Historic Replicas

Few historical figures are more romanticized and well-known than pirates, the swashbuckling outlaws of the high seas.  With their black flags, pirate swords and flintlocks, their story is a rich and longstanding tradition that began folklore and gradually became the province of popular literature and Hollywood movies. In 1882, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote and released his classic Treasure Island, a spirited tale of pirate Long John Silver, plucky young adventurer Tim Hawkins, and their quest for buried riches. 

At first, the story foundered on the pages of Young Folks magazine, receiving lukewarm reviews and reader response.  Finally, in 1883, it was published and sold as a book, and the world took notice. The young Scottish novelist thrust pirates and their exploits into the public eye, and they have been a cultural obsession ever since, epitomized in our own time in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise- with dozens of pirate replicas being sold.  Furthermore, Stevenson almost single-handedly created the images of pirates that captivate popular imagination.  When most of us picture a pirate, it is Stevenson’s 18th century adventurer, with wooden leg, parrot, and cryptic treasure map, that we see.