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Lot Essay
The Polar party (Oates, Bowers, Scott, Wilson and Evans) are shown posing at the South Pole on the morning of 18 January, 1912. After coming across the first signs of Amundsen's prior arrival (a black flag and the Norwegians' sledge, ski and dog tracks running N.E and S.W both ways) on 16 January, Scott and his party reached the Pole early on the evening of 17 January, camped and photographed themselves by the Queen Mother's Union Jack and their sledging flags the following morning: 'We built a cairn, put up our poor slighted Union Jack and photographed ourselves - mighty cold work all of it... Well, we have turned our back now on the goal of our ambition and must face 800 miles of solid dragging - and goodbye to most of our day-dreams!' (Scott's Last Expedition, London, 1913, I, p.536)
The image was offered as a supplementary photograph at the Fine Art Society Exhibition of Ponting's photographs of the British Antarctic Expedition: 'It was felt that a selection of ten photographs taken by Lieutenant Bowers at the South Pole must be included, for they were without doubt the most tragically interesting in existence. The films from which they were 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 it...' (The Fine Art Society, The British Antarctic Expedition 1910-1913, Exhibition of the photographic Pictures of...Ponting [1913], pp.23-4.)
The image was offered as a supplementary photograph at the Fine Art Society Exhibition of Ponting's photographs of the British Antarctic Expedition: 'It was felt that a selection of ten photographs taken by Lieutenant Bowers at the South Pole must be included, for they were without doubt the most tragically interesting in existence. The films from which they were 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 it...' (The Fine Art Society, The British Antarctic Expedition 1910-1913, Exhibition of the photographic Pictures of...Ponting [1913], pp.23-4.)