17th and 18th Century Ship Models From and perhaps too far-reaching, which one the Kriegstein Collection by Arnold and frequently sees when the author is also the Henry Kriegstein (Pier Books, Inc., Piermont, NY, and Dupont Communications, Florence, OR, 2007, 220pp, illus, notes, biblio, ISBN 978-0-9755772-4-0; $85hc) I was prepared to really dislike this book. After all, these two intrepid and ravenous collectors have been central players in the dramatic rise in the price of British admiralty board ship models that has occurred over the last fifteen years. Only a small handful of ship model collectors could ever afford these exquisitely detailed and exacting works, primarily created in dockyards by professional modelers and the shipwrights themselves. The Kriegsteins have avidly competed in this rarefied collecting arena, doggedly conducting provenance research to locate these models in obscure private collections, while bidding the prices for them sky high at public auction. The result is that the well-meaning museum curator is repeatedly outbid when trying to acquire one for a public collection where the average modeler or maritime art enthusiast can enjoy it. The most recent one I am aware of to sell at auction fell just shy of the $ 1 million mark, though not to the Kriegsteins, whose book chronicles their acquisition of twenty fine examples. Do I sound jealous? You bet. The authors' careful research has brought out myriad interesting elements abo ut their models and admiralty models in general, and the book presents the models as a series of advent ure stories. We learn of the ships they represent and the significance of architectural and technological features , the purposes for which some were built, speculation on their original owners and how each was acquired by the Kriegsteins. The text shifts the reader smoothly back and forth between the 17/18th and 20/2lst centuries, and each chapter is richly illusctrated with excellent detail photography. Alrmost as an afterthought, the book includes ch;apters on intriguing period paintings of shiip models and detailed drawn and painted renderings of the ships of the period by the mas1ter marine artist Willem Van de Velde the Eldler among others. These works are presumably also in the Kriegstein collection, but information about their provenance is not presented in equivalent fashion to the models. Some of the research on design and comparisons with other models seems ambitious SEA HISTORY 123 , SUMMER 2008
owner of the art being presented. Without a doubt, however, this is the most entertaining book about ship models ever written. well known for his fictional Nathaniel DAN IEL FINAMORE Drinkwater series as well as other novels Salem, Massachusetts of the sea, has produced an in-depth treatise on the WWII convoys, run mostly by Arctic Convoys, 1941-1945 by Richard England, through the Arctic Ocean to the ' Woodman (Pen & Sword Books Ltd., Russian pons of Archangel and Murmansk. South Yorkshire, England, 2007, 53lpp, His research was exhaustive and, more than illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 978-1-844- likely, took him to the naval archives of at 15611-5; $32.99pb) least four countries. Richard Woodman, a British writer Unfortunately, this incredible detail \
\ Studies in Maritime History William N. Still, Jr., series editor
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Playships of the World The Naval Diaries of Admiral Dan Gallery, 1920-1924 Edited by Robert Shenk The early exploits around the globe of a yo ung officer who would become a World War II navy hero 336 pp., 67 illus., cloth, $34.95
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EDITED BY ROBERT SHENK -
Guardian of Savannah Fort McAllister, Georgia, in the Civil War and Beyond Roger S. Durham The exciting story of how an earthen fort defended a Southern city against ironclad monitors 304 pp., 60 illus., 12 maps, cloth, $39.95
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GUARDIAN OF SAVANNAH Fort McAl lister, Geo rgia, in die C ivil Wa r and Beyond
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~~THE UNIVERSITY OF SQYIH CAROLINA PRESS 800.768.2500 • www.sc.edu/uscpress
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