Clifford Warren Ashley (December 18, 1881 – September 18, 1947) was an American artist, author, sailor, and knot expert.
Life
Ashley was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, son of Abiel Davis Ashley and Caroline Morse Ashley. He married Sarah Scudder Clark in 1932, with whom he had two daughters, one of whom is practicing painter Jane Ashley. He also adopted his wife's daughter from a previous marriage. He died in Westport Point, Massachusetts in 1947, two years after having a debilitating stroke.
Education and early work
right|thumb|A Whaleship on the Marine Railway at Fairhaven ()
Taking an interest in art while still in high school, he went on to attend the Eric Pape Art School in Boston. In the summer of 1901 Ashley, along with friends N.C. Wyeth and Henry J. Peck, studied under George Noyes in Annisquam, Massachusetts. Pyle helped secure commissions for his students, and Ashley's early work included book frontispieces and illustrations for magazines such as The Delineator, Leslies, McClure's, and Success. The Sea Stories articles were collected, reset and published by the International Guild of Knot Tyers as The Sailor and His Knots in 2012.
In 1922, Ashley was granted Patent US1433868A for "A novel method whereby sennits of any desired cross-sectional shape may be plaited without the necessity for a core." The explanation given in the Ashley Book of Knots is, "...when my attention was called to the fact that Matthew Walker alone of all past knot tiers still holds credit for his invention, I went to the trouble of patenting my sinnet."
Ashley also wrote The Yankee Whaler (1926) and The Whaleships of New Bedford (1929), studies of sperm whaling in New England in the late 18th century and early 19th century.