anonymous

Half Model of an 80-Gun Ship of the Line

? Amsterdam, c. 1798

Inscriptions

  • inscription, top, from left to right, on four oval paper labels:AMSTERDAMSCHE / HANDEL. / à 80 St / GB: 1804. // ADMIRAAL EVERZEN. // à 80 St / GB: 1807. // ADMIRAAL DE RUITER. / à 80 St / GB: 1807. // Zoutman 80 St / Gebd 1799 / de Leeuw a 80 St / Gebd 1804
  • scale, top centre: paper scale in Amsterdam feet
  • label, bottom right:278 former inventory label

Conservation

  • Ab Hoving, mei 2008: minor repairs; retouched; revarnished

Provenance

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-278

Entry

Polychromed wooden half bracket model of the starboard side of a three-masted ship, mounted on a rectangular wooden backboard painted black.

The side of the ship is depicted by ribbands attached to frame moulds. Thirty-five gun ports are painted on the ribbands in three tiers. The forecastle and quarterdeck are outlined by ribbands with square hances. The sheer rises towards both ends. Two wales and a sheer rail are indicated, all are painted black. The bow features an empty beakhead with two cheeks mounted directly on the beakhead, a beakhead bulkhead, part of a beakhead platform, a bollard timber and two knees are visible at the bow. The stern has a round tuck and a hollow counter. The model does not have a taffrail or quarter galleries. It has a straight, square-headed rudder. The hull is rather flat and painted white below the waterline. The position of three masts and the bowsprit is shown in a truncated form.

Two striking features of this model are the large number of moulding frames and the way the gun ports are indicated on top of the ribbands.

Four ships were built after this model, all 195 feet long: two, Admiraal Zoutman in 1798 (broken up in 1830) and Leeuw in 1804, were built by R. Dorsman in Amsterdam; while the others, Admiraal Evertsen and Admiraal de Ruijter, were built by Pieter Schuijt Jr (active 1796-1841) in Amsterdam in 1806.1J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 278. Leeuw was renamed Commercie van Amsterdam, then Amsterdamsche Handel and finally Amsterdam in 1814 and foundered in Algoa Bay in 1817.2A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, pp. 1-2.

Scale (on model) 1:55.

Literature

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 278; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, pp. 1-2

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Half Model of an 80-Gun Ship of the Line, Amsterdam, c. 1798', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244088

(accessed 8 May 2025 04:31:18).

Footnotes

  • 1J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 278.
  • 2A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, pp. 1-2.