PERIORD CASED LAMINATED MODEL OF THE CLIPPER SHIP "SEA SERPENT". An extreme clipper ship built in 1851 by George Raynes, Portsmouth, NH. Dimensions 194'6"×39'3"×20'8" and tonnage 1337 tons. The model is painted black above the waterline and red below. She has a gold boot stripe that runs the length of the hull. She has a planked natural wood deck. There are several items mounted to the deck. Below the front deck is a finely carved anchor windlass. There are 2 deck houses with planked tops and mounted skylights. There is a bone trimmed pin-rail and behind it a well carved and bone windlass. The spars are well detailed and have some bone parts. The rigging is highly detailed and all of the dead eyes are bone. The gold figurehead is in the form of a sea-serpent and the stern-board also has a stern board in the form of a sea-serpent that raps around the transom and has a head on each end. The model has a period wood case has has rounded corners. On top of each corner is a rope knot above a leather washer.
Inside the case is a bone plaque which states "SEA SERPENT 1337 TONS. BUILT 1851 BY GEO. RAYNES OF PORTSMOUTH N.H." . This is a high Style example of a fine sailer model last quarter 19th century.
Condton: The model and case are in fine original condition and have a warm age patina.
Provenance: The Estate of Peter Goldstein.
Note: Extreme clipper Sea Serpent, owned by Grinnell, Minturn & Co. of New York, sailed the San Francisco trade, the China trade and the transatlantic lumber trade during one of the longest careers for a clipper, lasting 36 years and 5 months. She engaged in several races during her voyages, sometimes making the fastest passages in a given season. She was abandoned at sea during an 1891 voyage from Dublin to Quebec, drifting 1,120 miles in 93 days and sighted 19 times before she disappeared.
Note 2: About 1850-51, the upper anchorage at Whampoa Reach, below Canton, was a sight to be remembered by those who loved to look at beautiful ships, and the 'tea-fleet' was gathered waiting for 'the new crop.' There, moored in line, were the Sam Russell, the Sea-Serpent, the Challenge, the Flying Cloud, the Sea Witch, and half a dozen others, bright with paint and varnish and gilding, and their bottoms well cleaned of barnacles by the swift muddy current of fresh water ... They scrubbed copper, holystoned decks, squared the yards by the lifts and braces, and hoisted and lowered colors in unison with the American man-of-war which happened to be stationed there ...
Dimensions: Case height 24.5". Length 39". Width 17".
