£3,500
Scottish Silver & Applied Arts | 568
Auction: 14 August 2019 at 11:00 BST
Built by A. J. Berry Robinson for Mr W. Adams, the ship supplied to The North of Scotland & Orkney & Shetland Steam Navigation Company Ltd, builders Neil Russell and Co. Aberdeen, within a brass framed glazed display case
Note: Built by Hall Russell and Co. of Aberdeen, the St. Sunniva was named after one of the first purpose-built cruise ships which was launched in 1897. Hall Russell & Co. was founded in 1864 and closed in 1992. The firm built iron and steel ships of every kind ranging from cargo vessels to warships and fishing trawlers, making Aberdeen a name synonymous with engineering excellence around the world. Initially, the company made engines and boilers but in 1868 produced its first ship. Hall Russell & Co. Ltd was the last of the Aberdeen shipbuilders.
The ST SUNNIVA II had a similar career to the GOTHLAND. Built in 1931 as a passenger vessel for the North of Scotland, Orkney & Shetland Steam Navigation Co., she was requisitioned by the Admiralty as a guard ship, and in 1940 was converted into an accommodation vessel. In September 1942 she was further converted into a Convoy Rescue Ship. After further refitting, she left Greenock on 3rd January 1943 on her first assignment and joined the New York-bound 35 ship convoy, which sailed from Liverpool on the 2nd of January. She was last sighted 21st January 1943 off Sable Island, Nova Scotia and it is believed that the ship capsized without warning due to severe icing up. No trace of the ship or her 64 crew and medical staff were ever found.
These model ships (Lots 197-199) and paintings (lots 200-204) form part of a collection, of which the remaining examples will be included in the Five Centuries sale on September 4th 2019. They formed an all-round display in the previous owner's home which had a wide view over the Forth, underlining his interest in the sea, shipbuilding and ships. There is a surprising contrast between the finely detailed and accurately rendered ships models in the collection and the group of paintings by Malcolm Cheape which are quite free in their execution. Cheape however was also keen to research his subject thoroughly, not only in the configuration of the ships but also in the accuracy of the surroundings into which they are set.
Cheape graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee in 1987 and has worked widely in Scotland and London ever since. His subject matter is drawn almost exclusively from the sea. His distinctive style combines paint, ink, pencil marks, paper and tape and are multi-layered pieces that are held in a number of private and public collections.
William Adam, who commissioned these works was Leith born and bred and wanted to own scale models of the ships that he knew. He met Alan Berry-Robinson in London in 2008 and commissioned a model of SS Gothland in 2009, shortly followed by SS Pharos and SS Sunniva in 2010. All were built in the builder's-model style with gilded/silvered deck fittings on a carved timber hull, from original plans and photographs and, of course, Bill's memory. The last commission was for MS Hubert in 2015.
Alan Berry-Robinson has been restoring and building ship models for the past 30 years for dealers, private collectors and Museums in the UK and overseas.