Rijksmuseum

Object data

wood, iron, bronze, brass, rope, textile and paint

height 123.5 cm × length 113 cm × width 55 cm

Conservation

conservator unknown, 1920: sails replaced
Ab Hoving, July 2001: sails removed; rerigged

Provenance

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-667

Copyright: Public domain

Entry

Polychromed and rigged wooden block model of a cutter mounted on a stand.

The model has eighteen guns on the open deck (two are missing). The stem is curved. The stern has a square tuck, a hollow counter with polychrome paintings of draperies, and a closed taffrail with polychrome painting of a seated woman with an anchor in front of a seascape with shipping. At the stern is a straight, square-headed rudder with a tiller on deck, the sternpost is steeply raked. The sheer rises slightly towards both ends, the model has one wale. The hull has an S-bottom, trimmed by the stern. The model is fitted with two anchors, a windlass, two pumps and several hatches. It has a single-masted gaff rig with square topsail.

Cutters were used in the Dutch fleet from c. 1750 onwards, although the first to be built at a Dutch yard dates from 1781.

Scale unknown.

Literature

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 667; Catalogus Rijksmuseum Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1928, p. 23, no. 40, pl. 37

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a 20-Gun Cutter, Netherlands, 1775 - 1800', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200315859

(accessed 12 December 2025 03:08:50).