Waterline ship models
The name Bassett-Lowke is mostly associated with model trains but the company also had a long history of contracting skilled craftsmen to make 100 ft. to 1 inch or 1/1200 scale military and civilian waterline ship models out of wood and wire. These detailed hand crafted waterline ship models are so highly desired by ship model collectors that they often command higher prices than the Bassett-Lowke model trains. Something that is not well known is that Bassett-Lowke also sold less detailed waterline models cast in white metal.
Roland Fuller on page 49 of his book, "The Bassett-Lowke Story", states that in the London Bassett-Lowke store on High Holborn St. there was such a demand for the hand-made waterline 100 ft. to 1 inch scale wooden ship models that the company had to make available to its customers a less expensive line of waterline ship models, cast in white metal, to meet the demand. The name of the casting company supplying these inexpensive white metal ship models for Bassett-Lowke customers was Brighton Manufacturing Company, a company using the initials B.M.C. to identify their products. The B.M.C. Company was located at 32 Great St Helens, London, England. This metal casting company was a neighbor to Bassett-Lowke, its store being within walking distance from the Bassett-Lowke shop located on High Holborn St.
Roland Fuller describes in extensive detail the range of inexpensive metal ships offered to Bassett-Lowke customers. He states the metal ship models could be purchased individually or could be purchased in numbered boxed sets.
Illustrations of these same metal waterline ship models appear in a book by Derek Head. On pages 11 and 15 In his book "Bassett-Lowke Waterline Ship Models", Mr. Head provides excerpts of a few pages of the Bassett-Lowke war time catalog. These excerpted catalog pages contain illustrations of metal ship models sold in numbered boxed sets matching the exact description of the numbered boxed sets of metal ship models described in the Roland Fuller book. The presence of these metal ship models in the Bassett-Lowke war time model ship catalog can be explained by the following:
Derek Head describes on page 11 of his book that at beginning of the First World War, government censors prohibited Bassett-Lowke from selling or advertising their line of detailed 100 ft. to 1 inch or 1/1200 scale models of the Royal Navy. The concern of the censors was that the accuracy of these detailed models could give vital information to the enemy.
In order to have some representation of the Royal Navy for their war time catalog, Bassett-Lowke replaced their prohibited Royal Navy models by purchasing the less detailed metal ship models of the Royal Navy made by the neighboring company, B.M.C. These metal B.M.C. models while detailed, had their origins as game models and were therefore less accurate depictions of Royal Navy Warships. This lack of sharp detail was apparently found acceptable to the government censors and therefore they were allowed to appear in the catalog.
The resulting model fleet in metal carried in the Bassett-Lowke war time catalogue was of every class of ship in the British navy then in commission as of 1914. The models found in the collection range from the early 1889 Royal Sovereign class Pre-Dreadnoughts, some of which had been retained by the navy as bombardment ships, through to eventually the newest Revenge class Super-Dreadnoughts which had just come into service. The 1917 Bassett-Lowke catalogue proudly boasts that "Practically every ship in the Navy has been modelled, including Super-Dreadnoughts, Battleships, Battle Cruisers, Armoured Cruisers, Light Cruisers, Destroyers, Torpedo Boats, Submarines, Mine Layers, Mine Sweepers, Troopships, Transports, Armed Liners and all Auxiliary Craft". The models were formed in lead with the wire masts cast into the hulls in a scale of one inch to 150 feet or 1/1800. They were painted and issued in numbered boxed sets by Bassett-Lowke, the boxes bearing the label “H.M.S. Irresistible”. Paper flags were supplied with each set, to be cut out and applied to the masts and sternposts.
Every class of vessel was easily recognizable by the funnels, guns and masts. While rudimentary by later standards, the B.M.C. production of over 101 different castings was the first scale metal ship model fleet ever produced and established the precedent for all subsequent scale metal waterline recognition ship models. In addition to the ship models, B.M.C. produced a fort with movable guns, four lighthouses and a game featuring a large fold-out map of the Dardanelles channel showing forts and minefields. The game was supplied with fifteen metal ship models including two mine sweepers and two submarines This collaboration between Bassett-Lowke and B.M.C. was a great benefit to both companies. It allowed Bassett-Lowke to have a representation of the Royal Navy in their war time catalogue that was acceptable to the government censors and at the same time it gave the small metal casting company of B.M.C. a broader venue for the sales of their metal ship models. In the time period of the First World War, these metal B.M.C. ship models were the only examples of waterline warship models of the Royal Navy sold by Bassett-Lowke and are therefore deserving of a more detailed review than has normally been accorded to them. The B.M.C. waterline ship models had been cast by an independent company which had been selling their metal waterline ship models for over 10 years through advertisement and through shops specializing in military miniatures. Early in the century this small company had begun supplying lead waterline game models to the publishers of the Fred T. Janes Naval War Game, supplementing the pressed cork and wire waterline game models already being supplied to the game by others. The accomplishment of B.M.C. is that this garage sized company had, by 1903 begun the creation of the first commercially available metal waterline ship models made in a uniform scale to each other.
B.M.C. ship models available today
The B.M.C. ship models often appear for sale on internet auctions and at toy shows. Many times at these sales the B.M.C. models are found mixed with copies made by two later companies. The B.M.C. models can be distinguished from the copies since only the B.M.C. models have full-length wire masts cast into the hulls. The first type of copies are 31 models made by Minifigs. These are cast in solid lead, have no wire masts and have large numbers inscribed on the bottom. The second type of copies comprise a group of four models made by Crescent which are cast in pot metal. They have numbers near the starboard stern numbering B.1, B.2, B.3, or B.4. Curiously, these pot-metal models retain the same numbering system that is cast into the hulls of the four B.M.C models from which they were derived. These Crescent copies mimic the B.M.C. castings of the B.I Duncan, B.II Swiftsure, B.III King Edward VII, and the B.IV Lord Nelson. It is unknown when Bassett-Lowke ceased carrying the B.M.C metal ship models, however Derek Head in his book on page 12, states that metal ship models continued to be carried until the 1920’s.
In the present day, the larger highly accurate wood and wire ship models in the scale of one inch to 1200 inches or 1:1200, were auctioned for high prices. These ship models which were hand crafted continued to be sold commercially until the mid1960's and had also been purchased by the military for their purpose of war gaming and display. Unlike the B.M.C. metal models, which were carried only briefly by Bassett-Lowke in the early years, the larger highly finished 100 to 1 inch or 1/1200 scale wooden ship models are sought by collectors and were auctioned for high prices. The Derek Head book, "Bassett-Lowke Waterline Ship Models" will reward ship model collectors with a survey of both the metal B.M.C. ships and the expensive, detailed, hand-crafted ship models, many from his own collection.
