signed 'JE Buttersworth' (lower right)
oil on canvas
20 x 30 in. (50.8 x 76.2 cm.)
Painted circa 1887.

The present work depicts the 1887 America's Cup race between Volunteer and Thistle. Captained by the famed Henry "Hank" Coleman Haff, who won the Cup four times in fourteen years, Volunteer proved victorious in the end. Alan Granby, Janice Hyland and Lauren P. Della Monica write, "Volunteer, a steel-hulled yacht designed by Edward Burgess, launched June 20, 1887, and was the victorious defender of the seventh Americas Cup in September 1887 against Thistle. She was named Volunteer in honor of her owner, General Charles J. Paine of Boston for his Civil War service. Volunteer, of the New York Yacht Club and owned by Charles J. Prime, won the best-of-three series 2-0 against her challenger, the Royal Clyde Yacht Club's Thistle." (Flying the Colors: The Unseen Treasures of Nineteenth-Century American Marine Art, Mystic, Connecticut, pp. 176-77)

A contemporary account of the 1887 America's Cup reads, "The excitement over the event was even greater than that over the two previous contests for the Cup, and there was a strong feeling of doubt as to the result, owing to the splendid record of the Thistle and to the secrecy in regard to her model...The contest was closely followed, not only by the people of this country, who eagerly watched the bulletins of the race, but by the people all over the British Isles, where the excitement ran high...The Thistle was the first to cross, at 12:33:06, and went over on the port tack, close up to the windward end of the line,— the wind then being light from the southward. The Volunteer followed directly in her wake, and crossed on the same tack at 12:34:58 ¼ o'clock. The moment the beautiful white sloop crossed she began to close up the gap of five hundred feet which existed between them, and as she overhauled her rival cheer after cheer burst from the thousands of spectators...The Volunteer crossed the line at 4:23:47, and the Thistle at 4:35:12 o'clock. The Boston sloop had won the race, and was proclaimed the winner of the America's Cup, while cannons and steam whistle rent the air and cheer after cheer added to the tumult." (A Testimonial to Charles J. Paine and Edward Burgess From the City of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, 1887, pp. 83)