A bone Napoleonic prisoner of war model of Creolian

A bone Napoleonic prisoner of war model of Creolian. This intricate bone prisoner of war model is of the three masted barque, Creolian.   She has a planked hull, a carved poop deck and a female figurehead.. The rigging is made from black thread and there is a black plaque painted in gilt ‘Creolian’.  In the original glazed wooden case with a painted background of a sunset over a bay with ships on the horizon.  French, circa 1800.

Provenance Ivan Roll Amis: d. 1 July 1970

 Richard Henry Allen Amis, CBE, thence by descent

During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815), large numbers of French soldiers and marines were taken prisoner.  To help pass the time and generate a small income, they would make a variety of objects, including ship models, from simple, easily-sourced materials such as bone and wood for sale at local markets.  Typically, the models were not made to scale and tools were limited, making the quality and attention to detail in this work even more remarkable.  To realise a good price at market, the models were often named after famous ships of the time.  It may well be that this ship was the Créole, a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy.  She served in the Brest squadron, took part in Ganteaume’s expeditions of 1801 to Egypt, and was involved in the French acquisition of Santo Domingo (also known as the Era de Francia) and briefly detained Toussaint Louverture (a prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution).