Thank you for downloading this episode of A History of the World in 100 Objects from BBC Radio 4.
The magnificent ship is mastered, rigged and ready to sail.
The lookouts are standing in the crow's nests.
High on the stern sits the Holy Roman Emperor of the German nation,
and in front of him, his grandest subjects parade one after another, turning and making a obeisance.
Deep in the hull of the ship, an organ plays music.
Then the cannons fire in an explosion of noise and smoke, and the imperial galleon moves majestically forward.
Well, that's how it was meant to be.
But in fact, all this is happening in miniature.
In this program, I'm with an elaborately crafted model of a sailing ship, made of gilded copper and iron,
which stands about three feet high.
It was designed not to sail the seas, but to trundle across a very grand table.
It's a decoration, but it's also a clock and a musical box, all in the shape of a mastered galleon,
of the kind that in the 16th century developed across Europe to expand trade and to make war.
Its intricate inner workings actually did create noise, smoke and movement.
Nowadays, the ship is silent, calmly birthed in the British Museum.
Yet it still looks magnificent.
This gilded galleon is one of the great executive toys of the European Renaissance.
I just think humankind is fascinated with things that move and turn under their own steam,
that you can wind something up and it goes without you touching it.