Scale: 1:768. The Canadian Pacific liner is depicted being pulled along at speed by two tugs, leaving a wake in its plaster sea setting. This micro-world is contained in a small case less than two feet in length. Charles Hampshire, the celebrated miniature modelmaker, has used his granddaughter’s hair for the fine rigging and bunting.

The ‘Empress of Japan’ (1930) was built for Canadian Pacific’s trans-Pacific route out of Vancouver, Canada. She was renamed ‘Empress of Scotland’ in October 1942, following Japan’s entry into the Second World War, albeit after a delay of 11 months. After the war she was transferred to the company’s Atlantic service operating out of Liverpool, replacing ‘Empress of Britain’, which had been lost.

A beautiful ship by any standards, ‘Empress of Japan’ was built by Fairfields and was a one-off. She was known as the ‘Queen of the Pacific’, the largest, fastest and finest liner on that route. In 1939 she was requisitioned for use as a troopship and, later, repatriation duties and was only returned to her builders for refurbishment in 1948. She was sold in 1958 to the Hamburg-Atlantic Line, rebuilt and renamed ‘Hanseatic’. After a successful, but short, career with her new owners, a fire in her engine room in 1966 prematurely sent her to the breakers.