Add to albumThis mariner's brass tobacco box, incorporating two navigational aids, was made in the Netherlands in 1792.
The base of the box (pictured here) is engraved with a scale for estimating a ship's speed. The inscription 'Den eeuwigh duerende almanack' [The ever-lasting almanac'], is a reference to the perpetual calender on the lid of the box.
Invented in about 1750 by a retired Swedish mariner based in Antwerp named Pieter Holm, each box is dated at the end of the perpetual calendar with the final four digits.
Record details
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- Online ID: 000-190-001-046-C
- Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
- Project:
National Museums Scotland
Project description View all records in project
- Ref: National Museums Scotland T.1966.1
- Date: 1792
- Material: Brass lid. Inscription: Reght Door Zee (engraved on side)
Tobacco box / calendar, perpetual
- Dimensions: 5.88" L x 1.75" B
- What: Tobacco box / calendar, perpetual
- Subject: 20. TIME MEASUREMENT (Departmental Classification)
- Who: Julius Caesar
Miss D. Salveson, Edinburgh (Original donor)
Pieter Holm (Eponym)
Pope Gregory XIII
- Where: Netherlands
- Event:
- Description: Pieter Holm's Dutch tobacco box, with a perpetual calendar engraved on the brass lid, and a scale for estimating a ship's speed engraved on the bottom, 1792
- References:
- Bennett, J.A., The Divided Circle: A history of instruments for astronomy, navigation and surveying. Oxford: 1987, p 31
- Crone, E. trans. by Bronwer, D., with introductory essay by Pugsley, E., Pieter Holm and his tobacco box. Connecticut: Mystic, 1953
- Translations:
- Related Records: