A half-length polychrome bust figurehead of a young woman from a wooden top-sail schooner Spring (1867).

A half-length polychrome bust figurehead of a young woman from a wooden top-sail schooner Spring (1867). The figurehead may be a replacement made after the ship was refitted and renamed Gravesend in 1892. It depicts the woman in a red and white dress with a white shawl. She has been painted with brown hair and blue eyes and has her head looking slightly to the right and up.

This may be an example of a generic figurehead, having no obvious iconography to link it to either name of the schooner. It has been cut very close to the bottom of the bust, removing any scrollwork of the trail-board. Unusually for the collection the remains of the small bowsprit are in place above the figurehead.

Object Details

ID: ZBA7591
Type: Figurehead
Display location: Not on display
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Cutty Sark Collection. Long John Silver Collection
Measurements: Overall: 750 mm x 340 mm x 350 mm