Tobacco box (lid)

Add to album

This mariner's brass tobacco box, incorporating two navigational aids, was made in the Netherlands in 1792.

The lid of the box (pictured here) has a perpetual calender and portraits of Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII, representing the old and new calender systems. The words 'Reght Door Zee' [Steady over the sea] are engraved on the side 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

To search on related items, click any underlined text below.

• Online ID: 000-100-102-704-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: