork also bears two additional signatures, those of Ben Christian and Brian Young— the ancestors of Fletcher Christian and Edward Young, and the only two original mutineer names of the 46 surviving ancestors who remained on Pitcairn in 1988. The work was stamped and signed on Pitcairn Island in 1988.
Centered between two descriptive plaques on the framed display is a piece of the iron ballast recovered from the sunken remains of the HMS Bounty, which lies offshore of Pitcairn Island, South Pacific. The large fragment bears the stamping “HMS BOUNTY”.
Measuring 21” in height x 24” width in its original frame of antiqued-silver wood, with a matching silver fillet, and with double layers of sueded matting, the artwork is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. The original glass has been newly replaced with UV-protective acrylic, and the reverse side of the framed display has been freshly papered.
Artist bio:
Bryan Moon (1928-2015) was both an artist and Missing-in-Action and sunken-ship hunter, having led 34 missions to find lost World War II U.S. airmen in locations around the globe, including at crash sites in China and Papua New Guinea.
Asked in an interview why he had such a passion for finding those missing in action, Mr. Moon responded: “From World War II alone, there are 68,000 MIAs out there. Does anyone need any other reason?”
In 1988, turning his sights from Air to Sea, Bryan Moon traveled by sailboat across the Pacific Ocean to the remote Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific Ocean. His plan was to conduct research for the artwork he was going to create.
While there, living on the island with the descendants of the mutineers, Moon organized a diving team to try to find remnants of the storied and historical ship which had been set ablaze and sunken off the coast of Pitcairn Island centuries ago. Moon and his team found the ship, and recovered the original iron ballast of the HMS Bounty, a piece of which is incorporated into this irreplaceable display.
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