Object data
wood, brass, iron, glass, rope and paint
height 205 cm × length 225 cm × width 77.5 cm
anonymous
Model of a Merchantman
Netherlands, 1755
Inscriptions
- inscription, on the stern: 17 DE 55 / WITTE OLIPHANT.
- monogram, on the taffrail: LAL
Provenance
...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-1210
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Polychromed and rigged planked frame model of a three-masted vessel, mounted on a stand.
The model had three levels: lower deck, main deck, quarterdeck and forecastle with slightly lower beakhead platform. The quarterdeck has a large glass dome as its deck light. The lower deck has a porthole to either side, on the decks above twelve to fourteen gun positions are indicated; all the guns are missing. The figurehead is a rampant crowned lion. The stern has a square tuck with two gun ports, a hollow counter, a single-storey taffrail decorated with two lions carrying the crowned coat of arms with the inscription ‘LAL’, and two black quarter figures. The single-storey quarter galleries are decorated with carvings. Below the stern is a straight, square-headed rudder, the steering wheel is attached to the mizzen mast. The sheer rises towards the stern, the model has two wales and a sheer rail. The hull is round and painted white below the waterline. The model is fitted with two anchors, a windlass near the fore jeer bitts, hatches and a ship bell. The capstan on the main deck is missing. The model has a three-masted rig without sails. From the davits above the taffrail hangs a six-oared single-banked launch fitted with a rudder, a rudder quadrant and a spare rudder.
Due to its unusually tall rigging, its wide beam and its decorative scheme with two Africans as quarter figures, it is thought likely that the model portrays a slaver.1
Scale unknown.
Literature
J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1210; R. van Luttervelt, Oude schepen / Old Ships, Amsterdam 1957, nos. 28, 30-31; A.J. Hoving and J. van der Vliet, ‘A Bespoke Elephant’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 60 (2012), no. 2, pp. 130-43; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 68-71; R. Daalder et al. (eds.), Slaven en schepen in het Atlantisch gebied, Leiden/Amsterdam 2013
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Merchantman, Netherlands, 1755', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.245024
(accessed 20 September 2024 11:33:44).