Service vessel; Passenger vessel; Picket boat

Scale: not calculated. A good example of a working model of a picket boat (circa 1890) complete with two-stroke engine, fuel tank, pressure gauge, and miniature boiler, all contained within the model’s fine plank-on-frame hull. Most of the main deck can be removed for access to the equipment. The boat's wheel is linked to the steering gear. A section of the deck at the bow also separately lifts off, the space below being used to store an item of equipment that looks like an old-fashioned blowlamp.

The model balances the robustness of a plaything made to be used out-of-doors, with the refinement of a purely decorative model that one could imagine being proudly displayed in an Edwardian schoolboy’s playroom. For a toy it is surprisingly accurate and well detailed and would probably have been an expensive item when new. It depicts a type of boat that was carried on Royal Naval ships from about 1890 and was gradually superseded by motor-engine craft after the First World War.