Lugger Lifeboat Model by Twyman for the International Exhibition, London, 1862

Sir Harold Dudley Clayton’s Hydraulic Steam Lifeboat: City of Glasgow, 1894. This fine builder’s presentation scale model has a gilt brass funnel, polished brass rudder, capstan, anchor, binnacle and fittings with side grab ropes. The hull is painted in RNLI blue and red, with a pink keel. It is raised on a turned brass support within an ebonised glazed case on a stand and has a presentation plaque inscribed ‘Hydraulic Steam Lifeboat City of Glasgow’ Built For the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, by R & H Green, Blackwall Yard, London, 1894′. Provenance: Sir Harold Dudley Clayton. The following pages are dedicated to the substantial and fascinating archive of Sir Harold Dudley Clayton. This includes the lifeboat model above, over 100 yacht designs and naval architects’ drawings, photograph albums, photographic glass slides and a model of his yacht Coquette. Steam-powered lifeboats. Earlier in the 19th century steam had transformed Britain’s industrial landscape through the development of steamships and the railways. But tending a coal-fired boiler in a boat that is pitching and rolling in heavy seas would not have been straightforward. Sixty years after the idea was first mooted by Sir William Hillary and after extensive trials, the first steam-cum-sail boat Duke of Northumberland went into service at Harwich Lifeboat Station in September 1890. The hydraulic steam-driven lifeboat used...

A souvenir paperweight for the yacht ‘Rainbow’ by Herreshoff. This solid brass desk paperweight is of rectangular form with a ship’s cleat in the centre. It is incised with the tex...

Finely detailed shipbuilder's half block model of the steamship Dunbrody, built and engined by The London and Glasgow Engineering and Iron Shipbuilding Co. ...

Finely detailed shipbuilder's half block model of the steamship Dunbrody, built and engined by The London and Glasgow Engineering and Iron Shipbuilding Co. ...

Antique print titled 'The International Exhibition Building'. The Sydney International Exhibition opened in the autumn of 1879, but it wasn't really universal and therefore not officially recognised by the Bureau of International Expositions. Melbourne decided to start their exhibition shortly after the one in Sydney, so the participants could transport their exhibits during the winter of 1880. After the exhibitions many of the exhibits were selected to be at display in the Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum (now the Powerhouse Museum). The Garden Palace...

Armada, 1588-1988: An International Exhibition to Commemorate the Spanish Armada by M. J. Rodriguez-Salgado and The National Maritime Museum. Penguin Bo...

Rare, vintage hardback coffee table book cataloguing 1990's international furniture design. By the editors of the PBC International, published in 1991. First edition, 240 pages. "Th...

The Great Exhibition. New York: Gramercy Books, 1995. Hardcover with dust jacket. 328 pp. A facsimile of the illustrated catalogue of London's 185...