Scale: 1:48. A block design model of the ‘Ville de Paris’ (1795), a 110-gun, three-decker ship of the line. Despite the name, the ‘Ville de Paris’ was not a French prize but was built in Chatham Dockyard and named after the French flagship captured at the Battle of the Saints in 1782. Begun in 1788, it was the first British 110-gun ship, following a trend towards larger ships started by the French. It succeeded HMS ‘Victory’ as St Vincent’s flagship in the Mediterranean fleet in 1797–99, and then in the Channel Fleet. It served successively as flagships for Admirals Cornwallis, Gambier, Collingwood, Fremantle and Keith between 1800 and 1815. It was broken up in 1845.

The model is of the block type, much simpler to make than the Georgian model of the period, and therefore more useful in preparing a design and showing it to the Navy Board and Admiralty. This is a relatively late example of this type of model. The figurehead is left as a block but some of the stern carvings are reproduced. The decks are not revealed but the channels that support the rigging are shown.