56 
House & Garden 
CHI NA. AND GLASS 
Fleets That Never Sail 
AMBER CRYSTAL TABLE DECORATION 
SET OF SIX PIECES, WHICH MAY 
BE PURCHASED SEPARATELY 
FOUNDED 1887 
HIGGINS & SEITER 
INC. 
9 & 11 EAST 37 th STREET 
NEW YORK CITY 
»♦* CHINA AND GLASS 
(Continued from page 20) 
Williams’ attention to the sunset, I suc¬ 
ceeded in so working on the lady’s feel¬ 
ings by pointing out the future empti¬ 
ness of my life without this model that 
she took pity upon me and, vindicating 
the noble blood of her ancestors, gave 
me the beautiful little craft. 
Model Prices 
Prices paid for ship models vary as 
much as the boats themselves. Some¬ 
times one will pick up a boat for a 
very small sum (a few dollars perhaps) 
from some unsophisticated owner. An 
average price I should say is from $100 
to $500, but prices for exceptionally fine 
boats run into sums of four figures. 
Now and then a fine model turns up 
in the auction rooms. During the past 
year I saw a very good bone model sold 
for $585 at auction. 
Some years ago I remember a sale 
which included a fine little model of a 
French frigate made of bone, enclosed 
in an old fashioned mahogany case, and 
a curious little model of an admiral’s 
barge loaded with red coated*soldiers of 
King George, while toiling at the oars 
was as gallant a little crew of sailormen 
as one could wish. The two items sold 
for about $600. Today they would prob¬ 
ably bring at least twice that amount. 
Very seldom however, will one find any 
bargains in ship models in cities. The 
best field for the limited purse is in 
out-of-the-way sea-coast villages, where 
one may at times find a model or so 
by diligent search. 
Great Boat Collections 
The collection in the Louvre is prob¬ 
ably the finest in the world and is 
housed in the three galleries known as 
the Muse, de Marine. It comprises 
many wonderful models of antique ves¬ 
sels and of transports, galleys and ships 
of war of the 16th, 17th and 18th 
Centuries. In London, there is a most 
interesting collection in the South Kens¬ 
ington Museum. The Royal Navy 
Museum at Greenwich Hospital contains 
some very finely made early English 
war vessels, and other ships. In Glas¬ 
gow and several other cities of the Brit¬ 
ish Isles one will find museums where 
these treasures have been brought to¬ 
gether. The Ryks Museum in Amster¬ 
dam holds an exceedingly fine collection 
of early Dutch men-of-war, and con¬ 
tains many models of the ships made 
famous by Admirals Van Tromp, Piet 
Hein, De Ruyter and others. One of 
the unique boats in this museum is a 
galley built in Holland for Peter the 
Great. The Musea Naval in Lisbon has 
many ship models of early days, while 
Spain has a fine collection of her early 
warships in the Museo Naval in Madrid. 
One hears constantly of models abroad 
that are preserved in their original state, 
that is, with the original rigging. I have 
never heard of an authentic case, for 
the best of rigging decays and falls apart 
in about one hundred years. 
While we have no museums which are 
as rich in ship models as some of those 
abroad we do have a number located in 
various towns and cities along the New 
England coast, which hold interesting 
models. The museum in New Bedford 
has fine models of whaling ships and 
of warships. Nantucket has a miniature 
boat or so. The Old State House in 
Boston contains a number of old-time 
model ships. The Marine Museum of 
the Peabody Institute in Salem has the 
finest collections of any of our muse¬ 
ums, and abounds in ship models of 
many descriptions and sizes from early 
American men-of-war to square riggers. 
There is a beautiful bone model in the 
Portsmouth Athenium, as well as what 
is probably the finest and early scale 
constructor’s model in the United States 
that of “America” laid down in 1706, 
the first large warship to be built on the 
western continent. In the Aldrich Me¬ 
morial at Riverhead one will find on a 
wall bracket in the front hall the iden¬ 
tical model of a Sailor Ben’s boat made 
famous in “The Story of a Bad Boy.” 
There are a few other collections but 
these comprise the most important open 
to the public. 
New York museums hold no fine ship 
models but there are a number of im¬ 
portant private collections owned by 
clubs and individuals. The India House 
Club has a large collection of models, 
almost a hundred in number, one most 
amusing, made of leather! Thirty or 
more of these were formerly the prop¬ 
erty of the late Alexander W. Drake 
and were added to this collection by 
the late Willard Straight, an ardent ship 
collector. When meeting Mr. Drake the 
day following the sale of his fleet he 
said, with tears in his eyes, “My ships 
have sailed at last!” 
New York Collectors 
Another fine collection in New York 
is that of the well-known portrait paint¬ 
er, Irving R. Wiles, and consists of thirty 
or more interesting boats ranging from 
one of the beautiful bone models to a 
very unique Japanese Emperor’s barge. 
Some of his most interesting models are 
an Admirality model of a warship of 
fifty guns built in 1740, a Spanish ketch 
rigged ship bought in Madrid, the orig¬ 
inal of which was used in the Mediter¬ 
ranean trade, an 18th Century Spanish 
warship and a model of the French pri¬ 
vateer “Bellona,” a corvette of twenty 
guns. Mr. Wiles is not only a collector 
but a builder of ship models as well, 
and his collection includes some inter¬ 
esting products of his own hands, among 
which are a Long Island scalloper and a 
Block Island boat, a Hudson River 
sloop, a craft that carried everything 
from passengers to cattle. 
Carlton Chapman, the marine painter, 
has a fine collection of 18th Century 
models of wooden ships, made in En¬ 
gland for the most part between the 
years of 1740 and 1790. These boats 
are prized as being unusually accurate 
as to measurements and detail. 
W. J. Aylward, the marine illustrator, 
has several models of interesting char¬ 
acter, among which are a half model of 
an American ship bought by Spaniards 
to be used as a slaver, a model of a 
clipper of 1852, and one of the clipper 
ship “Contest” which was destroyed by 
Admiral Semmes in the Civil War. Mr. 
Aylward has spent many months in the 
museums of London and Paris, making 
drawings of the models which they con¬ 
tain for use in his work. Other artists 
who collect ship models are Reynold 
Beals, Henry Reuterdahl, Charles Cham¬ 
bers, Edward Penfield, Charles Falls 
and Gordon Grant. 
Captain Arthur H. Clark of New 
York has a collection of models of 
famous clipper ships which includes the 
“Jacob Bell” and the “Staghounds,” two 
of the finest ships designed by the master 
marine architect, Donald McKay. His 
collection also comprises many half 
models, paintings and photographs of 
famous American Ships. 
Models in Decoration] 
Interior decorators have been quick to 
seize upon ship models and adjust them 
to decorative uses. A single ship model 
of reasonable size and interest placed 
properly in a room will go far towards 
supplying the main decorative feature. 
This growing demand for boat models 
to be used for decorative purposes is 
based on sound fundamental artistic 
reasons. When used in this way they 
should not be placed too high but as 
near the level of the eye as possible, in 
order that the beautiful curves and bal¬ 
anced proportions may be appreciated, 
( Continued on page 58) 
