Lot Essay
Three years after Brilliant was constructed, ship modeler Joseph Wheeler Appleton built a model of the yacht and presented it to Walter Barnum as a gift. Appleton had sailed on the record setting trans-Atlantic passage and grew fond of the yacht and her owner. Appleton's model has been described as "extraordinary" and as perhaps being the "masterpiece of America's finest yacht model builder." She was built with Brilliant's original gaff rigged sail plan, which has since been replaced by a Marconi rig. Appleton derived all of the details directly from the yacht, every block was fitted with sheaves which turned; all turnbuckles functioned and even had the proper right and left hand threads. The model was displayed at the New York City Yacht club until the Barnum family brought it to their home in Connecticut in 1981. Peter Sorlien, the Director of the Mystic Maritime Gallery at the time, graded the model as having a total of 344 points out of a possible 355 or a 93.8 in terms of scale and detail. This placed the model as "extraordinary" according to judging criteria established by the Mariners' Museum Model Ship Craftsman Competition.