Ships, Folk Art, and Whimsey in Bottles

This is a museum specimen and a wonderful competition model of the "St Pavel" (St. Paul) an 84-gun ship originally constructed in Nikolaev by the engineers Afanasiev and Sokolov in 1794. This whole hull model is built to exacting details to the actual ship. The ship's deck is individually planked and includes the same features you would find on the actual ship. The ship's deck includes the gratings, hatches, pumps, beakhead, capstan, windlass, whipstaff, rudder, catheads, ladders, fife rails, binnacle, wheel and skylight. There are also the details of the ringbolts, hinges, hoops, bolts, anchor, and assorted metal fastenings. Two live boats are mid-ship. The "St Pavel" has 3 masts; the foremast, the mainmast, and the mizzenmast. The masts are all made from bamboo and are built in 3 sections and the masts have crosstrees on each section. There are 84 guns on three decks with red gun ports in an opened position. The ship is displayed with 20 unfurled sails made from fine silk with the stitch and reef lines showing. The yards are built with footropes for the sailors to stand on while bending and unbending the sail. The bowsprit is built in two sections and has a dolphin striker. The "X" ensign, a white flag with a thin blue cross, flies from the stern area of the ship. The ship has a stern gallery with wonderful detail brought out in the striking black with white accenting the windows and ships decorations. It is very ornament with classical wood-carving. The center of the center of the taffrail (the railing around the stern of a ship) is decorated with the two headed bow figure of the ship representing the warrior in a gilded helmet and amour. The ship has authentic detailed standing and running rigging. The standing rigging is in black and the running rigging in gray/brown tone. There are shrouds with ratlines going to each section of each mast and each shroud has main chains. The masts and yards are correctly proportioned to the size of the hull and to each other. Under the cradle are the initials of Vladislav Babkin, the artist, 2007 the year it was made and a special dedication: "Special Series for Greg Alvey." The bottle rests on two cradles mounted to a polished plinth board. On the slat is a plaque with the name of the ship "St. Pavel" printed on it in Russian. The bottle is sealed with a cork and decorative rope around the neck. This is different bottle but an identical model to the Saint Pavel listed as bottle 507 in the Gallery.