Original Queen Mary Deck Plans

[jumpontopski]

About a month ago at an estate sale in Annapolis Md my wife and I found a set of
deck plans for the Queen Mary Ocean Liner ship. The plans are in
excellent condition on old waxy reverse print paper rolled up in a
tube. There are 4 papers total with the following plans:

Outboard Profile
A Deck
B Deck
R Deck
Main Deck
Sun Deck
Promenade Deck

The dimensions are approximately 19" x
70" and they are reverse printed meaning they would lay on a lighted
table. Pictures are attached

I was wondering if anyone here would be able to help me out with a value for these. I have been struggling to find a value. I have seen blueprint type deck plans but these are not like that so I think they are originals. Any help would be appreciated.

James

[jumpontopski]

more pics

[jumpontopski]

last pic

[rockandrollrods]

Those are fascinating. I'm afraid that I don't know enough about this type of thing to be of any real help. One option would be to call the Queen Mary itself and see if these are the originals or not. I did spend the night on it a couple of times, and absolutely loved it when I was a kid. It's still housed in Long Beach, Ca and I would imagine that they would know of the whereabouts of the blue prints.

[mart]

You would assume that many copies of this are out there somewhere !!  Similar to building a house. the builder has the original and each individual contractor has a copy,,electrician, plumber ect !! They all do not work off a single blueprint !!

[frogpatch]

Mart's background in construction here is evident. The transparencies were used so one could be laid over another to determine the the location of materials in relationship to another. For example an E plan would be electrical and an A plan would be architectural. With one on the other the electrician could tell what he had to work around or through. They would, as Mart said, be produced in multiples and sent out for bid to all the trades. Their could be 10 electrical contractors or more bidding on the job. Add the same amount for steel, plumbing, hvac, paint, etc and you are talking about many sets. The material, because of its transparency, is used to copy one or more pages onto paper also.

[jumpontopski]

Thanks Mart & Frogpatch....so if i understand correctly you guys think this is either an original that blueprints were made from or a transparency that was used to check the accuracy of blueprints???

Any idea if something like this would be worth more or less than blueprints? I would think more but then there is the fact that if they were displayed they would have to be in a case with light shining from the back since you have to look through the paper to see the image.

[frogpatch]

Couldn't they be displayed on a white background?  They are beautiful to display and there are a huge amount of steamship collectors that would pay well for these I believe. From what I read since my last post some of these were used to lay on photo sensitive paper and a se print would be made from them with light lines on a dark background. I was thinking more about the vellum we used when I was in the lighting industry. We had giant copy machine for those to reproduce. I would have them checked out by an expert. After ruminating on this for a while I think you may have a sleeper there.

[mart]

Its like wax paper Frogpatch, but can be written on !! Our building blueprints always came with two of these sheets !! Blueprints on top then two of the copies !! When an electric outlet needed to be moved or the plumbing needed to be different it was done on these and not the original blueprint !!  Builders could then keep track of any changes !! Don`t remember exactly but I think these could be laid over the original to compare them !!
I am thinking these are simply deck layout plans !! Wouldn`t be good if they got the amenities all mixed up !!  Bar might be on the wrong end of the ship and make people walk to far for a cocktail !!

[jumpontopski]

This is all good info...much more than I have received so far. I can't seem to find someone knowledgeable or willing to give me the time to look at these. I have talked to several auction houses which either do not have a fit for them or do not seem to have the time to talk to me. Bonhams seems to have an auction they would fit into next spring but I just cant get any bandwidth out of their expert to talk about them...he is a consultant and is either hard to get a hold of or keep on the phone when I do get him to answer. I do live 20 minutes from Washington D.C. so I think that will be my next task is to find someone at one of the museums to talk to. I even called the Queen Mary in CA and talked to the Historian there who told me to send him some pictures and now I can't even get him to answer my calls. So to cut it short I appreciate your feedback greatly!

[sapphire]

jump you might want to check out this site and compare deck by deck the plans you have. They show the original layout plus the changes made.......give you an idea which era they are based on. They also have a discussion group (see bottom of page) where you also may get some insight.

http://www.sterling.rmplc.co.uk/visions/index.html