#MuseumBoats

When I saw @CultureThemes this month asking museums to get nautical with the theme #MuseumBoats I wasn’t convinced MoDiP would be able to join in the fun.  We don't have any marine oil paintings showing grand vessels taking to the sea or any actual boats in the collection; we wouldn’t have the space to store them.   However, when I gave the idea more thought I realised we had lots of things we could share:
Ship Shape
Ship Shape by Alessi
This little ship might not be sea worthy but it can certainly sail across the breakfast table and provide butter to spread on toast, the puff of steam conceals the knife handle.

Ahoi Juicer
Ahoi Juicer by Koziol
Keeping to breakfast this piece, resembling a paper boat, is designed to squeeze juice, containing liquid in its hull rather than floating on it.

Sailing gear

Crewsaver Buoyancy aid & Gill Pro Jacket
The Gill jacket and Crewsaver Buoyancy aid, which are currently on display as part of Plastics for Gold, are for the sailor to wear to keep them safe, warm and dry.

Toy dinghy
Toy dinghy

This tiny toy dinghy, part of the PHS collection, might be too small to carry you on the ocean but it can sail away with your imagination.

Elliot camera


Elliot Pocket Camera I may well be pushing the theme a little here, but how about a yacht shaped logo? The company that made this camera is called Elliot. Not an obvious logo, perhaps, but say the name slowly ELL-I-OT: L E Yacht!


Horn engraving


Powder horn & Beaker These two objects from the Worshipful Company of Horner’s both depict engraving made of sailing ships. The beaker is more naïve in its execution whilst the powder horn has the addition of coloured pigment.


Photographs
Lastly we have a number of photographic images of small and large boats which are part of an archive from BXL, a producer of plastics of many years now no longer trading.  We are still working our way through the documentation of this collection but so far I have come across images depicting: the interior of the QEII
dinghies designed to be carried to the water on the roof of a car and boats destined to be rowed across the oceans OK, so some of these links to the #MuseumBoats theme may be more tenuous than others but I think I just may get away with it, what do you think?
Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)