Maatschappij “Zeebad Scheveningen” - Builders Plate Half Model – 85 cm - Half hull ship model

Antique wooden half-model from 1883 of the company “Zeebad Scheveningen”
This very unique shipbuilding half-model comes from a private collection in Scheveningen.
It was donated in 1883 at the founding of the Company “Zeebad Scheveningen.”
Shipbuilding half-models are also called stacking models or 'half-hulls'. Around 1900, during the transition from wood to iron and steel, these wooden models were an indispensable part of the design process. Before advanced two-dimensional blueprints became commonplace (and long before computers arrived), shipwrights designed the shape of the hull directly in wood.
Design tool: The designer shaved and sanded a wooden model — consisting of stacked layers of wood (lifts) — until the perfect, hydrodynamic shape was reached. Because a ship is symmetrical, one half (often the starboard side) was sufficient.
This model helped the workmen in the pattern loft to determine how much the plates needed to be bent in three dimensions.
Plates model: Later, around 1900, when shipyards did use paper line drawings, they instead produced a smooth half-model of the ship afterward. Here the engineer drew the exact layout plan of the steel hull plates (skin plates) with a pencil to calculate how large the plates had to be cut.
Thus it can be seen that this is from before 1900.
Weight: 2.5 kg.

In the photos you can see that the two ornamental rings are largely missing. Otherwise still in very good condition after 143 years.

Maatschappij Zeebad Scheveningen
In 1883 the municipality of The Hague lent the loss-making municipal bathhouse by lease to a cooperative partnership of four private individuals, L.G. Coblijn, M.A. Reiss, P.J. de Sonnaville and L.E. Uyflenhove, on the condition that the bathhouse be converted by the end of 1885 into a Kurzaal (concert hall) or Casino. On 21 June 1883, the N.V. Maatschappij Zeebad Scheveningen (M.Z.S.) was founded, with Reiss becoming director. To outdo the competition at home and abroad, the M.Z.S. commissioned the construction of a luxurious hotel with a casino in 1884, on the site of the old bathhouse. The opening of the Kurhaus, designed by the German architects Johann Friedrich Henkenhaf and Friedrich Ebert, took place on 29 July 1885, less than a year after construction began.
The casino was formally only accessible to members but in practice to everyone. Although that was probably illegal, the authorities took no action. The Kurhaus burned down completely on 1 September 1886, but was rebuilt immediately and reopened on 19 June 1887. Soon after, the M.Z.S. also built the Kurhaus bar (1897), the boulevard, the Wandelhoofd Wilhelmina (opened 6 May 1901 by Prince Hendrik), the Oranjehotel (1903) and the Kurhaus shopping arcade (1900).
In 1902 the E.M.S. was established, in which the companies of the M.Z.S. and several other hotels operated by individual owners were brought in against the issue of shares in the E.M.S. Of the large Scheveningen hotels, only the Hotel des Galeries, opened in 1876, remained outside this merger. The E.M.S. subsequently expanded by building the Palace Hotel in 1902 and the Circus Building. Thus the Kurhaus, the Grand Hotel from 1858, the Oranje, Savoy, Palace and Rauch hotels, various restaurants, cafés, beach- and bath businesses, the Wandelhoofd and the Circustheater came under the management of the E.M.S. The E.M.S. also had its own power station and a laundry. For the amusement of guests at the hospitality businesses, Reiss contracted the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1885 and from 1912 the Orchestre Lamoureux, along with many other famous artists for performances in the Kurzaal. In part thanks to the 1905 ban on gambling games, which had become popular in foreign spa towns, and strict provisions of the alcohol law, the results of the E.M.S. businesses fell short of expectations and the E.M.S. had only limited reserves. It would not be until 1979 that Scheveningen would again have a real casino, this time in the Kurhaus.

This lot has been carefully cleaned and will be carefully packed, sent by registered mail and insured (with Track & Trace code so you can follow the shipment). Pickup in (Ridderkerk, South Holland) is also possible. I have tasty hand-ground coffee.