This tobacco box actually belonged to a great something something uncle of mine. His name is faintly scratched into the box “Pieter de Wit”. According to my dad he fought for Napoleon in Europe. Any knowledge of the maker etc?
Thank you!
I happen to have a copy of Pierre de Wit’s “The Campaign of 1815”, Vol.2 15th June 1815, published by Glimpse Editions. Any relation to the man who once owned this 1826 Dutch tobacco box?
As you probably know better than me, Napoleon, wanting to annex the low countries, consisting basically of what is now the Netherlands and Belgium, and decided to make it a monarchy and put his younger bro’ Louis on the throne to achieve this end.
He had forgotten the basic rule about younger brothers; they almost universally don’t want to be an appendages or responsible to their older brothers or their empires and will do their utmost to be free of them. So that “kingdom” didn’t last very long and the country was annexed to France two years before Waterloo.
Many, many Dutch citizens served in Napoleon’s armies. It is estimated of the 23,000 of Napoleon’s soldiers killed, wounded or missing at Waterloo some 4,920 were Dutch, Belgian or Nassau citizens. The Duke of Wellington managed to kill or wound about the same number fighting for him or Blucher who arrived at the last minute and probably saved the day and perhaps the British Empire for another 100 years until Victoria’s grandchildren got into a family squabble and managed to create WWI which for some reason the Brits used the same adjective to describe as their did for their country.
Killed or wounded back then – 50 years before Florence Nightingale at Crimea – didn’t mean dead or went home and were repaired by surgeons. It meant they died a slow painful death on the battlefield. where they fell.The only attention they would get was from battlefield scavengers who would steal wallets and mementos from them and kill them if they resisted.
The famous quote “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg!” followed by "By God, sir, so you have!"was said by Henry Paget, the Earl of Uxbridge, and the Duke of Wellington during the Battle. The Earl, while near Wellington, had his leg struck by a cannonball and exclaimed this upon realizing the severity of his injury.
If this exchange demonstrated the man is charge’s lack of concern for his second in command think how much less anybody else was going to get looked after.
CRWW
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Lot - DUTCH SILVER SMALL JEWELLED TRINKET BOX HALLMARKED 258 GRAMS
Lion passant with “2” below indicates a fineness of .833 silver, Minerva head - letter is unreadable (assay office). HV - maker’s mark, R - 1826.
Hendrik Vrijman?
Hendrik Verbeek?
Antik (1820) ezüst doboz, szelence (155 g) - Ezüst tárgy | Galéria Savaria online piactér - Vásároljon vagy hirdessen megbízható, színvonalas felületen!
Antieke zilveren tabaksdoos met guilloche decor, 1826 | Zilver | Van Gils Antiek
Sneuper blog van de Historische Vereniging Noordoost-Friesland te Dokkum: Fries zilver met alliantiewapen Idema, Leeuwarden, ca 1700
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Thank you for your response! We have a pretty extensive family tree, but sadly no Pierre is listed!
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The famous quote “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg!” followed by "By God, sir, so you have!"was said by Henry Paget, the Earl of Uxbridge, and the Duke of Wellington during the Battle. The Earl, while near Wellington, had his leg struck by a cannonball and exclaimed this upon realizing the severity of his injury.
If this exchange demonstrated the man is charge’s lack of concern for his second in command think how much less anybody else was going to get looked after.
I’m not sure this is a terribly fair assessment of the Iron Duke. He was known for his concern over the welfare of his troops, and took casualties personally and very hard, in contrast to Napoleon’s flippant profligacy toward all ranks.
Regarding his remarks to Uxbridge, it wasn’t reported until 3 years after Waterloo from a guy who heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy…so there is an element of the game of telephone at play here. Also Uxbridge had been bedding Wellington’s brother’s wife Charlotte for years, necessitating his removal from the Peninsular Campaign on Wellington’s return to the command. Not surprisingly, Wellington was still cool to Uxbridge at Waterloo, who had since caused scandal by divorcing his wife and marrying the also now divorced Charlotte.
Quite honestly, given all that, if I were Wellington and saw a spent cannon ball take off a part of Uxbridge’s right leg, I would have secretly wished that the ball had hit a little further up and to the left.
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