FRETWORK MODEL OF NELSON’S MONUMENT IN WANGANUI SHOP

Wanganui Chronicle, 15 January 1948, Page 4

FRETWORK MODEL OF NELSON’S MONUMENT IN WANGANUI SHOP

Creating a good deal of interest in a Wanganui hairdresser’s saloon at present is an imposing fretwork, model of Lord Nelson’s monument, which stands in Trafalgar Square, London. Four feet six inches in height, this oak model is built to scale, and the careful execution of its intricate fretwork patterns finished in varnish, makes it a masterpiece in its own right. The quartet of lions, one at each corner of the base of the monument, and the figure of Nelson at the top of the column, are brass replicas enamelled black and affixed to the woodwork of the model. At the foot of the column, which tapers up from a square on the base proper, are four gilt-edged insets, cum brooches, each set in a face of the wood. The first of these insets shows Lord Nelson, who lost his life In the Battle of Trafalgar, the second carries his famous words, “England expects The third inset depicts Nelson’s ship, the Victory, and the fourth bears the inscription, “Trafalgar, October 21, 1805.” These insets, the lions and the statuette of Nelson, are not part of the actual construction of the model. To the inevitable question of how he came by this model, the proud owner can only answer that it is the gift of an anonymous friend who had in turn, received it from a third party. The name of the maker remains a secret, but there is an admission that he is a Wanganui man. Unable to fit the model into his own shop window, the present owner said yesterday that he had received an offer to display it in an Avenue window. He feels, however, that it would serve a better purpose in his own shop diverting the attention of restless small boys while their hair is being cut.