(JONES, JOHN PAUL) | Paul Jones Shooting a Sailor who had Attempted to Strike his Colours in an Engagement. London: Printed for and Sold by Carrington Bowles, 2 December 1779 

Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection

(JONES, JOHN PAUL)

Paul Jones Shooting a Sailor who had Attempted to Strike his Colours in an Engagement. London: Printed for and Sold by Carrington Bowles, 2 December 1779 

Mezzotint print (14 1/8 x 10 1/8 in.; 358 x 257 mm) after a painting by John Collet, brilliantly handcolored. Some light browning, three marginal tears into image. Framed and glazed. The consignor has independently obtained a letter of authenticity from PSA that will accompany the lot.

"I have not yet begun to fight!" This is the first of three versions of this British propaganda print depicting the United States' first great naval hero as a maniacal pirate, armed with a saber and five pistols and shooting one of his own men who was attempting to surrender to the British.

Collet's exaggerated image was inspired by an actual event scarcely two month before the print was published. During the brutal battle between Jones's flagship Bonhomme Richard and HMS Serapis off the Yorkshire coast, the American's gunner's mate, Henry Gardner, believing Jones killed and himself the ranking officer, called for quarter. "Unfortunately for Gardner, Jones was very much alive and on a rear deck, helping to man a cannon that blasted at the enemy’s mainmast. Hearing Gardner, Jones became infuriated, lunged after him, and threw one of his two pistols at the man, knocking him out" (Michael Schellhammer, "The Real Immortal Words of John Paul Jones," in Journal of the American Revolution, 2015).