What lover of nautical artifacts hasn’t ever wanted to own a ship’s figurehead? Now, that would be an impressive sentinel in one’s foyer. Or why not a whole array of them? There’s just one problem attendant to the collection of such pieces of the past: they’re big! Enter an artist who’s been hailed as “the Master of Miniatures”—Lloyd McCaffery, author of the classic Ships in Miniature: A New Manual for Modelmakers (Phoenix, 1988). Over his 50-year career, he has come to be regarded as “one of the most amazing miniaturists of this or any age,” as one gallery carrying his work puts it. Known principally for his pristine ship models, McCaffery also branched off into a related sideline: classic figureheads from the Age of Sail, replicated in precise detail to the nth degree—but in scales so diminutive the woodcraft becomes all the more astounding. Suddenly, an array of figureheads begins to sound like a collection that won’t get you kicked out of your house.
These examples are from a series of 52 U.S. Navy figureheads carved at 1:48 scale (he also has created a series of 60 clipper-ship figureheads at 1:48); his Navy figureheads have been exhibited at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis. “I have always been interested in ships, woodworking, small intricate objects, and using fine tools,” McCaffery says. “I began as most young boys, reading C. S. Forester and putting together plastic ship models. But while others went on to a set career path, I began to plunge ever more deeply into these areas, until it became a career.”
On the left is the figurehead from the 1820 ship-of-the-line Delaware—yes, that’s “Tecumseh,” the venerated U.S. Naval Academy landmark. On the right is the figurehead from the frigate USS (formerly HMS) Macedonian—another longtime Naval Academy icon. The gathering in the center gives a sense of proportion in relation to the pencil in the foreground.
The figures are rendered in boxwood, “that most excellent material for miniature carving,” while the stem, backboard, and base are of apple heartwood. “I started thinking about creating a collection of figureheads very early on in my career,” notes the artist, who can be reached at [email protected]. “The purpose is to show people how these old ships were decorated, and recapture something of a lost culture. I aim to recreate the nautical zeitgeist.” Amen to that.
—Eric Mills