The Boiler Room of a Battleship

This print forms part of a green paper folder of an “edition de luxe” of signed proofs: 6 prints made from the War Drawings of Muirhead Bone.

The print is captioned “The Boiler Room of a Battleship. The vessel is oil driven, so the stoke-hold is robbed of its old terrors and is remarkably cool. The stokers seem few in proportion to the size of the place, but they are experts of a higher class than coal furnaces required”.

This drawing is from a battleship during the First World War, and depicts a dark scene with steel pipes and gages on the left. On the right workers are depicted at their posts, one man stokes the boiler and two other figures stand gazing on. Muirhead Bone uses subtle difference in texture and colour to show light from the boiler hatches.

Muirhead Bone (1876-1953) was a Scottish watercolourist and etcher. He was known for his depictions of wartime industrial and architectural settings. He was on the advisory committees for the British War Memorials during the First World War and the War Artists Advisory panel during the Second World War.

Object Summary

Accession Loan No.
52/1918/6
Category
Fine Art
Collection Class
Prints
Medium
lithograph on paper
Common Name
The Boiler Room of a Battleship
Simple Name
print
Inscription Transcription
Bone; Muirhead Bone ; MB
Period Classification
World War I (1914-1918)
Production Town
; London; London
Production Country
; United Kingdom: England; United Kingdom: England
Production Person Initials
Sir David Muirhead; ; George
Production Person Surname
Bone; Country Life Ltd; Newnes Ltd
Production Year Low
1917
Production Year High
1917

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The Boiler Room of a Battleship