Scale: 1:72(?) A contemporary full hull builder’s model of the paddle steamer ‘Excelsior’ (1865) built in bread and butter fashion and mounted on an on original wooden baseboard. It is complete with four cream coloured funnels which have been cropped down for practical reasons, a pair of stump masts, and two large deck houses as passenger accommodation. There is a pair of paddle boxes amidships which are supported by large crescent shaped girder frames, which are a typical feature of American paddle steamers, not British. The hull is double-ended with rudders and has ‘whalebacks’ at the bow and stern suggesting operation in coastal or open rough waters. The paddles themselves are of the earlier fixed bladed as opposed the feathering type and the presence of windows with scuttles on the deck-house would also suggest a vessel intended for night-time operation. At this scale, the model represents a vessel measuring 300 feet in length by 31 feet in the beam.(SS)