Description
A FINE 1:32 SCALE WATERLINE MODEL OF R.M.S. OLYMPIC AS BUILT IN 1911
Modelled by Charles Longbotham, the laminated and carved hull plated with ebonised plates above the waterline, with portholes, white superstructure with lined paper decks with detailed fittings, finished in ebony and tan and including 26 covered lifeboats in davits, stayed funnels, compass platform, deck rails, racked masts with rigging, crow’s nest, etc., mounted on a mottled blue plexiglass sea within Perspex case with maker’s label, overall – 9 x 31½ x 5½in. (23 x 80 x 14cm.)
Provenance: Charles Longbotham and thence by descent.
Charles Longbotham (1917-1999) enjoyed several careers and latterly was a prolific marine artist who exhibited at the Royal Academy and Royal Society of Marine Artists. In WW2 he served in the RNVR as a navigation officer and, after demob, worked briefly for the famous model making firm of Bassett-Lowke in Northampton. Striking out as an independent model maker from studios in Ealing, London, he produced some 700 models over fifteen years, both architectural and marine, and also designed the then-revolutionary funnel arrangement for Cunard’s QE2 – and then produced two large models of the liner for the company’s London offices. He left modelling to concentrate on painting in 1969 with the example in this lot being produced for his private interest in 1972 and which has remained with the family ever since.
Delivery by arrangement
