Margaret Thatcher's model ship sells over $150,00 at auction

By Isobel Williams

Margaret Thatcher's personal model of Britain's most famous naval ship, HMS Victory, has sold for double its estimate at auction - a huge £116,380 (more than $150,000).

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 went up for auction Wednesday (May 21) with an estimate of between £30,000 (more than $40,000) and £50,000 (more than $60,000).

However, the 23-inch high by 23-inch wide ship sold with Sloane Street Auctions for over double that, at £116,380 ($156,500).

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.

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

This 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).

Daniel Hunt, who founded Sloane Street Auctions, said: "These sort of pieces would have been a natural fit for Christie's South Kensington in its day, but now that has gone, we find that consignors tend to come to us, so we are delighted to play our part in keeping this tradition of higher end works coming to London beyond the confines of Bond Street and St James.

"It is also a happy coincidence that our auctioneer, Hugh Edmeades, was Christie's South Kensington's former chairman."

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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 1:57 PM.