This portrait made £14,000 at Christie’s Travel & Exploration sale on September 22.
Sold at £16,000 to Explorer Books was a two-volume manuscript journal kept by Matthew Miller, engineer on the Discovery on George Nares' 1875-76 Arctic expedition.
A methodical record that begins with the commissioning of the ship and a thorough description of its engineering, the journal details the various events of the voyage, including the sledging trip Miller made with the ship's captain, but has several passages scratched out or cut out, apparently by the author.
This Nares expedition was brought to a premature end by an outbreak of scurvy and the failed attempt on the North Pole made by Markham's sledging party, but Miller's journal ends with the celebrations and promotions that marked their safe return to England.
