Spanning some 350 years, the Thomson Collection of historic shipmodels contains examples of exquisite workmanship and some of themasterpieces of the genre. Pride of the collection are the rare Britishdockyard models made to scale for affluent 18th-century clients closelyassociated with the Navy. A large number of models - made fromwood and bone, with rigging of human hair - were made by some ofthe 120,000 French and other prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars. Thediverse collection also includes tugs, passenger steamers, privateyachts, corvettes, battleships, torpedo boat destroyers and twoaircraft carriers. New photography captures the incredible workmanship- the carving, casting, gilding and stitching - that suchmodel-making demands.