Want to buy Margaret Thatcher’s model ship?

By James Gamble

Margaret Thatcher's personal model of Britain's most famous naval ship, HMS Victory, is set to fetch up to £50,000 (more than $65,000) at auction.

The boxwood model of Horatio Nelson's flagship, dating back to around 1800, was gifted to the Iron Lady when she was prime minister in 1983.

The ship is said to have been constructed by French prisoners of war around five years before Nelson's defeat of Napoleon in the Battle of Trafalgar.

It was given to Thatcher by French industrialist Paul-Louis Weiller and is being sold by Sloane Street Auctions with an estimate of between £30,000 (more than $40,000) and £50,000 (more than $65,000).

The ship was given to Thatcher, one of the most notable figures of 20th-century politics, by Weiller, who was himself distinguished across a number of fields.

The Frenchman (1893-1983) once engaged in battle with the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, a pilot considered the "ace-of-aces" of World War I with 80 air combat victories in the German Air Force.

Married to a Princess in 1922, by then Weiller had already been a pioneer of commercial aviation.

His father had backed the Wright brothers, and he himself had been shot down five times across enemy lines as a reconnaissance pilot and awarded the Légion d'honneur.

Weiller would also later be presented with the Grand Croix de la Légion d'Honneur, France's highest honor.

Later in life, he founded airline companies, joined the board of Air France in his early 40s and escaped to Cuba after being captured by the Vichy regime in 1940.

After World War II, Weiller made a fortune in oil in South America and became a patron of medicine and the arts, restoring buildings in Paris and setting up a foundation for artists and musicians.

In his obituary, it was said that though he lost his eyesight later in life, Weiller was still "water-skiing and wind-surfing well into his 90s."

Weiller presented the HMS Victory model to Thatcher in November 1983, as a token of his admiration for the then-prime minister.

Measuring 23 inches tall and 23 inches in width, the ship, made from boxwood, comes to auction by descent with an estimate of between £30,000 ($40,590) and £50,000 ($67,650).

It is the latest in a string of consignments to Sloane Street Auctions from Baroness Thatcher's family since late 2024.

The first sale alone, which included furniture and personal effects from the late premier's London home, raised more than £250,000 (more than $300,000).

The ship will be sold on May 21.