Royal Caroline (1750)
No scale. A starboard profile view and a head-on view of a very detailed sketch for a figurehead of the Royal Caroline (1750), an 8-gun, ship-rigged Royal Yacht.
The left hand sketch of the figurehead depicts a queen, possibly Queen Caroline, seated holding an orb and sceptre in each hand. A winged angel or Nike (goddess of Victory) is behind her on the left and a winged cherub next to her on the right. Both are holding a large crown above the queen's head. Below the stylised shell at the queen’s feet is a Triton blowing a trumpet. The trail-board also has details of cherubs and hippocampus running along it.
The head-on sketch shows that the starboard profile view is replicated on the port side, so the queen, Nike, cherubs and Tritons are depicted on both sides. The unifying carving for each side is the large crown above, where it is being held up by both depictions of Nike and the two cherubs.
This figurehead exists as an incomplete two-inch high boxwood carving in the Kriegstein Collection. The identification for this figurehead comes from the contemporary Royal Caroline plan held in the Chapman collection at the Sjöhistoriska museet, Sweden (ref: OR2479). This was recreated in Chapman's publication Architectura Navalis Mercatoria (published 1768) with a few stylistic inaccuracies (Plate XLIX).
The left hand sketch of the figurehead depicts a queen, possibly Queen Caroline, seated holding an orb and sceptre in each hand. A winged angel or Nike (goddess of Victory) is behind her on the left and a winged cherub next to her on the right. Both are holding a large crown above the queen's head. Below the stylised shell at the queen’s feet is a Triton blowing a trumpet. The trail-board also has details of cherubs and hippocampus running along it.
The head-on sketch shows that the starboard profile view is replicated on the port side, so the queen, Nike, cherubs and Tritons are depicted on both sides. The unifying carving for each side is the large crown above, where it is being held up by both depictions of Nike and the two cherubs.
This figurehead exists as an incomplete two-inch high boxwood carving in the Kriegstein Collection. The identification for this figurehead comes from the contemporary Royal Caroline plan held in the Chapman collection at the Sjöhistoriska museet, Sweden (ref: OR2479). This was recreated in Chapman's publication Architectura Navalis Mercatoria (published 1768) with a few stylistic inaccuracies (Plate XLIX).
Object Details
| ID: | DIC0005 |
|---|---|
| Type: | Technical drawing |
| Display location: | Not on display |
| Date made: | circa 1749-1750 |
| Credit: | National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London |
| Measurements: | Overall: 122 mm x 178 mm |