a diorama/shadowbox of " the olivebank " by frank nelson.
a twentieth century sailing ship diorama / shadowbox of " the olivebank " made in a traditional style by the artist frank nelson ( 1930-2012 ).
the hand made four masted square rigged saiing ship in full sail is housed in a glazed wooden box. the vessel is in good condition, ( since the photographs have been taken the foxing on the inside of the glass apparent in the pictures has been cleaned ).
antique ship dioramas of which this type is based are sometimes referred to as a sailors shadow box. mariners were by tradition quite superstitious. one particular superstition or old belief was it could be bad luck if a sailors shadow reached shore before he did. by carrying his belongings, a metaphorical shadow of himself, enclosed in a box he could insure he touched land before his shadow.
frank nelson was an artist who became a self-employed model-maker, born in blackpool, lancashire, and who studied at the art school there, 1944–7. he had a solo exhibition at howarth art gallery, accrington, in 1978 and in 1979 was included in the serpentine summer show 1 at the serpentine gallery. nelson’s interest in engineering while at art school led to industrial model-making, theatre, film props and fairground design, from development work on aircraft to guns for the 1977 film Star Wars. by the time of the Serpentine show he was concentrating on animated models, having been fascinated by them for a decade. “Individual commissions have become my full-time occupation.” he was then based in winewall, colne, lancashire.
a short film of Frank Nelson explaining his extraordinary automata, can be viewed by searching ...Frank Nelson automata ... on YouTube.
frank nelson text scource... artuk " artists in britain since 1945 " by david buckman ( art dictionaries ltd, part of sansom & company )
"the olive bank " was a four-masted steel barque built in 1892 by mackie & thompson, glasgow. her dimensions were: 326'0×43'1×24'5 and tonnage: 2647 nrt and 2824 grt. the olivebank became a well known vessel on the grain route from australia to europe until 08/09/1939 when she collided with a submerged sea mine off jutland and sank.
