A 1:65 SCALE STATIC DISPLAY MODEL FOR THE IMPERIAL RUSSIAN HARBOUR PATROL SHIP COMMANDER BERING [1905]

modelled by G. Cheikhet, the carved and painted hull with brass strap-work, planked decks crowded with detailed polished brass and wood fittings, including anchors with chains and winches, deck rails, Nordenfeldt-type machine guns, companionways, ventilators, sail winches, pipework, racked masts with stitched linen sails with rigging, wheelhouse with binnacle and searchlight over, fitted boats in davits, funnels with safety valve extension pipe, engine room lights, saloon, emergency helm and other details, mounted on turned brass columns to display base within glazed wooden case -- 20 x 37 x 9½in. (51 x 94 x 24cm.)

This lot will be available for viewing at Imperial Road

The patrol ship Commander Bering was, with her sister the Lieutenant Dydymov, built at the Nickolayevsky Shipyard in Nikolaev at a cost of 90,000 roubles each. They were intended to guard fishing waters in the Far East, to which Russia had claims, but doubts were expressed as to whether they were stable enough to safely make their intended base at Vladivostok and it seems they were used for harbour defence and coastal patrol work in and around St. Petersburg instead. Their fates have yet to be established.