Model of a bone warship, made by French prisoners, Great Britain, 1793-1815.

Rare model of scale for seeds. Wooden and iron. France 1830 ca.

Miniature Wunderkammer architectural model, entirely handmade, in painted balsa wood, depicting the Eiffel Tower. Grand Tour item. Original patina. France early 20th century.

A group of 22 small geometric solids made of solid wood with white traces for educational use. Some solids are decomposable. Castiglione, Turin, Italy circa 1900.

Articulated painter's mannequin, depicting a teenage boy, life-size. The mannequin is made of walnut wood, the articulated spheres are made of maple wood. The limbs are fully articul...

Plank on frame model of the famous English warship HMS Victory. This model is planked in varnished walnut above the waterline and copper sheathed below. Fu...

A Magnificent Carved Wooden Ship Model of HMS Victory, 1805 This exquisite 20th-century wooden ship model is a stunning replica of the iconic HMS Victory, the flagship of Lord Nelso...

A Napoleonic era bone prisoner of war model of the 40-gun frigate ‘Creolian’, the three masted barque with a planked hull, finely detailed with a carved poop deck and a female figurehead, intricate black thread rigging and a black plaque stating in gilt, Creolian. In the original glazed wooden case with a painted background of a sunset over a bay with ships on the horizon. French, circa 1800. Provenance Ivan Roll Amis, d. 1 July 1970 Richard Henry Allen Amis, CBE, thence by descent During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815), large numbers of French soldiers and marines were taken prisoner. To help pass the time and generate a small income, they would make a variety of objects—including ship models—from simple, easily-sourced materials such as bone and wood for sale at local markets. Typically, the models were not made to scale and tools were limited, making the quality and attention to detail in this work even more remarkable. To realise a good price at market, the models were often named after famous ships of the time. It may well be that this ship was the ‘Créole’, a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy. She served in the Brest squadron, took part in Ganteaume’s expeditions of 1801 to Egypt, and was involved in the French acquisition of Santo Domingo (also known as the Era de Francia) and briefly detained Toussaint Louverture...

Early twentieth century model of a British Royal Frigate. Rigged with a suit of ten sails. Three decks of guns with cannon running out of the gunports. The shrouds are properly clove...