This is a model of Nautilus, the legendary submarine from the Jules Verne classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It was created by Harper Goff’s close friend and protégé Tom Scherman, and presented to Goff as a gift.
For the unfamiliar, Harper Goff was the cinematic art director who designed the Nautilus as it appeared in the Disney film. He also designed the sets for all of the submarine’s internal compartments, and over the course of his career he would be art director for a slew of iconic films including Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Voyage, and Casablanca (to name just a few).
Interestingly, Goff was also responsible for many of the renderings and concept art for Disney’s proposed “Mickey Mouse Park”, which would of course go on to be known as Disneyland.
This model measures in at 33″ x 5″ x 7″, and Bonhams estimate that it’ll sell for between $5,000 and $7,000 USD when it rolls across the auction block on the 21st of November in New York.
If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to view the listing.
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
