Hello from the San Francisco Bay Area

[ChuckJ]

Newbie here... although I've had this model ship on a shelf in my house for almost 30 years. Bought it at a local antique shop at the time.  I was wondering if any members can tell me anything about it (what kind of ship, etc?)  and what it might be worth in its present condition. Measures about 18-20 inches at the waterline.  Dust and gravity have taken a toll on the rigging it seems.  I'll be selling it to someone local who wants to take on this restoration project. I have the metal wall-mount brackets for it also.

[mtaylor]

I hate to tell you this, but that appears to be a generic galleon probably made in southern Europe.  They were made as decorations like vases and people bought them for that reason.  Value will be pretty much what you can get for it as they really aren't worth much.

[Steve Harvath]

The stern has the letters E and R  which might stand for Elizabeth Regina -- Queen Elizabeth I of England.  But the symbol between the letters looks like a fleur de leis which would be French.  Probably just made up.

 

 

 

[Louie da fly]

It would be Elizabeth, and as England had claimed to be the legitimate owners of the throne of France since the Hundred Years War, they also used the fleur de lis. They only relinquished that claim in (I think) the 19th century. However, it is just a decorator model - though one of the more attractive ones. It has quite elegant lines, and would probably be very decorative when repaired. 

[kimosubby]

ChuckJ, Hi, My first post

Thats an attempt at the Ark Royal, hopefully a picture of the plans attached below.

I've restored three of these so far, but none that looked like that. I'll post pictures of them in another post, as I'm new I'm still finding out how to do things on this forum.

 

Ah, that easy it was. I've added my version complete with sails. The owners of this Ark Royal thought it was the Marie Rose.

 

If you want more info, ask away.

 

Aye, Kim

 

[Louie da fly]

ChuckJ, I would recommend you restore this model. The more I look at it the more I like it. It'll take quite a bit of work, and it's not perfectly historically accurate, but it has the sweetest lines and would amply repay the work you put into it.

 

And if you do, make sure you start a build log for it. There are quite a number of "restoration" builds going on at the moment (I'm doing one myself!) and if you type "restoration"into the search bar at the top, and then click on the tag "restoration" (you could also try the word "restoring") you'll get all the builds of that type, which should give you a good idea of the things you'll need to do to return this beauty to her original glory.

 

By the way, I would disagree that she's the Ark Royal in particular - I think she's meant to be just a "generic" late Elizabethan galleon.