Cylindrical box
Category
Silver
Date
1675 - 1700
Materials
silver
Measurements
31 mm (Height); 32 mm (Dia)
Order this imageCollection
Polesden Lacey, Surrey
NT 808451
Summary
Counter box, silver, late 17th century. The circular box and its lid are made from seamed sheet silver. Within are eight ivory counters marked with differently numbered hearts and clubs (NT 808388). On the inside of the lid is a partial maker’s mark, I or T beneath a rose set between pellets. The side of the box is engraved with a shield with palm frond mantling, the arms being argent a chevron sable between three pierced mullets azure. These are probably for the family of Blackett (not the Blacketts associated with Wallington Hall, Northumberland), though the mullets in their case are not pierced. The associated crest is not recorded but no other family bears the crest engraved on the lid of the box – a boar rampant.
Provenance
Possibly commissioned by a member of the Blackett family; Ralph Wood (1871-19??) of Flint Cottage, Box Hill, Surrey; by descent to his widow, Violette Wood (1881-1945) and then to her brother, Colonel Mortimer Ernest Ruffer (1890-1958); gifted to the National Trust in 1959 by Colonel Ruffer’s widow, Marguerite Christine. Flint Cottage itself had been given to the National Trust in 1946 by Colonel Ruffer.