Model of a Gunboat

...; collection Mr J. Schouten, Dordrecht; purchased by the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, 1861;¹¹A. Lemmers (ed.), Maritime Technology from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam: Multimedia Catalogue of the Dutch Navy Model Collection 1698-1889, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, no. MC-1088. transferred to the museum, 1883

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-1088

Polychromed planked frame model of the hull of a flat-bottomed, single-masted gunboat.

The model has one gun in a bowport underneath the bowsprit, and two small guns in the sides aft. The foredeck underneath the gun is reinforced with lateral planking. It has a round bow and stern, with a broad rudder and a hand tiller on deck. The deck has a main hatch and two companionways. Below decks the hull is empty, but ceiled. Of the rigging, only part of the mast and bowsprit are indicated by stumps, a deck horse for the foresail and one for the main sheet, and the chains. In the sides, leeboards complete with tackle are indicated. The hull has a flat bottom and is painted white below the waterline.

The model was bought by the Department of the Navy, together with models NG-MC-1087 and NG-MC-1091, from the collection of J. Schouten in Dordrecht in 1861. This model was found without a catalogue number and its identification was by a process of elimination.

The entry for this number reads ‘landing craft of the Napoleonic era, of which 216 were built’.²²J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1088 The glass case mentioned in the original inventory is missing.

Scale unknown.

J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1088; E. Pâris, Souvenirs de Marine, facsimile, 3 vols., Grenoble 1975-76, pl. 41

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Gunboat, Netherlands, c. 1800 - c. 1825', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244903