[M] A FINE BUILDER'S MIRROR-BACKED HALF MODEL OF THE BUCKET HOPPER DREDGER 'SIR WILLIAM MATTHEWS' BUILT BY FLEMING & FERGUSON, PAISLEY, FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON, 1914

A FINE BUILDER'S MIRROR-BACKED HALF MODEL OF THE BUCKET HOPPER DREDGER SIR WILLIAM MATTHEWS BUILT BY FLEMING & FERGUSON, PAISLEY, FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON, 1914

the 6in. laminated and carved hull with gold-plated propeller, steel red-lined buckets and open silo doors with chains, lined boxwood decks with silvered and oxidised fittings, including stage funnel, open bridge with telegraph and binnacle, fitted boat in davits, dredging assembly, etc., mounted on front silvered mirror with angled endplates within glazed wooden case with mirror section at base and ivorine builder's plate -- 23 x 74 x 10in. (58.5 x 188 x 25.5cm.)

A large dredger registered at 1,380 tons, the Sir William Matthews (named after the British civil engineer Sir William Matthews 1844-1922) was sold to the Australian Government in 1917, the Western Australian Government in 1930 and finally the Melbourne Harbour Trust in 1941 when she was renamed Geo.Kermode. Her long life ended with her being scuttled near Pyramid Rock, Phillip Island, Bass Strait on the 1st April, 1976.