An interesting 17th Century Dutch brass tobacco box, the base engraved with the Dutch arms, the lid engraved in detail with a naval engagement and a long inscription in Dutch; together with an old hand written document recording the history of the box,.taken from a Dutch ship of war by a Mr Furmidge, ‘one of Admiral Blake’s warrant officers’ during the celebrated sea fight with the Dutch Admiral Van Tromp. Thence passed down through his family in turn, all of whom served in the Royal Navy, the last recorded owner having been passed it in 1856 and ‘carried it at sea for 20 years’. By then it had been handed down ‘to the seamen for three generations’; together with an Admiralty Warrant appointing a Samuel Furmidge to be carpenter of the ‘Benbow’, dated 8 September 1808, the box understandably polished and rather worn, the documents laid down on stiff paper, a fascinating historical survival £400-450