Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD

Oil Painting RAF Supermarine Spitfire Plane Prototype Pilot Mutt Summers By Dion Pears

CHF 3,711.00

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Indulge in the elegance of this British aviation oil painting, featuring the iconic RAF Supermarine Spitfire Plane Prototype and its pilot, Mutt Summers. Masterfully crafted by artist Dion Pears, this piece captures the beauty and bravery of aerial triumph. Elevate your decor with this exclusive work of art.
Impress your clients & guests in your office or home with this aviation masterpiece.
Subject aviation portrait of the known British RAF Supermarine Spitfire prototype in mid flight flying high up in the clouds from Eastleigh airfield which is now Southampton Airport. Further up mainly clear blue sky above. The colour of the plane is cerulean blue.
A feature that really stands out wth this artwork is the excellence of the artist Dion Pears ability to capture the movement of this plane travelling through the air.
An excellent display size with the frame being 56 cm wide and 46 cm high.
In our opinion this work his is most fascinating, a very fine example.
Title “RAF Supermarine Spitfire Prototype” Pilot Mutt Summers by Dion Pears”
Oil on board.
Set in wooden frame which has been recently overpainted in a nice gilt colour finish.
Circa late 20th century 1970's.
Signed by the known British artist Dion Pears 1929-1985.
Artist biography Dion Pears was a British painter born in Richmond, Surrey in 1929, Pears was the grandson of the famed marine artist Charles Pears. Following the 1950 Monte Carlo Rally Pears was commissioned by the car manufacturer Renault to produce a painting of one of their winning cars. The artist soon came to be considered among the most eminent motorsport artists.
He was commissioned by several celebrated motor racing drivers to represent their successes and beloved cars in his distinctive and lively style of painting, capturing lasting impressions of both the racing car and the winning driver. From Le Mans to Grand Prix, Bentley to Ferrari the artist regularly received commissions to paint contemporary races and legendary events retrospectively.
As his career developed, Pears expanded his oeuvre and became well regarded for his paintings of motorcycles and aeroplanes. Alongside his more popular automobile paintings, Pears was an accomplished seascape and landscape artist. The artist regularly captured barges, riggers and grand ships in his work, his celebrated skill of representing clarity of movement evident in his maritime works as well as in those depicting fast-paced motorised machines.
The artist’s ability to portray the changeable nature of the sea was such that Pears was regularly invited to exhibit with the Royal Society of Marine Artists. The artist died in 1985. His work remains in the collection of the National Motor Museum and in several private collections throughout Britain.
Ref source Artist collecting society.
RAF Supermarine Spitfire Prototype. The Supermarine Spitfire was developed in the mid-1930s as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft by chief designer R. J. Mitchell. Only one prototype was made. Following its first flight on 5 March 1936, pilot "Mutt" Summers made his famous but oft-misunderstood remark, "I don't want anything touched!" Its appearance and performance caused a significant stir wherever it appeared. The aircraft underwent progressive modifications throughout its life, eventually being converted to near-production standard. It crash-landed several times, finally crashing fatally and being written off just as World War II was breaking out. Several replicas have been built, including a static one as a memorial to Mitchell. One three-quarter scale replica is flyable.
Construction on the protype started in December 1934, although the design continued to evolve during the early stages of build, with the prototype gaining an oval rear fuselage, slightly reduced wing span and rear vision cockpit glazing behind the sliding canopy. Like many prototypes of mass-production designs, the first Type 300 had to be largely hand-built and although its general structure followed that of the proposed production design, its details differed in many ways. Although the basic wing plan was to stay the same for most production Spitfires, the prototype had integral tips and the alclad skinning was hand-cut to fit the double-curvature of the elliptical wing, the upper skinning being laid out in spanwise strips and the underside in chordwise strips. Similarly, the fuselage and tail was a single integrated assembly, with many small cowling panels to the engine.
Other initial design features which would later be changed included a fixed-pitch propeller, a stubby and partially-recessed engine air intake, a diagonal edge to the rudder tip balance (which matched the edges of the tail plane tip balances) and a tail skid. Underneath the port wing the radiator duct intake ran flush with the starboard undercarriage leg bay, its opening conforming to the angle of the bay. Farther out towards the wingtip a long pitot tube projected from the leading edge. The Merlin engine was still under development when the airframe was finished. The engine fitted for initial trials was a prototype Merlin C 990 hp (738 kW), with six stub exhaust ports just protruding from each side, driving an Aero-Products "Watts" two-bladed, wooden fixed-pitch propeller. When first rolled out for ground tests in February 1936, no armament was installed and the undercarriage doors were also missing. Its RAF markings were applied direct onto the unpainted airframe.
Mitchell wanted his Type 300, now named the Spitfire, to be as fast and sleek as possible. After its first flights it was given a high-grade paint finish closer to that on a Rolls-Royce car than a typical aeroplane. Workmen experienced on the car applied a coat of filler to cover all the rivets, panel joints and other surface blemishes, and rubbed it down to a smooth finish. They then applied several coats of paint to achieve a high gloss. The colour used has been the subject of debate. It has been variously described as "French Grey", "blue-grey", "pale blue" or "cerulean blue". The laborious finish proved fragile under flight conditions and also added excessively to the aircraft weight. It was later also applied to the Speed Spitfire.
Fate Three days after Hitler's invasion of Poland had marked the start of hostilities and the day after Britain declared war on Germany, on 4 September 1939 an awkward landing at the hands of Flt. Lt. Gilbert Stanbridge "Spinner" White, led to the machine tipping over nose-first onto its back. The fuselage broke up and White suffered fatal neck injuries from the anchor point to the Sutton safety harness, dying the next day. The accident led to the system being redesigned. Parts of the wreck were later used for reconnaissance camera installation trials, but it was never rebuilt.
Provenance from a private collection, high end auction in the Southern Shires & in collection of Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD labels verso.
An exceptional sought after collectible artwork.
Highly sought after due to the collectible nature of subject marine matter such elaborate detail.
With hanging thread on the back ready for immediate home wall display.
Incredible conversation piece for your guests.
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Condition report.
Offered in fine used condition.
Front painting surface in good overall order. Having some foxing staining in places, frame with some minor chips commensurate with usage & age.
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Dimensions in centimetres of the frame

High (46 cm)
Wide (56 cm)
Depth thickness of frame (3 cm)