A fine and large model of a Thames wherry

A fine and large model of a Thames wherry. This planked model of a Thames pleasure boat is made of mahogany with copper pins. There is a broad passenger seat behind four thwarts, two of which are adjacent to oar locks set into the saxboard. The two oars have metal tips and leather collars. The bow has a brass rubbing strake with a fleur-de-lys attachment and two padded cushions for a small seat, while the stern is fitted with a yoke tiller on a working rudder. The model is raised on two brass supports on a mahogany double cruciform stand. English, circa 1885.

Open rowing boats have been a commonplace feature on the River Thames for hundreds of years as passenger wherries. However, the Victorians, and later the Edwardians, developed a passion for boating as a leisure activity, as shown in the famous painting of Boulters Lock on a Sunday afternoon by Edward John Gregory. 800 boats and 72 steam launches passed through Boulter’s Lock on a single Sunday in 1888. Punts and rowing skiffs were the preserve of the more athletic enthusiasts, with Henley Reach hosting the first race between Oxford and Cambridge in 1829 and the First Henley Regatta a decade later. We have silver rowing scull trophies on pages 62-63 and some glass slides of the Regatta of 1907 in Sir Harold Dudley Clayton’s collection on pages 26-27.