Scale: 1:48. A full hull model of the 'Sovereign of the Seas' (1637), a 100-gun three-decker ship of the line, built in bread and butter fashion. Model is decked partially equipped including three stump masts, and mounted on its original baseboard. The model is one of a series commissioned in 1827 by Sir Robert Seppings, Surveyor of the Navy, for display in his ship model gallery at Somerset House. As with the actual ship, it is richly decorated, executed in boxwood on the model, to a very high standard.

Built in the Royal Dockyard, Chatham by Phineas Pett, the ‘Sovereign of the Seas’ was the largest ship ever built and measured 168 feet along the gun deck by 48 feet in the beam and a tonnage of 1141 burden. The sheer cost and size of the building of this ship generated a lot of interest at the time. A personal interest by King Charles I, who was presented with a scale model of the ship, gave added kudos. The ship was rebuilt in 1660 and 1685, taking part in the many action of the Dutch fleet between 1652 and 1692. The eventual fate of the ‘Sovereign of the Seas’ came in 1696 when it was accidentally burnt at Chatham.