Unfortunately nothing is known about the
first maker of a ship in a bottle. The oldest ship in a bottle (SIB), as far as
we know, was made in 1784 in Italy by Gioni Biondo and this SIB was donated by'
Captain Kruger of Lubeck to the 'Museum fiir Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der
Hansestadt Lubeck' in Germany. It is said that this SIB is a so-called
ship-owner's model, which was made by a professional model builder. The SIB is
numbered 7357 in the museum list. It is probably a Turkish or a Portuguese
three-masted warship. It is put in an egg-shaped bottle, which is placed
upside down over a wooden stand.
There are several ways to put a ship inside a bottle. The
simplest way is to rig the masts of the ship and raise it up when the ship is
inside the bottle. Masts, spars, and sails are built separately and then
attached to the hull of the ship with strings and hinges so the masts can lie
flat against the deck. The ship is then placed inside the bottle and the masts
are pulled up using the strings attached to the masts. The hull of
the ship must still be able to fit through the opening. Bottles with minor
distortions and soft tints are often chosen to hide the small details of the
ship such as hinges on the masts.Alternatively, with specialized long-handled tools, it is possible to build the ship inside the bottle. This interesting card was sent to me by Marian.
