Editing Ship model (section)

=== Europe ===
{{See also|Votive ship}}
[[File:Kapucijnenkerk.votief02.jpg|thumb|Church [[ex-voto|votive]] hanging in a church; the workmanship is somewhat crude, but sufficient to identify it as mid-19th-century]]
[[File:Fregate-p1000585.jpg|thumb|Model of a 19th-century English frigate]]
[[File:Fregate-p1000587.jpg|thumb|Closeup of the frigate's quarterdeck, showing quality of the detail.]]
[[File:Prisoner of war model ship.JPG|thumb|Prisoner-of-war ship model at the [[Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery]] in Peterborough.]]
[[File:Scheepsmodel vissersboot vooruit 071 - NAVIGO Nationaal Visserijmuseum - 0790.jpg|thumb|Model ship fishing boat, NAVIGO National Fisheries Museum, Koksijde-[[Oostduinkerke]]]]
[[File:Scheepsmodel 17de eeuwse vishoeker - Gaston Desnerck - NAVIGO Nationaal Visserijmuseum - 0461 (2).jpg|thumb|A 17th century fish-hooker model, NAVIGO National Fisheries Museum, Koksijde-[[Oostduinkerke]]]]

Some of the oldest surviving European ship models have been those of early craft such as [[galley]]s, [[galleon]]s, and possibly [[carrack]]s, dating from the 12th through the 15th centuries and found occasionally mounted in churches, where they were used in ceremonies to bless ships and those who sailed in them,<ref>{{cite web| title=Church Ships| publisher=Henning Thalund| url=http://www.kirkeskibe.dk/en/index.htm| access-date=2007-12-05}}</ref> or as votive offerings for successful voyages or surviving peril at sea, a practice which remained common in Catholic countries until the 19th century.

Until the early 18th century, virtually all European small craft and many larger vessels were built without formal plans being drawn. [[Shipwright]]s would construct models to show prospective customers how the full size ship would appear and to illustrate advanced building techniques.<ref name="Lavery">{{cite book| title=Ship Models, Their Purpose and Development from 1650 to the Present| first=Brian & Stephens, Simon| last=Lavery | year=1995| publisher=Zwemmer| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oRP5AQAACAAJ&q=%27%27Ship+Models,+Their+Purpose+and+Development+From+1650+to+the+Present%27%27| isbn=0-302-00654-0}}</ref> These were also useful for [[marine artist]]s, and it is clear that from [[Dutch Golden Age Painting]] onwards extensive use of models was made by artists.

Ship models constructed for the [[Royal Navy]] were referred to as ''[[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] models'' and were principally constructed during the 18th and 19th centuries to depict proposed warship design.<ref name="Lavery" />  Although many of these models did not illustrate the actual timbering or framing, they did show the form of the hull and usually had great detail of the deck furnishings, masts, spars, and general configuration.  Some of these grand models were decorated with carvings of great beauty and were evidently constructed by teams of artisans.

Admiralty models served to educate civilians who were involved in the financing or some other aspect of the ship, to avoid construction errors that might have evolved as the ship itself took form.{{Citation needed|date=December 2007}}

During the [[Napoleonic wars]] French and English seamen who were taken prisoner were confined, sometimes for many years, and in their boredom sought relief by building ship models from scraps of wood and bone.<ref name="Lavery" /> This evolved into something of an art form and the models were sold to the public,<ref>{{cite web| title=The Pilkington Collection of French Prisoner of War Miniature Models | publisher=Merseyside Maritime Museum|date=December 2007| url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/collections/artsea/models/pilkington.asp| access-date=2007-12-05}}</ref>
which responded by supplying the prisoners with ivory so that the models would be more decorative.  For the most part, the models had carved wooden hulls with rigging made from human hair, horsehair, silk, or whatever other fine material could be obtained. Bone or ivory would be used for masts and spars, and as a thin veneer over the hull.<ref>{{cite web| title=Ship Models – Prisoner of War Work | publisher=National Maritime Museum (United Kingdom)|date=December 2007| url=http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/search/listResults.cfm?name=Prisoner%20of%20war%20work%2C%20Full%20hull%20model&category=shipmodels&sortBy=title| access-date=2007-12-05}}</ref>

A consequence of Britain's naval supremacy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was wide public interest in ships and ship models. Numerous fairly crude models were built as children's toys leading to the creation of functional, as opposed to decorative, ship models. Britain also led the world in model ship sailing clubs – in 1838 the ''Serpentine Sailing Society'' was started in [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], followed by the first ''London Model Yacht Club'' in 1845.<ref name="mysa">{{cite web| title=Club history: The Model Yacht Sailing Association | publisher=The Model Yacht Sailing Association|date=December 2003| url=http://www.mysa.org.uk/default.asp?PageNum=2| access-date=2007-12-05 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071114131027/http://www.mysa.org.uk/default.asp?PageNum=2 <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-11-14}}</ref> By the 1880s there were three model sailing clubs sharing the [[Kensington Gardens]] [[Round Pond (London)|Round Pond]] alone.<ref name="mysa" />