This vintage model was constructed with the highest quality of model craftsmanship. It is made from a solid block of wood for the hull with basswood parts for the cabin, companionways, keel, rudder and stern post, plus Beech dowels for masts and yards. The hardware and appropriate deck fittings are metal castings. These include anchor, windlass, pump, binnacle, figurehead and lifeboat. Chains, nails, eyebolts, belaying pins and other small parts are brass and copper. There are hundreds of blocks and dead eyes plus different sizes of miniature rope to recreate authentic rigging. The hull is handpainted a dark green, the hull bottom, gloss black and the cap rails and deck cabins, white with grey trim. It comes complete with a custom made wood base with brass-edged glass cover. The actual model is displayed in the center on a molded wood stand with brass pedestals.
MODEL DIMENSIONS: Length 22 inches X Height 15-1/2 inches Scale 1/8" = 1 ft. (1:96)
CASE DIMENSIONS: 26 1/2 inches X 13 1/2 inches X 19 inches high.
HISTORY: The clipper-bowed merchant brigantine Newsboy is one of the earliest designs of Dennison J. Lawlor of Chelsie, Massachusetts for owners Dabney & Cunningham of Boston. She was built in Owl’s Head, Maine, at the Joshua C. Adams and Elisha Brown shipyard. Launched in 1854, the NEWSBOY was engaged in the so-called triangular trade carrying lumber and manufactured goods from New England to the Mediterranean, then transporting wine, oil, and fruits to the West Indies, then back to New England with rum, molasses, and sugar. The NEWSBOY had a length of 111 feet, beam of 27 feet, and a draft of 11 feet and tonnage of 290 tons.
PROVENANCE: Recently purchased in Portland, Maine from a young man who hade inherited it from his father. According to it's known history, the model was hand-built in Connecticut, but the builder's name was not recorded.
