Rijksmuseum

Object data

wood, brass, rope, silk, paper and paint

height 41 cm × length 52 cm × width 22.7 cm

Provenance

...; donated by Mr Enschede, Haarlem, to the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague;¹ transferred to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-1371

Entry

Polychrome and rigged block model of a three-masted ship, mounted on a stand.

Thirty-eight guns are mounted on two decks. The model has two levels: main deck, beakhead platform and forecastle and quarterdeck with gangways. The figurehead is a crowned rampant lion. The stern has a round tuck, a hollow counter with two gun ports, a single-storey taffrail decorated with carvings of foliage. The single-storey quarter galleries have a fishtail lower finishing. Below the stern a straight square-headed rudder is indicated and a steering wheel is fitted on the quarterdeck. The model is fitted with two anchors, a double Y-shaped chimney for the galley, a capstan in the waist, a side rope and a ship bell. The sheer rises towards both ends, the model has two wales and a sheer rail interrupted by the gun ports. The hull is S-bottomed and painted white below the waterline. The model has a three-masted rig without sails. The main channel and mizzen channel are continuous. It flies the Dutch tricolour from the bowsprit and stern.

This model was a gift from Mr Enschede from Haarlem to the Department of the Navy, together with model NG-MC-1370.² It was identified by a process of elimination. It does not represent a specific ship, as far as is known.

Literature

P. le Comte, Afbeeldingen van schepen en vaartuigen in verschillende bewegingen, Amsterdam 1831, pl. 45; J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1371; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 238-39

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a 38-Gun Frigate, Netherlands, c. 1780 - c. 1830', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.245176

(accessed 20 September 2024 14:01:21).

Model of a 38-Gun Frigate