The most significant thing here in my mind is that this item was treated as an objet d'art, which is actually quite a big deal for an item that nearly all non-modelers associate as an adult toy, not sculpture, not a 3-dimensional canvas or what it is--an amalgamation of artistic skills in a most difficult form. A form with the overarching requirement that it is functional, and even more difficult, meeting the weight limitations to fly. There is lots of functional art out there which is fascinating, but it can be made out of wrought iron and cast metals and lots of wonderfully heavy stuff.
This acceptance might be an interesting follow-up to Brett's co-worker's opinion that building model airplanes is just a waste of time. Rather, they can be art objects when executed as such. The auction house believed so, and certainly the buyer did! By extension, one could say that original oil paintings are a waste of time. After all, you could snap an image with your iphone and upload to a commercial color printer and get any size you want, quick and cheap, so why bother spending untold hours with a paint brush? I'd love to hear that conversation....
Note that well executed ship models (think Flying Cloud, etc.) have been built, sold and treated as art for a long, long time. Another example, perhaps closer to home, was a Vought Corsair that captured the coveted spot on the back cover of Fine Woodworking magazine years ago. A magazine famous in its mission to interpret "wood furniture" as art, with juried shows and more. FW treated the Corsair as a scale sculpture in wood. If sold (I do not recall the details), it would have been sold as art, not "a model." Note that one of the defining elements of art in my mind is the act of commissioning. If an artist is commissioned to create a handmade object, it seems this perquisite causes it to be accepted as art. Another is time. This is getting fairly old for a model airplane. But long term desirability is a hallmark of good art as well.
So are we just attempting to validate our passion? Perhaps, but the truth is that it really is art, at the highest levels of execution!
Note that deeper in the item description from the auction, it states that the P-47 won the 1964 Control Line Scale Nationals in Chicago. That pretty much proves it flew then, unless everyone else didn't bother to attempt flight?
I would expect the statements in the auction catalog to be almost certainly factual, since auction houses that provide provenance that is in error would likely have difficulty staying open. They specifically point to the historical documentation of this model--because this adds desirability (and value!) to art.
I wish we knew the construction details, especially the planking type and finishing methods and materials. It is a beauty!
Topic: Scale P-47 (Read 1591 times)