£6,000
Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art | 660
Auction: Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art
fully rigged, in a modern glazed display case
Provenance: By repute, acquired from a descendant of the First Keeper of the Bass Rock Lighthouse who owned it in the early part of the 20th century.
Note: There were two prisons in Scotland that housed Napoleonic French prisoners of war: one in Edinburgh and the other in Perth. Prisoners used what materials they could acquire to build items to sell to supplement their rations. Miniature ornaments, models and toys were typically made using straw, wood, bone and even human hair. Many of the items made were extraordinary in their complexity. The bone deck fittings and figurehead on the present lot are typical of prisoner of war work, as is the inlaid baseboard.