Commanded by Sir George Nares, it was undertaken with the ultimately unsuccessful aim of reaching the North Pole.
Sent for sale at Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on September 26 by a descendant of Lt Reginald Fulford, these lots made an excellent start when an album of photographs sold at a far higher than expected £26,000.
They were taken by Thomas Mitchell, the expedition’s paymaster and an amateur photographer who at the request of Nares had been further trained at the Army School of Photography in Chatham.
The photograph reproduced above shows the more famous of the expedition’s two vessels, and that on which Fulford served – HMS Discovery.
Sold at £17,500 was a flag, embroidered with a bear’s head and legend ‘Bear Up’ that was used by Fulford on his sledging expeditions, while bid to £9000 was the Arctic Medal awarded to him in commemoration of the expedition.
A couple of tea cups and saucers from a service that was specially made for use on the expedition by Copeland Spode sold at £1800 and overall the collection raised £55,550.
