Ø A FINE AND RARE WHALEBONE MODEL OF A WHALING SHIP, CIRCA 1...

Hammer

£6,000

Ø A FINE AND RARE WHALEBONE MODEL OF A WHALING SHIP, CIRCA 1820

the 19in. hull with uninterrupted planks with copper pins, baleen sweep ports, scrimshaw-lined stern and quarter lights, marine ivory bust-length female figurehead, chainplates with marine ivory deadeyes, planked flush deck with simple details including winch with ratchet, scored hatch covers, belaying rails with pins, marine ivory capstan, carved helm with steering gear and compass box, whale tethering booms, three-section masts with standing and running rigging, bowsprit with dolphin striker and other details, loosely mounted on cradle stand to bone inlaid display base with baluster rails, contained within fine lunette glazed wooden display case, overall measurements -- 30 x 40 x 14in. (76 x 102 x 35.5cm)

The Honourable Company of Master Mariners; Presented by F. E. Wilson in 1950.

The planking is distinctive because only a whale can supply the length of bone needed to supply a single strake along the frames - by comparison, the more familiar models made by French prisoners of war using beef bone, have many short lengths. The other distinctive features are the two booms over the quarter lights, a feature unique to whalers as the whale carcass was too large to hoist aboard and had to be flensed whilst tethered alongside. This brought the additional advantage that unwanted fluids dispersed straight into the sea. This model also has masts made from single-turned lengths of bone, rather than being bound from a number of them, and sweep ports which are rarely seen, theoretically allowing a becalmed vessel to pursue a pod.

models and base are both unsecured; rig later, several balurades loose, or re-secured, hull, fittings and mast in fine condition.