1760197773Code 8265 Nautical DioramaNautical diorama in a trapezoidal glass and white-painted wood display case, depicting the half-hull of a balsa wood brigantine with full sails amidst the waves. In the background, a promontory with a painted lighthouse and another smaller vessel.
English manufacture, late 19th century.
Good condition, signs of use.
Can be hung on a wall or placed on a piece of furniture.
Dimensions: 57 x 15 x 33.5 cm – 22.4 x 5.9 x 13.2 inches.
The flag of the Alfred Holt & Co. shipping company, later known as the Blue Funnel Line, flies on the mast.
Founded in Liverpool in 1865 by naval engineer Alfred Holt, at the height of the British Empire, maritime trade was booming, with a growing need for regular transport to colonies in Oceania, Africa, and Asia.
Alfred Holt played a key role in British global trade. Renowned for punctuality and reliability, its officers were often compared in skill to those of the Royal Navy.
It was among the first companies to gradually adopt steam-powered ships, significantly reducing voyage times.
Ship modeling arose for religious reasons. Not content with the banality of one's life, man longs for another, an eternal one at that. But the soul—by definition immaterial—needs a means to reach the afterlife; it must cross a river, and to do so, it needs a boat. The oldest model is a silver vessel about sixty centimeters long, found in excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia, now Iraq, and dates back to 2,000 BC. Modeling was revived in the 15th century, again for religious reasons, but this time as votive offerings, even though the most important and valuable models were those built by shipyards. Indeed, until the 17th century, ships were not designed with a blueprint; the length, width, masts, and armament were decided upon, and then a trusted shipyard would build the vessel "by eye" according to the instructions.
To convince the sovereign or minister who should finance the construction, however, it was necessary to show them something, and to show them what the ship would look like, a model was built, often of large dimensions, and the better it was made, the better it responded to the marketing hype of the time. The king would often fall in love with the model and keep it for himself, which is why many of these models—true works of art—have survived to this day, all jealously guarded in various naval museums.
