[Frederic Yates, English artist active in America.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Fred Yates') to Mrs Oldham, describing his examination of the wreck of HMS Foudroyant, for a painting she has commissioned. With sketches of the ship in ink and pencil.

Yates studied in Paris before setting up a successful practice in San Francisco, also teaching there at the Art Student League. His portraits include the educator John Haden Badley and the only president of Hawaii, Sanford Ballard Dole. He returned to England in 1900, but was invited back to America to attend the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson and to paint his portrait. Wilson presented Yates with the flag that his hand rested on whilst he took his oath of office. The Oldham family moved in artistic circles, and Constance Oldham was John Ruskin's god-daughter and corresponded with him. Two items: a letter and two pages of pencil sketches. LETTER: 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Other papers suggest that the recipient was resident at Walpole, Chislehurst, Kent. The subject of the letter is a painting Yates is planning of HMS Foudroyant (present whereabouts unknown), evidently commissioned by the recipient. Yates is an excellent letter writer, and he begins by giving Mrs Oldham the details of his journey to Devonport, 'after a most pleasant journey, coming down by the Great Western'. He 'arrived at Plymouth, but came on to Devonport knowing the old warships are nearer this neighbourhood than Plymouth'. He continues: 'The “Foudroyant” lies out in the stream and can only just be distinguished from her neighbours from the shore. - I engaged a boatman and sailed round her and have quite decided what kind of a picture to paint.' Beneath this Yates has drawn a small simple ink sketch of the wreck of the ship. He continues: 'The snow was falling and the wind terribly keen, - the boat man with a thin jersey on looking quite used to the weather, I in overcoat, hugging my knees together, my teeth chattering – a regular landlubber.' There follows another ink sketch of the scene he has just described, with the two men in their boat in the rain, and the ship in the background. He continues: 'I have engaged this craft for tomorrow at 8.30 – weather permitting and in the evening will report progress to you – this county is full of beauty, around Exeter the place looked the very home for a painter'. He adds regretfully: 'I wish some portraits were wanted down here then I would run down for two months in the summer. He asks for 'a Postal Order for £3', as he 'did not bring enough, and the railway costs more than I expected and the cost of a boat I had not calculated. I am improvident.' PENCIL SKETCHES: On both sides of a 12mo piece of paper. In good condition, with four fold lines, one of which has a short closed tear at edge. On one side of the paper are two simple sketches, the top one, showing the wreck of HMS Foudroyant at sea, captioned 'As she is', with side note indicating what are 'not masts only stumps'; beneath this another sketch of a ship, 'As other ships of the same date now are'. On the other side of the paper is a larger sketch showing Foudroyant in her prime, captioned by Yates, 'What I suppose must have been'. The letter must have been written after 1884, when the Foudroyant, which had been Nelson's flagship for a couple of years, ceased to be a training vessel. In 1897 she was towed to Blackpool, and in the same year she was wrecked in a violent storm, damaging the North Pier in the process. Wood from the ship lines the boardroom of Blackpool Football Club, and medals were struck from copper salvaged from the wreck.