Seventeenth And Eighteenth Century Ship Models From The Kriegstein Collection

In terms of quality, historical significance and sheer numbers, the Kriegstein family’s ship model collection in the United States is the finest in private hands anywhere in the world. Principally made up of official 17th- and 18th-century models in the Admiralty or Navy Board style, the collection is unrivalled by any museum outside the British national collection at Greenwich. As the models are not on public display, this book fills the need for a detailed catalogue and visual reference with superb colour photos of all the models, both overall portraits and multiple close-ups. Apart from lengthy descriptions of these magnificent artefacts, space is devoted to how they were identified, and the valuable research done by Arnold and Henry Kriegstein, the identical twins whose shared passion brought this all together. Beyond the technicalities of the ships, the story has a human dimension in the brothers’ adventures in pursuit of every model and their dogged determination to secure them against official obstruction and dubious antiques-trade practices. This is an entirely new and revised edition of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Ship Models first published in 2007, now expanded to include the additions to the collection since that date.

In terms of quality, historical significance, and sheer numbers, the Kriegstein family's ship model collection in the United States is the finest in private hands anywhere in the world. Principally made up of official 17th and 18th century models in the Admiralty or Navy Board style, the collection is unrivaled by any museum outside the British national collection at Greenwich. As the models are not on public display, this book fills the need for a detailed catalog and visual reference with superb color photos of all the models, both overall portraits and multiple close-ups. Apart from lengthy descriptions of these magnificent artifacts, space is devoted to how they were identified, and the valuable research done by Arnold and Henry Kriegstein, the identical twins whose shared passion brought this all together. Beyond the technicalities of the ships, the story has a human dimension in the brothers' adventures in pursuit of every model and their dogged determination to secure them against official obstruction and dubious antiques-trade practices. This is an entirely new and revised edition of 17th and 18th Century Ship Models first published in 2007, now expanded to include the additions to the collection since that date.

An extensively illustrated reference covering four tumultuous decades that gave birth to the modern Royal Navy. Winner of the Samuel Pepys Prize and Latham Medal This reference book describes every aspect of the English navy in the second half of the seventeenth century, from the time when the Fleet Royal was taken into Parliamentary control after the defeat of Charles I, until the accession of William and Mary in 1689 when the long period of war with the Dutch came to an end. This is a crucial era that witnessed the creation of a permanent naval service, in essence the birth of today’s Royal Navy. Samuel Pepys, whose thirty years of service did so much to replace the ad hoc processes of the past with systems for construction and administration, is one of the most significant players, and the navy that was, by 1690, ready for a century of global struggle with the French owed much to his tireless work. This major reference for historians, naval enthusiasts, and, anyone with an interest in this colorful era of the seventeenth century covers: naval administration ship types and shipbuilding naval recruitment and crews seamanship and gunnery shipboard life dockyards and bases the foreign navies of the period the three major wars fought against the Dutch in the Channel and the North Sea “Davies writes clearly, knows his subject extremely well, organizes the material effectively, and covers each topic thoroughly . . . there’s some new piece of revelatory detail on pretty much every page. If you’re at all interested in seventeenth century sailing ships—especially English ships—this is a truly fascinating and rewarding book.” —Corsairs and Captives

A beautifully illustrated history of the early ship models of the Royal Navy that are prized today as works of art. From about the middle of the seventeenth century, the Royal Navy’s administrators began to commission models of their ships that were accurately detailed and, for the first time, systematically to scale. These developed a recognized style, which included features like the unplanked lower hull with a simplified pattern of framing that emphasized the shape of the underwater body. Exquisitely crafted, these were always rare and highly prized objects—indeed, Samuel Pepys expressed a profound desire to own one, and today they are widely regarded as the acme of the ship modeler’s art. Today, examples are the highlights of collections across the world, valued both as art objects and as potential historical evidence on matters of ship design. However, it was only recently that researchers began to investigate the circumstances of their construction, their function, and the identities of those who made them. This book, by two curators who have worked on the world’s largest collection of these models at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, summarizes the current state of knowledge, outlines important discoveries, and applies this newfound understanding to many of the finest models in the collection. As befits its subject, Navy Board Ship Models is visually striking, with numerous color photographs that make it as attractive as it is informative to anyone with an interest in modelmaking or historic ships.

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich houses the largest collection of scale ship models in the world, many of which are official, contemporary artefacts made by the craftsmen of the navy or the shipbuilders themselves, and ranging from the mid seventeenth century to the present day. As such they represent a three-dimensional archive of unique importance and authority. Treated as historical evidence, they offer more detail than even the best plans, and demonstrate exactly what the ships looked like in a way that even the finest marine painter could not achieve. This book is the first of a series which will take selections of the best models to tell the story of specific ship types – in this case, the evolution of the cruising ship under sail. Each volume reproduces a large number of model photos, all in full colour, and including many close-up and detail views. These are captioned in depth, but many are also annotated to focus attention on interesting or unusual features. Although pictorial in emphasis, the book weaves the pictures into an authoritative text, producing an unusual and attractive form of technical history. While the series will be of particular interest to ship modellers, all those with an interest in ship design and development will attracted to the in-depth analysis of these beautifully presented books.

The first figureheads that were carved to represent the names of British warships appeared during the reign of Henry VIII; the last ones were carved in the early years of the twentieth century. During the intervening three hundred and fifty years it is estimated that some 5000 ships of the Royal Navy carried a figurehead of some description. This book follows the development of these diverse carvings, examining how the figurehead carvers interpreted the names and the symbolism incorporated in their designs. Evidence is drawn from a wide range of sources: contemporary ship models, ship plans, designs submitted for approval of the Navy Board and, of course, from those figureheads that have survived.Lavishly illustrated with much previously unpublished material, the book explores the wide range of subjects that were represented on the bows of Their Majesties Ships and recounts many of the stories that were told about them.The narrative is complemented by a catalogue that provides a brief description of each surviving figurehead, each carvers design drawing with its source and reference number as well as those ship plans and contemporary models that show the figureheads detail. This combination makes the book useful to a wide range of historians, researchers and anyone with an interest in Britains maritime past.