Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu

A 19th century silver snuff box, by Nathaniel Mills, of lobed oval form with hinged lid, the front engraved with an image of the Martyrs’ Memorial, Oxford, the sides and base scroll engraved, and with scrollwork thumbpiece, the base centred with initials ‘R.R.’ within foliate scrolling decoration,and with silver gilt interior, bearing marker’s mark and hallmarked for Birmingham, 1842, dimensions: length 8.1cm x width 5.2cm x depth 1.6cm, weight 2.9oz. £200-300

The Martyrs’ Memorial stands at one end of St Giles in Oxford, outside Balliol College, on the site where the three Anglican martyrs Thomas Cramner, Hugh Latimer and Nicolas Ridley were burned at the stake in 1555/1556. The monument, erected in 1843, was designed by George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic style, echoing the medieval Eleanor crosses.