Object data
wood, brass and paint
height 121.6 cm × length 5.7 cm × width 4.8 cm
anonymous
Model of a Made Mast
? Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Rotterdam, c. 1738
Conservation
- Ab Hoving, May 1997: woodworm treatment
- Ab Hoving, October 2008: cleaned; retouched
Provenance
...; sale, widow of Leendert van Zwijndregt, Rotterdam (Pieter Holsteyn), 19 March 1765 ('een konstig gemaakt OORLOG-SCHIP, à 50 Stukken Canon, [...] door L. van Swyndregt [...] staande in een Glaaze kast op een gesnede Voet; waarbij nog een zeer konstig gemaakte Groote Mast en Steng.');1...; anonymous sale, Amsterdam (De Brakke Grond), to Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1765-1837), Amsterdam;2 sent to the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, October 1818;3 transferred to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-127
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Construction model of a round mast with octagonal head, hounds with bibbs and furring.
The mast itself is made of an octagonal spindle and eight side fishes. The parts are held together with mast hoops. A number of short planks encircle the mast, forming a flat furring to the front, the bibbs on the sides and half an octagon at the back. The model can be taken apart and originally belonged to model NG-MC-498.
This model is first mentioned in 1765, when the widow of Leendert van Zwijndregt (1681-1749) wanted to sell it through the good offices of the Rotterdam bookshop owner Pieter Holsteyn.4 It is made according to the method described by Leendert van Zwijndregt (1708-1764) in 1757,5 which was thereafter known as the ‘Dutch method’.6 The spindle had its root end upward, the side fishes the other way round and with their heart towards the centre; they reach half-way up the hounds.
The fact that the mast originally belonged to model NG-MC-498, which was made in 1738, leads to the conclusion that it is more likely that it was designed by Paulus van Zwijndregt.
Literature
L. van Zwijndregt, Verhandeling van den Hollandschen scheepsbouw raakende aan de verschillende Charters der Oorlogsschepen, with appendix Verhandeling van ‘t Bouwen der koopvaardyschepen door C. de Ruyter, scheepsbouwer, The Hague 1757, pp. 35-36, pl. 2, fig. 3; Rotterdamsche Courant, 14 maart 1765, no. 32; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 127; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 58-61
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Made Mast, Rotterdam, c. 1738', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.243938
(accessed 14 November 2024 17:17:30).