A snuff box and a naval crown

22 A prisoner-of-war battleship snuff box and a Victory naval crown

Height: 3¼in (9.5cm) Length: 7in (18cm) Depth: 2in (5cm)

This double snuffbox shows a French Océan-class battleship. Constructed of walnut, the hinged bow and the poop sections opening to reveal compartments in her midships and applied with incised brass bands below the gun ports and around the stern, bearing the name ‘L’Océan’. French, circa 1788-1830. The Océan battleships were 118-gun, three decker ships of the line designed by Jacques-Noël Sané. Fifteen were completed, one of which, the Dauphin-Royal (begun May 1790, launched 20 July 1791 and completed August 1793 at Toulon) was the most famous in Nelson’s campaigns. Renamed Sans Culottes in 1792 she was captured by the British at Toulon in August 1793 and retaken there by the French in December 1793. In 1795 she was again renamed, this time Orient and served as the French flagship at the Battle of the Nile. In the course of the battle her magazines caught fire and the subsequent devastating explosion is often credited with being the pivotal moment in Admiral Lord Nelson’s victory. Shortly after the battle, Nelson was presented with a coffin carved from a piece of the main mast of Orient, in which he was duly buried after his death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

A commemorative naval crown from Victory copper and oak

This 19th century naval crown is constructed from timber and copper recovered from H.M.S. Victory, carved in black oak with two warships’ sterns, one divided in half to accommodate two ship’s sails in lighter oak, all set above a black band with rope twist edges and paler ‘jewels’ and trimmed with pale ‘ermine’ with black ‘tails’, secured to a copper sheathing inscribed ‘Victory copper and wood’. English, circa 1880.

Height: 8in (20cm) Length: 11in (28cm)