Model of a 20-Gun Snow

Entry

Polychromed and rigged wooden frame model of a two-masted ship, mounted on a stand.

Parts of the quarterdeck and forecastle can be removed to study the interior. The main deck is pierced for twenty guns (only four remain). The figurehead is of a crowned rampant lion. The stern has a round tuck, a hollow counter and a single-storey taffrail, ornamented with carvings of pilasters, draperies and scrollwork and an indistinct coat of arms. The model has quarter badges with one light framed in carved-work. Below the stern a straight, square-headed rudder is indicated, the tiller moving just above the cabin floor, and a steering wheel and companionway are fitted on the quarterdeck. Two anchors, a chimney for the galley, one capstan, two pumps, a binnacle and a belfry are positioned on the model. The sheer rises towards both ends. The model has two wales and a sheer rail. The hull is S-bottomed and is painted white below the waterline. The model is rigged as a brig without sails, the mainmast has a trysail mast with a gaff for the trysail, but no boom.

Obreen describes this model as the brig Pijl from 1778.³ However, no information about a brig Pijl of 1778 could be found in the archives. This model is probably the model of a snow in the private collection of Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837), mentioned in his list of May 1807.⁴ Asmus does not give it a name, describing it only as a snow in the style of 1660, and mentions having bought it. The year 1660 is most certainly a too early dating for this model.

Scale unknown.