Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Finely Carved and Detailed Early 19th Century French Napoleonic Prisoner-of-War Bone Model of a Second or Third Rate 86-Gun Ship-of-The-Line and Associated ‘Novelty’ Stand, the vessel with bound masts, fighting tops, yards with stun’s’l booms, standing and running rigging with bone blocks, well-carved and articulated female figurehead, dolphin striker, boomkins, solid head-rails carved with winged cherubs and laurel palms, cat-heads, anchors with metal-bound stocks, main rails decorated with heraldic beasts and trophies of arms etc., capstan, two metal stovepipes, balustraded well-deck with carving and draperies, two ship’s boats (only one with oars and both lying on deck amidships having once been lashed in the rigging), gratings, companionways, saloon light, one brass deck-gun on stepped bone carriage and one (of two) stern swivel-guns, ornately carved stern with glazed windows and balustraded quarter galleries surmounted by royal arms with flagstaff above; the planked and pinned hull with three carved wales and protruding retractable brass guns, those on the upper deck with stepped bone carriages and with the lower ports raised and painted red, and fitted with bead-ended broadside gun-pulls (not operational), hull length 30_ins. (770mm.), figurehead to stern, or 44_ins. (1130mm.) extreme width. The model, mounted on two wooden (replacement?) supports, is accompanied by an unusually large and elaborately-decorated rectangular bone base (on a wooden carcass) measuring 31ins. (790mm.) in length by 11ins. (280mm.) wide by 7ins. (180mm.) high, the two longer sides divided into five panels each composed of three fretwork strips separated by conical step-topped pillars with stylised feet, and the intermediate lower sections containing three shallow drawers with brass pulls on both sides; the opposite ends constructed from six solid carved panels with borders; and the planked and pinned balustraded top having four shallow compartments (5 x 1_ x 1_ins.) covered by sliding fretwork panels at either end, all the various panels decorated with heraldic beasts, shields of arms and similar devices; additionally, the base contains an unexpected novelty feature in the form of four retracting sea-serpents (two in each of the longer sides), their bodies crosshatched in green and with stylised faces, which emerge and then disappear into the facias when a bead-ended cord is pulled; overall measurements 41ins. (1040mm.) high by 44_ins. (1120mm.) wide, sometime re-rigged and with some restoration and minimal damage to a few bone fittings, otherwise an extremely attractive model in good condition accompanied by an extraordinary base of previously unrecorded design and dimensions £15000-20000

See colour illustration on back cover.

Although it has not been possible to identify this model, it is unlikely that it represents a specific British vessel despite the distinctive figurehead of an apparent queen. The only likely candidates in the Royal Navy – His Majesty’s Ships “Queen” (launched 1769) and “Queen Charlotte” (launched 1790) were both too large whereas the odd number of guns carried (86) makes her more reminiscent of a large French Third Rate of the period, perhaps one familiar to the modeller or maybe even his own ship. It is a popular misconception that ships’ figureheads accurately reflect a vessel’s name and what appears here to be a queen (or empress) could equally well be a purely allegorical representation of a goddess, a continent, a city or some other non-human form.