The
American Marine Model Gallery
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Diorama: William E. Hitchcock, Bound Home for Gloucester
The largest two-masted Gloucester fishing schooner, TATTLER was built in 1901 for D. B. Smith at the Arthur D. Story yard in Essex to a Laurence Jensen design. She weighed 172 Gt. (136 net) and her measurements were 113.9’ in length, 25.8’ in breadth and 12’ in depth. Not only did he clipper-bowed schooner have the largest mainsail but also the largest yield of a fishing trip, setting records of speed and poundage in the dory hand line fishery. She was abandoned March 15, 1918 while on a voyage from Turk’s Island, British West Indies, to Newfoundland with a cargo of salt. Her crew was rescued. The waterline model depicted under sail is constructed from a solid basswood hull, lift method, with applied bulwarks, and laid decking. It carries all traditional deck gear, furniture & fittings, and is authentically painted with red bottom and black topsides. Mounted on a mahogany baseboard with a glazed cover trimmed in brass.
1/8” Scale,
Class B, Encased: 25 1/8” L x 16” H x 9 5/8” W
Price: $7,500
Biography: WILLIAM E. HITCHCOCK (1928 -) & CHRISTOPHER N. HITCHCOCK (1966 -)
Born in Biddeford Pool, Maine, Mr. Hitchcock Senior has been involved in ship model building for over fifty years. After graduating from the Franklin Institute in Boston with a degree in Prosthetic Engineering, Mr. Hitchcock joined his father in the business of crafting wooden artificial limbs. His expertise in this business enabled him to teach at such leading universities as New York University, Tulane and the University of California at Berkeley. Partially disabled from a stroke in the mid-1970s, Mr. Hitchcock worked on regaining and refining his woodworking and modeling skills to a precision art during a two-year recovery period. His diversity of knowledge and talent has enabled him over the years to build models of every type of ship, sail or steam. And his artistic skill and talent in the research and creation of his waterline historic dioramas is renowned amongst international museums and collectors.
Mr. Hitchcock has cruised the Atlantic seaboard extensively, from Maine to the Caribbean, and has owned numerous boats, both power and sail. This experience has proven invaluable to his understanding of the sea, its ships and the men who sailed them. His marine models can be found in the Schaefer Collection at Mystic Seaport Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, South Street Seaport Museum, The Mariners’ Museum, U. S. National Park Service, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Bermuda Maritime Museum, and the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah, which exhibits fifteen of his most famous large scale models. His work also can be found in numerous private and corporate collections throughout the country.
Christopher Hitchcock, William Hitchcock’s youngest son, grew up around ship models and delved into the art of model making as a hobby before joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 1988. His service as a combat photographer in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm further contributed to his artistic background. On leaving the Marines in 1998, he began his professional ship-modeling career at age 34, carrying on the Hitchcock family tradition of model making, and often collaborating with his father in the creation of museum-quality ship models and dioramas. Bringing his own unique style and attention to detail to the family's works, Christopher’s experience as a photographer now assists him in the painting and “weathering” of complex, near-photorealistic dioramas. His knowledge of the U.S. Marine Corps and its history as well as expertise in the area of naval amphibious warfare has been an invaluable contribution to joint work on large-scale models of naval vessels. Christopher Hitchcock's work can be publicly viewed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and at the Ships of the Sea Museum in Savannah, GA. His work also can be found in many corporate offices and private collections.
The American Marine Model Gallery, of Salem, Massachusetts, is the exclusive agent for the work of both William and Christopher Hitchcock. Their dioramas have a great range in price, and depend on the complexity and comprehensiveness of the scene. Inquiries to the gallery are welcome.