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The History of Models

We felt Tom Rose, Director of Christies, South Kensington, located in London, England summed it up best.  Please enjoy his summarization on the world of scale models.

Models, or rather miniatures, have been made by man since he learned to stand upright – in the very beginning as objects of religion, and then as presents or for decoration.  In those early days, materials used were bone, stone, or rock and wood – materials readily available.  Tools were crude in the extreme, so the results were crude.  Accuracy of representation developed as man’s skill to invent and use tools and new materials grew, and this trend continues to the present day.

By the 14th and 15th centuries, these skills had developed to an extraordinary degree as can be seen in full size artifacts and miniatures made by armorers and instrument makers.  The majority of models, however, were still rather crude – mostly ships, the “votif” models made to hang in churches by way of thanksgiving for journey’s end and a safe return.  As they were intended to be hung and, therefore, seen only from underneath, guns are exaggerated, hull shapes simple, deck fittings almost nonexistent and rigging inaccurate.

By the 17th and 18th centuries, standards and faithfulness to prototype had changed dramatically as, for example, the model ships built for the Navy Board.  These were built by the finest craftsmen, mostly of box and fruitwood, as three dimensional pictures of proposals for future ships so that My Lords of the Admiralty were better able to judge design.  These models were incredibly accurate in shape and detail, and many have survived, being in museums and private collections around the world.  They are important, not only as a record of ship design of the period, but as the first truly accurate models.

During the 19th century, with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, three-dimensional miniatures were made for different reasons – steam, the motif power at that time, is very powerful and, logically, a small machine, if it is going to explode, will make less of a bang than the full size machine.  Many development models were made, mainly by instrument makers and then by that rapidly developing genre – the engineer.  As the 19th century progressed, on the one hand the making of a model became part of an apprentice engineer’s life – his test piece had to be of a very high standard to pass.  On the other hand the salesman needed a model for the same practical reason as did my Lords of Admiralty, all those years before.

About this time, miniatures began to be made, originally by those same self-same apprentices, now fully fledged engineers, for fun, in their leisure hours – and thus was born amateur model-making as we know it today.  In parallel, there were commercial organizations making models, kits and toys, as for example, Stevens Model Dockyard, Bassett-Lowke and many others, all trying to satisfy an insatiable desire by man to own miniatures of things he wished to remember for one reason or another.

Models have, however, been made for entirely different and particular purposes; e.g. the bone model ships made by French prisoners of war in England between about 1775 and 1815 (they were made to supplement their rations), or Patent Models made as part of the inventive process.  These fall outside the mainstream of model making, but are historically important in their own right.

Now, at the end of the 20th Century, a different problem has arisen.  The commercially trained skills of apprenticed engineers are gradually dying out as man’s quest toward computerization develops, and discerning collectors, who understand and seek quality, generally have neither the time nor the skill to make aesthetically pleasing and ever more accurate miniatures themselves.  Fine Art Models now fills this role using the best craftsmen available anywhere in the world to create the finest quality short production run of ships, locomotives, airplanes ad road vehicles that have ever been available.  They are, or course, built for decorative purposes and so, in a way, the wheel has turned full circle.

Long may serious and discerning collectors exist who demand the best; satisfying their demands will preserve and continue the necessary skills, which will otherwise, gradually, be lost forever.